Leeds Digital Festival: How to justify your marketing spend to your boss
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The document presents a guide on how to effectively justify marketing expenditures to management, outlining eight key strategies that include regular reporting, budget allocation based on data, and developing a results-oriented marketing plan. It emphasizes the importance of using data to demonstrate marketing ROI, effective communication, and leveraging technology and automation to enhance reporting and justifications. The content is aimed at helping marketers communicate the value of their initiatives to foster understanding and support from leadership.
Leeds Digital Festival: How to justify your marketing spend to your boss
- 1. How to justify your marketing spend to your boss Presented by Danni Johnson & Fran Watson
- 2. Our speakers today Social Media Executive at Xpand 2 years in social media marketing & hospitality Has a Masters in Art and Design Fran Watson Head of Digital Marketing at Xpand 20 years in sales, marketing and recruitment Trained by LinkedIn & CIM certified Danni Johnson
- 3. What we'll cover today: 8 ways to justify your marketing spend Examples Q&As
- 4. Sound familiar? We don't have any budget for that We tried that before and it failed That'll take too long Sue in Finance can send out a flyer The sales guys can do that Don't you just play on social media?
- 5. We asked Chat GPT ...
- 6. What do bosses think about marketing?
- 7. Investment vs. expense Measurable results Customer-centric focus Innovation and creativity Alignment with business goals Adaptability to change Risk and reward Integration with sales Long-term strategy Data-driven decision making
- 8. But, the most striking point it made was...
- 9. Some may see marketing as an expense that needs to be minimised, especially if they have concerns about ROI or lack a clear understanding of marketing's impact.
- 10. What does that mean to you?
- 11. You need to block any challenges/concerns before they become just that.
- 12. But how?
- 13. Regularly communicating the results Clearly defining marketing objectives Using data and case studies
- 14. Let's dig deeper
- 15. When preparing a budget request, you should follow these 8 strategies
- 19. We expect these right? But, how should we really handle them?
- 20. Preemptive communication: Anticipate and address potential objections proactively. Managing risks: Show how you plan to minimise risks and react to unexpected challenges. Cost-benefit analysis: Demonstrate the benefits outweigh the risks. Testing and pilots: Suggest starting with smaller-scale tests to gather data and validate the potential success of larger initiatives.
- 21. Influence is power! Never let anything be a surprise
- 22. Budget allocation and resource planning 3
- 23. As a marketing manager, you'll often face the challenge of justifying your budget allocation to higher-ups.
- 24. But, how do you do that?
- 25. Base your budget allocation on: Data-driven budgeting 1. historical performance market trends data-driven insights
- 26. Show how previous investments have yielded positive results
- 27. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for each marketing initiative. Compare the potential returns against the investment required to demonstrate the value of the expenditure. 2. Cost-benefit analysis
- 28. Be clear with what each initiative will deliver
- 29. Focus on marketing activities that have a high potential to impact business goals. Justify why investing more in these areas will yield better results. 3. Prioritise high-impact activities
- 30. Be pragmatic! If I had to swap one thing for another, what would it be?
- 31. Demonstrate that your budget is flexible and adaptable to changes in the market or business conditions. Show that you can scale up or down based on the results and feedback. 4. Flexibility and scalability
- 32. Remember the ‘can you just’ moments and include them here
- 33. Developing a results- oriented marketing plan 4
- 34. A well-defined marketing plan is the foundation for justifying your marketing spend.
- 35. A results-oriented marketing plan should include:
- 36. Clear objectives A defined target audience Budget allocation Strategies and tactics Contingency plans A results-oriented marketing plan should include:
- 37. Explain why you chose these approaches and how they align with your audience and goals
- 38. Defining key metrics for marketing success 5
- 39. Use data to show ROI Vision, mission, and strategy of your organisation How the metrics relate to the general business objectives Show Demonstrate Evidence
- 40. Increase revenue > Increase conversions on your landing pages Improve customer satisfaction > Increase 5* Google Reviews Expand market share > Increase brand awareness Examples:
- 41. Demonstrate marketing's impact on business growth, profitability, and cost-effectiveness with example metrics like these...
- 42. Website traffic: How well your marketing is reaching your target audience. Leads generated: How effective your marketing is at generating interest in your business. Customer lifetime value (LTV): Measures the long- term profitability of your marketing efforts. Sales closed: Important metric for measuring the ROI of your marketing efforts. Cost per acquisition (CPA): Measures effectiveness of different marketing channels.
- 43. Know your numbers. Show your numbers.
- 44. Use data to back up your marketing decisions. If you have the data to show how your marketing budget impacted revenues last year, it's easier to go to the table and ask for a larger budget next year.
- 45. Ask your sales team for their input. What worked for them? Data doesn’t always need to be factual numbers.
- 47. Make connections between: Top of funnel KPIs (Brand awareness, demand generation) And Bottom of funnel KPIs (Revenue/sales growth, retention, lifetime value)
- 48. Presenting data and analytics to justify spend 6
- 49. The success of justifying marketing spend relies heavily on how you present data and analytics to your boss.
- 50. Visual storytelling Utilise visual aids like charts, graphs, and infographics to present complex data in a clear and engaging manner. This helps in conveying your message effectively.
- 51. Highlight key insights Focus on the most relevant and impactful data points that directly link marketing efforts to business outcomes.
- 52. Benchmarking and comparison Compare the current performance with past data or industry benchmarks to provide context and show improvements.
- 53. Use real examples Share real-life success stories and case studies from your own or other companies to demonstrate the potential impact of marketing spend. You don't have to relate them to business, but rather to the proposed campaign.
- 54. Actionable recommendations Provide actionable insights based on data to demonstrate that you not only analyse results but also use the information to make informed decisions.
- 55. Everything you do can be matched by your competitors, especially if they have a bigger marketing budget. Remember:
- 56. Social Ad Libraries Rival IQ Screaming Frog Similar Web Useful tools: It’s important to look at what the competition are doing and how they're spending their money. You should consider assessing their: Website Social media - organic and paid PPC Share of voice
- 58. Technology and automation can make a significant difference in justifying marketing spend.
- 59. Utilise these to gather and analyse data, providing insightful metrics to support your justifications. Marketing analytics tools Automated reporting A/B testing CRM integration Chat GPT/Bard
- 60. Marketing analytics tools Automated reporting A/B testing CRM integration Chat GPT/Bard Use automation to generate regular reports, saving time and ensuring consistent reporting across periods.
- 61. Marketing analytics tools Automated reporting A/B testing CRM integration Chat GPT/Bard Implement A/B testing to optimise marketing campaigns and demonstrate the efficiency of data- driven decision-making.
- 62. Marketing analytics tools Automated reporting A/B testing CRM integration Chat GPT/Bard Track leads, conversions, and customer interactions effectively by integrating your customer relationship management (CRM) system with marketing efforts.
- 63. Marketing analytics tools Automated reporting A/B testing CRM integration Chat GPT/Bard Use AI tools like these to research your competition or assist with content creation. You don't need to be afraid of them. They can assist and save time.
- 64. Include case studies and examples 8
- 65. Make your justifications more convincing and relatable with case studies and examples.
- 67. In summary
- 68. Results- orientated Use data to back you up Clear and concise Highlight the key takeaways
- 69. Just one more thing...
- 71. We're here to consult, support and guide. You're Batman. We'll be your Alfred.
- 72. You now have 8 strategies to justify your marketing spend. Building relationships and collaboration Anticipating and addressing objections Budget allocation and resource planning Developing a results-oriented marketing plan Defining key metrics for marketing success Presenting data and analytics to justify spend Leveraging technology and automation Include case studies and examples
- 73. Any questions?