WINDING WITH
THE ROAD AHEAD
8 milkshake
budgets in 2022.
This year, Paige Black Marketing in
Denver recently worked with a mid-range
metal manufacturing company with a
regional presence. The company was
looking for a higher return on its current
lead-generation efforts, budgeting a
$75,000 spend for website redesign,
content marketing and a 12-month
Google AdWords engagement. In the next
calendar year, it secured an additional $1.5
million in sales, directly attributed to the
campaign’s success.
Still, Mike Black, Paige Black’s CEO, says
that it remains unclear if there will be a
downturn in early 2023. With that in mind,
marketers who are prepared to spend
should be bold in their approach, measure
carefully and be ready to change again
as the business environment evolves. “In
terms of budgets today, there are some
real opportunities for the companies with
adequate resources or cash on hand.
Competition is down. Google and Facebook
have missed their earnings, which means
spend is down. Because advertising spend
is down, companies in a good cash position
are able to get a better return due to the
less competitive environment.”
There’s a lot to look forward to in 2023.
Gartner’s “2022 CMO Spend and
Strategy Survey” shows that CMOs
will continue to move from digital-first
to hybrid multichannel strategies. In
2022, online channels made up 56% of
marketing budgets, with offline channels accounting
for 44% of available budgets. This is a more equal split
than in previous years.
On the other side, social advertising is the most popular digital
spending category, closely followed by digital display and paid
search. Gartner reports that marketers will continue to choose
social advertising as a viable option because it offers highly
targeted messages on a large scale.
But, as a new year and new challenges must always be
accounted for, some brands will eye trimming their marketing
dollars. More importantly, most will reduce spending on
marketing strategies that don’t lead to direct results or leads. In
other words, if the ROI isn’t positive, they will cut spending on
these strategies to focus on the marketing strategies that work.
Jordan Lintz, CMO for digital marketing firm HighKey
Enterprises, says that is just how the landscape will play out
for now. “I think all marketers should focus on what’s working
and ask themselves where they are generating the most
leads. Whether that is spending money getting leads through
Facebook or through email marketing, keep spending money on
what’s working and reduce or cut your budget on what’s not.”
One of the key areas Lintz believes marketers should
consider leaning into is content and content distribution. He
recommends finding a strong content manager with a good
track record to manage content creation and social media
accounts. “Celebrity branding is an area that is growing. It is a
great time for brands to align themselves with celebrities to
become more profitable.”
HighKey Enterprises continues to make a big push on
celebrity branding, and expects the long-term crush to pay off.
marketing landscape is becoming more
and more complex, as brands continue to
do what they can to thoughtfully deploy
assets across the spectrum—distributing
resources among traditional vehicles like
print and direct marketing, social and digital
marketing channels.
“Hold on to your current customers and
nurture them,” Kraus says. “Don’t stop
marketing—especially to your current
client base. Now, more than ever, it’s
important to spend time and resources
on connecting and engaging with your
current clients to continue to build brand
loyalty during difficult times. Heading into
a (possible) recession doesn’t mean you
stop marketing. In fact, it should be quite
the opposite. Keep going, keep pushing,
keep your brand loyal to its customers. The
best thing we can do is be price sensitive,
rethink and evaluate our marketing plans,
but keep consistency.”
In a time when marketing is key to
keeping a brand front and center in what
can be a noisy communications landscape,
marketers must indeed stay vigilant—if not
aggressive–in their pursuits. Successful
brands are the ones that are allocating the
bulk of their resources in three key areas:
brand strategy, campaign development and
operations. The most successful examples
appear to be the ones that balance out
these three resources.
According to Gartner’s “2022 CMO
Spend and Strategy Survey,” marketing
budgets increased over 3% to reach almost
10% of overall company revenue year
over year. The report shows that today’s
marketing firms are back to pre-pandemic
levels, with 70% saying they increased their
NOW, MORE THAN EVER, IT’S IMPORTANT
TO SPEND TIME AND RESOURCES ON
CONNECTING AND ENGAGING WITH YOUR
CURRENT CLIENTS TO CONTINUE TO BUILD
BRAND LOYALTY DURING DIFFICULT TIMES.”
— ALI KRAUS, VP OF MARKETING, BENETRENDS FINANCIAL
December 2022