netactr

We’ve all heard it, that terrifying R-word. Recession that is. Besides the monthly pain from looking at one’s brokerage statement, recession also means a changing landscape for marketing professionals. Marketing budgets will be under review, impacting general awareness vehicles such as marketing swag, PR, print and TV ads disproportionally. Anything that can’t be directly associated with sales is threatened. You know how it is … folks will be searching for that elusive half of advertising budgets which is universally acknowledged as being a waste. But you can fight one R-word with another. I mean ROI, Return On Investment.
Marketing managers can reduce their CFOs’ anxiety by shifting budgets from views to clicks. Anything that can be tracked to a prospect or, better, a sale will prosper. Paid Search, Cost-Per-Action-based display ads, referrals from social connections should do well. Technology and marketing vendors can do their part too. Sharing the risk, generating incremental revenue and splitting the proceeds are better than prepaid fixed cost campaigns.