The end of the year is fast approaching, and with it comes the challenge of utilizing every last cent of your 2023 budget. It needs to be spent, and the clock is ticking. Join me as I unveil eight smart ways to make the most of your 2023 leftover budget – “use it or lose it” budget.
Section I: Strategic Investments
1. Revamp Your Content: Building Next Year’s Content Strategy
The new year will be here before you know it. You can proactively initiate your content strategy for the next quarter, half-year, or even the entire year. Reflect on the focus areas: lead nurturing, lead generation, social strategy, or engaging existing customers. Drawing from the insights acquired throughout this year, you can work on how you might tweak your tactics to achieve your goals, and get external experts in.
Tip: To make sure that your content is maximally effective, now is also an ideal time to map out your buyer’s journey and ensure you deliver the right message at the right time.
2. Sensory Appeal: Investing in Audiovisuals
In my book, I devote an entire section to the critical importance of audiovisuals. They are an essential element of marketing. Audiovisuals make your content much more engaging, capturing attention and helping the consumer retain and remember the content.
Many asset formats offer a great return on investment: think explainer videos, a series of infographics (I urge you to explore interactive infographics), and many more!
What has always worked well for me in the past is to create content around:
- The past year-in-review , and
- Next year’s trends
While I used videos, short-form for the year-in-review content, and long-form for the upcoming year’s trends, infographics can also be used – alone or together. These highly engaging assets can be shared on your social media, website, and newsletter that targets leads, partners, and customers.
3. Sprint for 2024 Pipeline Build Success:
If you’re up for a challenge, consider running a lead generation “sprint project” to lay the groundwork for a strong 2024.
I met Satish K. Sadasivan , the founder and CEO of EvolveBPM, LLC, at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum in Singapore, and we have remained in touch since.
EvolveBPM is a specialized B2B Marketing service provider with a track record of success in the US and EMEA markets. Satish expressed keen interest in working with APAC marketing leaders, especially in driving their pipeline growth from net new enterprise accounts. I was intrigued by the end-to-end solutions he offers with an extensive in-house repository. I would experiment with partners like them, who are aggressive and offer highly flexible package rates for APAC. I would start by building the campaign infrastructure this year and be poised for an early launch in 2024 when competitors are busy with kick-offs and planning. This can stage your successful year ahead.
Section II: Auditing and Optimization
4. Running Third-Party Marketing Audits
While the prospect of a comprehensive audit may seem daunting, it’s a strategic move that offers invaluable insights to fine-tune your marketing strategies for the following year.
I would focus on audits to ensure operational efficiency in marketing.
The digital marketing audit, in particular, addresses various critical components:
- Website: Assessing elements like brand storytelling, messaging, thought leadership, content quality, SEO, design, usability (UI/UX), and performance.
- Contact and Lead Database Health in your CRM: Identify how you measure to benchmarks, identify gaps, and revise and optimize your data management practices to ensure data accuracy and completeness.
- Social Media Presence: Evaluating your presence on LinkedIn or X/Twitter.
- Campaigns: Assessing the performance of pay-per-click, email, direct mail, ads, and events.
- Marketing Technology: Assessing the effectiveness of your stack.
- Reporting: Ensuring the effectiveness of how marketing progress is measured and communicated to stakeholders.
5. Festive Finesse: Making the Best of the Holidays!
During the holiday season, B2B marketers can add a festive element to optimize their year-end marketing strategies. Here are some examples :
- Add holiday-themed marketing campaigns to connect with your B2B audience on a personal level.
- Offer special holiday promotions to encourage year-end purchases. It could be free added services or products, a discount, or both!
Section III: Skill Development and Efficiency
6. Knowledge is Power: Invest in Training
Investing in training is always a significant step in equipping your B2B marketing team with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive and adapt in a changing and unpredictable business landscape. It helps them remain at the forefront of innovation. Moreover, it increases job satisfaction among your marketing team members.
I echo top analysts who highly recommend AI training as a top priority investment, given its potential for the highest return on investment and the quickest time to value for B2B marketers.
To this end, I am happy to announce that I will launch a training program entitled: “Mastering AI for B2B Marketing Success in 2024,” which will be available both in person in Singapore (and neighboring countries) and online starting in December of this year. If you want the detailed program information, please contact me via DM or email! Partnering with an AI expert, this training provides participants with a comprehensive grasp of the diverse AI tools available for B2B marketing and a clear understanding of how to utilize them safely and effectively.
7. Tools of the Trade: Investing in Tools to Make Your Team’s Life Easier
While you need to be mindful when adding to your martech stack, it’s important to note that compelling new tools have emerged that can bring fantastic benefits and help the team do their job better.
This is a great time to test out some new tools and services or upgrade what you currently have for marketing automation, software upgrades, social listening, and so on. Because many marketing tools require upfront subscription payments for the year rather than recurring monthly payments, they could be convenient places to stash your end-of-year marketing budget surpluses.
Section IV: Market Research
8. Unlock Customer Insights through Research
“Data storytelling” is an invaluable resource for generating fresh and engaging content. However, it often involves substantial groundwork. If your resources or expertise are limited, consider alternative ways to harness the power of data. You can commission a comprehensive report and invest in data analysis of your contact database to uncover valuable insights.
These insights are very useful in shaping the right strategy for your business and enhancing decision-making processes. Furthermore, they serve as a wellspring of unique and original narratives that can be transformed into compelling content.
Alternatively, or in conjunction with the above, consider engaging your customers in a more personal setting. Hosting events such as gatherings, lunches, dinners, or networking sessions provides an opportunity to glean valuable market insights directly from those who matter most. If you’d like more inspiration and the complete step-by-step, including the questionnaire, you can explore Part One of my book, which focuses on how you can get to know your dream buyers.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope it was helpful to you. Feel free to share if you have additional ideas in the comments below!
I wish you good luck in the last few weeks of the year! And looking ahead, let’s plan for 2024 filled with success, creativity, and remarkable marketing achievements.
f the year is fast approaching, and with it comes the challenge of utilizing every last cent of your 2023 budget. It needs to be spent, and the clock is ticking. Join me as I unveil eight savvy ways to get the most out of your 2023 leftover “use it or lose it” budget.
Section I: Strategic Investments
1. Revamp Your Content: Building Next Year’s Content Strategy
The new year will be here before you know it. You can proactively initiate your content strategy for the next quarter, half-year, or even the entire year. Reflect on the focus areas: lead nurturing, lead generation, social strategy, or engaging existing customers. Drawing from the insights acquired throughout this year, you can work on how you might tweak your tactics to achieve your goals, and get external experts in.
Tip: To make sure that your content is maximally effective, now is also an ideal time to map out your buyer’s journey and ensure you deliver the right message at the right time.
2. Sensory Appeal: Investing in Audiovisuals
In my book, I devote an entire section to the critical importance of audiovisuals. They are an essential element of marketing. Audiovisuals make your content much more engaging, capturing attention and helping the consumer retain and remember the content.
Many asset formats offer a great return on investment: think explainer videos, a series of infographics (I urge you to explore interactive infographics), and many more!
What has always worked well for me in the past is to create content around:
- The past year-in-review , and
- Next year’s trends
While I used videos, short-form for the year-in-review content, and long-form for the upcoming year’s trends, infographics can also be used – alone or together. These highly engaging assets can be shared on your social media, website, and newsletter that targets leads, partners, and customers.
3. Sprint for 2024 Pipeline Build Success:
If you’re up for a challenge, consider running a lead generation “sprint project” to lay the groundwork for a strong 2024.
I met Satish K. Sadasivan , the founder and CEO of EvolveBPM, LLC, at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum in Singapore, and we have remained in touch since.
EvolveBPM is a specialized B2B Marketing service provider with a track record of success in the US and EMEA markets. Satish expressed keen interest in working with APAC marketing leaders, especially in driving their pipeline growth from net new enterprise accounts. I was intrigued by the end-to-end solutions he offers with an extensive in-house repository. I would experiment with partners like them, who are aggressive and offer highly flexible package rates for APAC. I would start by building the campaign infrastructure this year and be poised for an early launch in 2024 when competitors are busy with kick-offs and planning. This can stage your successful year ahead.
Section II: Auditing and Optimization
4. Running Third-Party Marketing Audits
While the prospect of a comprehensive audit may seem daunting, it’s a strategic move that offers invaluable insights to fine-tune your marketing strategies for the following year.
I would focus on audits to ensure operational efficiency in marketing.
The digital marketing audit, in particular, addresses various critical components:
- Website: Assessing elements like brand storytelling, messaging, thought leadership, content quality, SEO, design, usability (UI/UX), and performance.
- Contact and Lead Database Health in your CRM: Identify how you measure to benchmarks, identify gaps, and revise and optimize your data management practices to ensure data accuracy and completeness.
- Social Media Presence: Evaluating your presence on LinkedIn or X/Twitter.
- Campaigns: Assessing the performance of pay-per-click, email, direct mail, ads, and events.
- Marketing Technology: Assessing the effectiveness of your stack.
- Reporting: Ensuring the effectiveness of how marketing progress is measured and communicated to stakeholders.
5. Festive Finesse: Making the Best of the Holidays!
During the holiday season, B2B marketers can add a festive element to optimize their year-end marketing strategies. Here are some examples :
- Add holiday-themed marketing campaigns to connect with your B2B audience on a personal level.
- Offer special holiday promotions to encourage year-end purchases. It could be free added services or products, a discount, or both!
Section III: Skill Development and Efficiency
6. Knowledge is Power: Invest in Training
Investing in training is always a significant step in equipping your B2B marketing team with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive and adapt in a changing and unpredictable business landscape. It helps them remain at the forefront of innovation. Moreover, it increases job satisfaction among your marketing team members.
I echo top analysts who highly recommend AI training as a top priority investment, given its potential for the highest return on investment and the quickest time to value for B2B marketers.
To this end, I am happy to announce that I will launch a training program entitled: “Mastering AI for B2B Marketing Success in 2024,” which will be available both in person in Singapore (and neighboring countries) and online starting in December of this year. If you want the detailed program information, please contact me via DM or email! Partnering with an AI expert, this training provides participants with a comprehensive grasp of the diverse AI tools available for B2B marketing and a clear understanding of how to utilize them safely and effectively.
7. Tools of the Trade: Investing in Tools to Make Your Team’s Life Easier
While you need to be mindful when adding to your martech stack, it’s important to note that compelling new tools have emerged that can bring fantastic benefits and help the team do their job better.
This is a great time to test out some new tools and services or upgrade what you currently have for marketing automation, software upgrades, social listening, and so on. Because many marketing tools require upfront subscription payments for the year rather than recurring monthly payments, they could be convenient places to stash your end-of-year marketing budget surpluses.
Section IV: Market Research
8. Unlock Customer Insights through Research
“Data storytelling” is an invaluable resource for generating fresh and engaging content. However, it often involves substantial groundwork. If your resources or expertise are limited, consider alternative ways to harness the power of data. You can commission a comprehensive report and invest in data analysis of your contact database to uncover valuable insights.
These insights are very useful in shaping the right strategy for your business and enhancing decision-making processes. Furthermore, they serve as a wellspring of unique and original narratives that can be transformed into compelling content.
Alternatively, or in conjunction with the above, consider engaging your customers in a more personal setting. Hosting events such as gatherings, lunches, dinners, or networking sessions provides an opportunity to glean valuable market insights directly from those who matter most. If you’d like more inspiration and the complete step-by-step, including the questionnaire, you can explore Part One of my book, which focuses on how you can get to know your dream buyers.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope it was helpful to you. Feel free to share if you have additional ideas in the comments below!
I wish you good luck in the last few weeks of the year! And looking ahead, let’s plan for 2024 filled with success, creativity, and remarkable marketing achievements.