If you’re one of the lucky marketers to have some excess budget at this point in the year, it’s time to figure out how to make the most of it! Extra money to invest into marketing is useful, but given that Q4 is typically the busiest and most stressful quarter of the year, figuring out what to do with the money can feel more like a curse than a blessing.
We sat down with QuickPivot’s Chief Marketing Officer, Casey Jones, to talk about how he thinks about excess marketing budget, and what investments will make your job easier – not just add something else to your to-do list.
Why do you think it’s important to spend excess marketing budget at the end of the year?
To put it simply, never leave money on the table! You have to amplify any momentum you built up throughout the year.
Maybe a campaign fell through, or you were given additional resources due to good company performance. Regardless of how you ended up with leftover money at the end of the year, it’s important to make the most of your budget, even if it’s testing something new out that you’re planning for 2018.
What types of solutions do you think are well suited for end of the year purchases?
The challenge with using your excess marketing budget at the end of the year is making sure you have the time to see the value. That being said, using services, rather than investing in additional technology is a great route to take for end of year purchases. Q4 is an extremely busy and intense time of year, regardless of the industry you’re in, so try to pinpoint exactly what insights you’re hoping to gain this quarter that can resonate throughout 2018. I’m deploying some excess funds on primary market research that I know will inform our product development and marketing messaging.
How do you evaluate solutions or services that you’re considering purchasing with excess marketing budget?
When I’m approached about new technology or services around this time of year, I tend to ask the following questions:
- Can I get value out of it in the remaining months of this year?
- Can I gather the necessary information and resources to get started with it immediately?
- Can I use it as part of my larger marketing strategy next year?
I want to make sure that whatever I’m spending money on, will help me gain insights that produce sales and increase revenues. In order for that to happen, there can’t be a lot of heavy lifting or intense tech requirements to get the program up and running. Those types of programs can be valuable — but they’re not the type of project I want to take on with my excess marketing budget this late in the year.
If you were a CMO of a retail or consumer goods company, how would you spend an extra $10k?
Your end of year focus needs to be on doing everything possible to drive up Holiday sales. Harnessing existing customer data can be a huge competitive advantage. Knowing that, I’d recommend using a service that can help you gain a deeper understanding of customer purchase behavior. Using this information, you should be able to easily create new customer segmentations and develop personalized marketing campaigns for those buyers.
QuickPivot offers a machine learning service called Ada, that helps retailers unearth buying patterns, identify new selling opportunities and increase revenues. All we require is a customer table and order table, and then we use our proprietary marketing models to deliver actionable insights and predictions to you in one week. I know, it’s a plug, but I am a marketer after all!
