Here’s how I’m doing more with less

It probably comes as no great shock that foremost in the minds of our savvy clients is how to do more with less. The magic number seems to be 30% less, which is where most marketing budgets have ended up – not to mention staff cuts approaching that. Here are some observations about marketing in a recession that have come from our work in the Field.

1. Segmentation is critical.

There’s less business out there from the same numbers of customers – and fewer salespeople to reach them. So some marketers we know are training a sharp eye on their customer list and segmenting it in ways they hadn’t had to in the past. For example, a major investment complex is having its salespeople spend 70% of their effort with customers representing the top 10% of sales volume and the remaining 30% of their time with the next 20%. The rest? An entirely new non-face-to-face channel served remote by gains in technology.

2. If you can’t sell them, help them.

When customers aren’t buying as much as they used to, what else can you do for them? Several marketers we know are showing their business customers that they feel their pain by helping them maintain their practices. They’re putting together marketing programs that have nothing to do with selling their products, just helping their customers retain theirs. They assume, rightly we’d wager, that when things improve, those customers will reward them.

3. Hold fast to the customers you’ve got.

Motivating an existing customer is a lot more cost-effective than finding and motivating a stranger. That’s why customer-based segmentation, customer care and retention are all on the increase. More and more, marketers are pivoting from acquisition to retention. (We know one who gains $2 million for every 1% improvement in saved customers.) Making them stickier often includes improving their customer service, connecting them to like-minded customers through online communities and educating, not selling. They know that when you factor in acquisition costs a saved customer can be worth a lot more than a new one.

4. Budget sharing is in.

Just because money may not be in a marketing budget doesn’t mean there isn’t a budget for marketing. Some marketers and communicators are identifying the departments that influence getting and keeping customers – national sales, customer service, training and development, product development – and inviting them to come together on common goals – in some cases getting just as much done for 50 cents on the dollar. Today, resources need to be pooled. Better to hang together than hanging separately.

Want to know more? We’d like to help you do more with less. We often facilitate client sessions that focus specifically how to get more from marketing budgets. We can help you execute too.