It’s the middle of Q4 (if you operate on a calendar fiscal year), and you’re likely in one of these situations:
- You have leftover budget to spend and are looking for effective ways to use it before losing it.
- You have already used up most of your 2017 budget and you’re scraping the barrel for things that can boost your Q4 numbers and help you enter 2018 strong. I know what it’s like—I’ve been there!
- Or you’re right on track with your marketing budget. If so, I applaud you—and maybe you should guest-write a “budget planning” post for us. ;-)
If you’re looking to use your budget before you lose it:
1. Do research that sets you up for success in 2018. What you learn now could turn into major wins next year. Here are some things you can do:
- Measure what consumers think of your brand and see if things have changed since last year.
- Test a new product or campaign idea you’re planning to launch in 2018.
- Gather data to support new marketing content.
You can conduct all of these research studies using our global consumer panel, SurveyMonkey Audience. With it, you can reach consumers in over 100 countries to validate your marketing strategies.
2. Park your budget in a safe place for later use. Agency and Research retainers are a great way to do this. For example, if you know you’ll need to conduct market research next year, you can load your account with SurveyMonkey Audience Credits now, and apply them later to buy responses for your consumer research studies.
If you’re looking for cost-effective ways to stretch the last bits of your Q4 budget:
3. Check in on your existing customers. Customers are one of your most valuable assets. They are a wealth of knowledge about your industry and product, and they can give you the kind of feedback that can steer your strategy. Create a satisfaction survey to gather feedback from your customers, or compile testimonials and case studies for marketing content. If you don’t have access to your customers, you can reach millions of consumers in your target market using SurveyMonkey Audience.
4. Take advantage of your “free channels.” Okay, so no marketing channels are truly “free” when you think about the man/woman-power that goes into them. But owned channels can work together to amplify a campaign message. Try writing a blog post or webpage and point to it with email and your own social channels. See this example using our “Shoulda Used SurveyMonkey” video campaign: We created a landing page, blog post, and shared the content on social media.
These are just a couple things you can do to put those remaining dollars to work for you. Do you have more ideas? Tweet us at @SurveyMonkey!
