Posted On: Dec 15, 2017
Posted By: John Duff
Year-end Marketing Budget

The mid of December brings a year-end crunch of unfinished businesses for many marketers. Especially for those who are left with an extra unspent marketing budget – that ‘extra’ is worth more than what you think!

While utilizing the allocated marketing funds wisely can amplify the present year’s efforts; not spending it can make you lose it in the coming years. If you too have some budget-to-spend before the year ends, no matter more or less, below are 5 brilliant ways to get the most out of it:

Run a Paid Marketing Campaign on Social Media:

As per the Financial Times, the organic reach of Facebook has reached to a decline of 42%. Now that’s a considerable figure that might make you realize that even your organic content on social media doesn’t have the same reach as it had earlier. This shrinkage of organic reach has led many marketers to rely on paid campaigns on the social media.

Give your social media marketing tactics a new approach by utilizing the unspent year-end budget by running a paid marketing campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. The platform that you choose should be relevant to your audience. A scheduled follow-up and retargeting can redouble the outcomes of the budget.

SEO Audit:

Your SEO strategies need to go with the pace of the constantly changing algorithms of search engines. However, often with a lot many things on your desk, you might run short of time to stay in tune with such updates.

Go for an SEO audit of your website. You can get it done from any agency partner or a third party. This audit includes not only keyword analysis but also rectification of broken links, duplicate or outdated content, technical flaws, and more. This can be one of the best ways to put that leftover marketing budget to the best use.

Invest in Training Programs:

Investing in training programs for your team can be an excellent way to utilize the allocated budget before the year ends. There are many training events and courses for skill enhancement that will help your marketing and sales team to gain the knowledge they can apply to their marketing efforts.

If attending a training event outside is not feasible for your team, you can opt for online training courses. Many companies like Coursera, LinkedIn, and HubSpot Academy are providing online quality training for professionals.

Organize a conference:

Those last bits of the marketing budget can help you generating brand awareness if you invest in organizing a well-structured conference. It could be based on any of your recently launched services or products or just a gathering of marketing professionals speaking on a significant topic.

These conferences bring great networking opportunities leading to know more people about you. And that’s what you need as a brand.

How About your Team?

Of course, you have many plans in the pipeline to work upon with that leftover marketing budget, but how about your team? After all, it really matters!

Your marketing teams might have achieved or even crossed their targets the previous year. Now is the time to consider their efforts towards the organization. Analyze their performances, and reward them something significant. Remember, if you take care of your team, they will definitely take care of your clients.

So, roll your sleeves up, put your remaining marketing budget to the best use, and maximize the benefits for the coming year.