Traditionally when sales are down, marketing budgets get cut. For example, in the first quarter of 2009 (right after the 2008 economic downturn), ad spending in the U.S. fell by 10 percent. Yikes!
But marketing drives sales — that’s the sole function of a marketing team. So, isn’t marketing sorely needed when sales are down? Smart companies understand that continuing to invest in marketing and advertising during a low point actually benefits the business in the long run.
In hard times, marketing teams may be asked to demonstrate ROI. Thanks to technology, there are now ways to attribute marketing funds to their impact on sales. Marketing analytics can also provide insights to identify problem areas for sales to improve on. Marketers can even harness data to help a company make smarter decisions. Find out how to started: Getting Real About Data.
Check out what our Senior Marketing Automation Consultant Ronald Gaines has to say on the topic:
“Marketing often doesn’t get a lot of credit in the bottom line, sales gets the credit because they sell. But we [marketers] can track the pipeline, track the revenue and see how many closed-won opportunities that you have.”
