Why Having No Marketing Budget is BAD for Business

You may think you’re saving your company money by not having a dedicated marketing budget, but actually this thinking can be detrimental to the success of your organization.

If business is a bit slow, or in uncertain economic times, some companies are tempted to put their marketing/advertising budget on hold. We get it, however, what may seem like a good idea at the time, will actually have a negative and long-term impact on the growth of your company.

There are millions (okay, many) good reasons why you should have a healthy marketing spend, but we’re going to give you a list of five reasons why it’s really bad not having one.

Top 5 damaging results of not having a marketing budget:

1. Leaves your business vulnerable to your competition

Companies that invest in a comprehensive marketing plan usually have a more customer-centric operation with the ability to be responsive to changing customer needs and desires. Don’t let your competition grab your customers and/or prospects!

Poor targeting

If you don’t put good dollars into a marketing plan that defines your target audience and strategy to attract them, the result is a spate of random prospecting activities that bring low returns.
This means missed sales goals and reduced profits.

Lost market opportunities

Without a good marketing spend you may miss narrow windows of opportunity in product categories with fast moving product lifecycles, like high tech industries.  It’s important to keep current with providing solutions when the time is right to earn profits. Keeping your market share is what you need to do, so even if the market changes, you still need to grow your share of it.

Your customers are still spending

Although they may not be spending with you right at this moment in time, know that your potential customers are still out there and that they will be spending their dollars.  They may just be prioritizing right now and simply putting off buying till a little later. Through sustained and effective marketing strategies, you should be able to convince as many prospects as possible to spend with you.  That’s your job as a marketing manager or CMO and you can do this!

Your reputation is at stake

Your marketing initiatives determine how your customers and prospects view you and engage with your business, product or service. Say you’ve been investing in a comprehensive marketing plan, advertising regularly, and staying at the forefront of your industry, and suddenly decide to save $$s and pull out. The unfortunate result may be having your target market wonder about the health of your business.  You definitely don’t want this!

Marketing and sales drive all successful businesses

Without being too dramatic (okay, let’s be dramatic) we say that if you don’t invest in marketing your business, your company will fail. Basically, you won’t be able to reach out to your prospects, generate leads, grow your business, and enjoy sustained success.

Conserve and spend

As a CMO, there are lots of ways to conserve your precious resources and spend wisely. Digital inbound marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), email marketing and social media are some of the cost effective channels you can use. Do your due diligence and go over your books to find business redundancies, and then find logical and effective areas to allocate funds for maximum efficiency and ROI.

A very successful business person once said:

“A man (or woman!) who stops marketing to save money is like a man who stops his clock to save time.”