Making a big impact with a small marketing budget is no easy task.
As nearly 42% of surveyed companies have already cut into their marketing budgets during 2023, it can feel daunting to sift through the long to-do lists and lofty deliverables that accompany being a marketing, creative, or digital leader today.
Stemming from talks of recession, economic downturn, and widespread budget cuts, you may be left wondering: what impact can be made with a small marketing budget?
As the bread and butter of audience connection and consumer engagement, there are a few practical, straightforward steps that you can take to make the most of your marketing team. We’ve rounded up our top tips on tapping into your team’s passions, auditing your upcoming initiatives, and providing training opportunities to maximize the possibilities of your marketing efforts.
Leverage Passions and Strengths
As marketing teams balance an ever-changing job market and unprecedented challenges, one topic continues to emerge as crucial for team success: tapping into the strengths and passions of your team members. As one of the most effective ways to maximize productivity and efficiency with a small budget, allowing your team to follow their joy in some capacity can promote employee happiness, loyalty, and job satisfaction.
After all, it’s no secret that people do their best work when they are passionate.
While it’s not always possible to perfectly curate roles based on strengths, to stay ahead of the curve, we recommend meeting with each of your employees to understand how they feel they can best contribute to your team’s goals. The following questions are great starting points:
- Which projects pour into your “why”?
- Which tasks do you feel drain your creativity?
- What do you believe to be your three strongest skills?
- Which tasks do you feel the most challenged by?
Taking this initiative, even when you have a smaller budget, can create the foundation for a team fueled by enthusiasm and energy, which can help you take your marketing efforts to the next level. In fact, creating a space for employees to display their diverse skills can be a win-win for both your team and your organization, as it creates an even greater range of talent to fill any potential skills gaps and achieve exceptional results.
Audit and Prioritize Team Tasks
Now that you know where your team is most inspired and effective, one of our greatest pieces of advice for marketing leaders is to audit and prioritize your upcoming initiatives and campaigns. While this may sound like a stressful and time-consuming task, it’s a necessary step to align your team’s resources with your organization’s goals and make the most of your marketing budget.
To ensure that your marketing efforts are as impactful as possible, we recommend starting with the following steps:
- Assign a priority level to each project within your upcoming initiatives (yes, we mean each project). As you review, consider which efforts support your sales funnel, contribute to your organizational goals, and help you stand out as a competitor within your industry. These are the projects that you’ll likely want to prioritize over others.
- Brainstorm any updates that may need to be made to your strategies so that your team can effectively produce impactful marketing projects, such as reallocating resources or eliminating initiatives that no longer align with your budget.
- Repurpose content. There is no harm in looking back on the content that your team has already used. Repurposing previous campaigns can provide you with the time needed to focus on your future goals.
- Utilize the 80/20 rule. This means that 80% of your team’s time should be spent on pre-planned, strategic content, while 20% is to be spent on topical, trending content. This helps your team remain focused and aligned, while also creating space to stay on-topstaying of trends.
At the end of the day, auditing and reprioritizing future projects is not an easy or quick feat. However, it’s an essential way to set your team (and yourself!) up for success, especially while working with a small marketing budget.
Dedicate Space for Training
Did you know that routine professional training has been linked to lower employee turnover, increased job satisfaction, and heightened productivity? In fact, when dealing with smaller budgets, providing opportunities for training can also be beneficial to supplement skills gaps and show your employees that a limited budget does not equate to limited growth.
While there are endless platforms for free training opportunities, the following stand out as top-runners for marketing, creative, and digital professionals:
- Google Digital Garage. With over 150 marketing and business-related courses and certificates, this is a fantastic resource to promote relevant skills development in the marketing space.
- HubSpot Academy. Providing hundreds of courses for marketers of all types, HubSpot offers content that ranges from SEO best practices to inbound marketing concepts and social media advertising.
- LinkedIn Learning (free 1-month trial). As one of the biggest platforms for professional networking, LinkedIn Learning is a great avenue for skills development with endless marketing-related topics.
In the midst of marketing efforts, dedicating time for training shows your employees that career progression is a priority. This can do wonders for team morale and growth, while also supplementing team needs when handling small marketing budgets.
Be There for Your Team (and for Yourself!)
Now that you’ve shown up for your team by completing a comprehensive review of your employees’ strengths, team goals, and opportunities for improvement, the best thing you can do is just that: continue showing up for your team.
Small budgets can create a great deal of stress for all involved, including your employees. By showing your team that you genuinely care and openly communicating, you can help your employees feel appreciated and dedicated to achieving the tasks at hand.
While you navigate your team’s small budget, remember: it’s important to be there for yourself, too. After all, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Try to do at least one thing each day to focus on your own well-being and growth; your future self will thank you for it!
Celarity Can Help!
If you’re looking for additional ways to meet your marketing, creative, or digital goals, Celarity is here to help! Whether you’re looking for a freelancer to supplement skills on your team or a consultant to provide expert advice, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us today to learn more!
