Investing In Marketing

Written by Travis Power
Managing Partner at NexGen

 Always daunting, and often overlooked, marketing can be the lifeblood to a company during slow-downs.

Admittedly, even for myself and especially for those with no marketing background, this is tough. If it adds to the budget, it can be viewed as reckless, and if it's relatable, some might think it's too personal. While those are real barriers, in the grand scheme of business and life, they are easy to overcome.
Here are four recommendations for making impactful improvements to marketing during a slow-down.

1) Create scalable content streams.

This means creating content paths that can be shared with your team and expanded when successful. For example, if a certain type of article or post resonates well with your audience, make a template and share it with other divisions. This will often lower the barrier of entry and create more content generators in your company.

2) Make it exciting

Obviously slow-downs are a bummer, and marketing doesn't have to be. However, the trick is to generate excitement for your audience and a sense of pride for your team. Both are equally important and a easy way to double the value received from marketing.

3) Fit to your budget (no matter the budget)

I've seen huge improvements to a company's image when individual team member's personal branding was emphasized, and it did't cost a thing. It's best to lead by example here, and provide the scalable content streams mentioned earlier. However, if you do have the budget, go ahead and use it while screen time is up.

4) Keep or bring in-house

First and foremost, never sacrifice talent for a short term cushion. During slow-downs it's no secret that the talent pools get's deep, don't be afraid to dive in. If marketing is scalable, exciting, and fits the budget; keep it at the heart of the company and it will pay off.