At the start of the year, it might seem unlikely that you will have any money left to spare for marketing. But what if you do? It can be challenging to decide how to spend your marketing budget, but there are a few ways to spend it so your cash doesn't go to waste. In this blog post, we are going to take a look at some of the best things you can do with your leftover marketing budget this year.
Create an Annual Report
No matter what industry you're in, branding is important for long-term success. But if you don't have a lot of money leftover from other projects and need something quick and easy, try creating an annual report. A good annual report not only shows off your company's accomplishments but also helps build customer loyalty by making them feel like part of the family (or community). Consider including testimonials from happy customers or highlighting charitable work that makes a difference in people's lives. Even if no one ever reads it besides employees and shareholders, every dollar spent here will help solidify customer trust in your brand.
Customer Retention Initiatives
Customer retention is an important metric for any business. It indicates how well you are retaining your customers and keeping them coming back for more. It's not enough to just have a good product or service; you have to actively engage with customers so that they feel appreciated and valued. This means offering them incentives for being loyal customers, such as loyalty cards, discount codes, and other perks. When people feel like they're being treated well, they'll be more likely to stick around and buy from you again in the future.
Invest in Your Team
It can be difficult for small businesses to invest in training and development when there are so many other pressing needs. But if you want to keep your employees engaged, you need to make sure they have the skills and tools they need to do their jobs well. Offering paid training courses is a great way of giving back because it enables employees to build on their existing knowledge and gain qualifications while also improving productivity in the workplace. You may also be able to claim tax relief on some of these costs as long as they contribute directly towards improving productivity within your business.
Marketing Automation Tools
When you run a business, you need to be able to automate your processes as much as possible. Marketing automation tools allow you to streamline your lead generation and nurture programs by automating repetitive tasks. For example, if someone fills out a form on your website, they might get an email with the next steps to follow. If they don't respond within a certain timeframe, they can be automatically entered into a drip email campaign with additional information. Marketing automation tools are especially useful for companies who have multiple people managing their marketing efforts because they can be programmed to do things like follow up with leads via email or phone calls in order to qualify them for sales opportunities.
Prepare for Next Year
You're going to want to take this advice: if you've got some money left over from your marketing budget this year, take it and put it toward the next year's marketing budget. We know that sounds like we're just saying stuff to say stuff, but hear us out: the reality is that it pays to invest in your marketing. You may not see results right away, but if you don't invest in your marketing, you'll never be able to grow your business. And once you do start seeing results, they'll snowball into something even better!
SEO Audit
SEO is a complex and ever-changing landscape. In order to stay competitive, you need to know what your competitors are doing, what search engines are looking for, and how they rank results. An SEO audit is the best way to get up to speed with your SEO strategy and ensure that it's working effectively. The goal of an SEO audit is to find any issues with your website that might be affecting its ability to rank higher on search engine results pages. Once identified, these issues can be addressed so that your site performs better for users and for search engines alike.
Spend Money on Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is a term used to describe content that has long-lasting value. It is often used by marketers to describe blog posts, ebooks, videos, and other materials that will be relevant to their audience for years to come. The goal of evergreen content is not to make sales or generate leads immediately. It’s designed to build trust, educate your target audience and establish yourself as an authority in your industry. This type of content will stay on your website and drive traffic for years to come.
Try Ad Retargeting
Ad retargeting is a powerful marketing strategy that can help you reach potential customers who have already visited your website but aren’t buying. It's also one of the most underutilized tactics in marketing today. Retargeting is a great way to boost sales because it allows you to show ads to people who have already shown interest in your product or service. You can also combine retargeting with remarketing so that ads are only shown to people who have not purchased your product yet.
Update Your Website
With your leftover marketing budget, you can revamp your company website. Your website is often one of the biggest investments in your marketing strategy — after all, it's where potential customers go first when they're looking for information about your business. It's also one of the most important parts of every marketing campaign because it serves as an informational hub where people can find all the information they need to buy from you or partner with you. As such, it's important to make sure it's up-to-date and optimized so that people who visit get what they need right away without having to search for anything else on the internet or call a representative for help.
Overall, there are countless ways to put that marketing budget to work for you. Just remember that these tactics can be used in any industry and don't necessarily require a lot of large, upfront investments. The key is to invest your time and money wisely.