Making the Business Case for Your Marketing Budget - Deepstash
Upskilling: Preparing For The Future

Learn more about business with this collection

Identifying the skills needed for the future

Developing a growth mindset

Creating a culture of continuous learning

Upskilling: Preparing For The Future

Discover 78 similar ideas in

It takes just

11 mins to read

Build the business case based on alignment with business priorities and strategies

Build the business case based on alignment with business priorities and strategies

CFOs want to know what marketing dollars are actually going to do for the business. So marketers should be able to answer the questions: How does marketing spending marry up with what is most important to the future of the company? What are our strategic goals and how does what we are doing from a marketing perspective get us to that goal?

The logic behind your answers should be made explicit, it should be defended with evidence, and it should be supported by metrics

14

167 reads

Build a business partnership with the CFO

When marketing and finance work together more closely, there is an opportunity for better planning, more informed decisions (on both ends), and more agile reactions as needed.

Surveys show that 35% of marketers  use “an integrated marketing team in which marketing and finance experts work together.” This is in stark contrast to the 77% of marketers who say they use an integrated team approach “in which digital and non-digital work together.” 

13

86 reads

Explain hypotheses

The best marketing leaders have a logic based on experience and data, regarding how marketing spending will impact various business activities and outcomes.

This logic should be clearly articulated and justified to other decision-makers, particularly the CFO, so it ultimately becomes a shared logic — one that all members of the senior management team buy into. The idea is to make finance an advisor and stakeholder in the effort, so its buy-in is baked in from the beginning.

13

65 reads

Measure impact on brand and customer metrics

Marketing leaders must show their impact on KPIs associated with the brand and customer relationships — and they must regularly track these measures.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in many companies. Most companies need a more regular collection of these metrics.

13

74 reads

Create a full funnel view

CMOs often face headwinds when making the case for investments in brand building, which many marketers acknowledge as being especially difficult to measure as compared to lower-funnel activities that are closer to sales and revenue.

CMOs can start by understanding the CFOs’ preference for financial data to assess the success of marketing investments, creating a funnel-wide view of how marketing is delivering value in each part of the funnel and, importantly, demonstrating how it will be measured with clear ties back to business strategy.

13

50 reads

Build collaborative relationships with your C-suite peers

Monthly meetings of the senior management team are unlikely to be the best place for making the case for marketing spending, as marketing leaders are not setting the agenda and are unlikely to have the airtime to offer a nuanced and comprehensive view of marketing’s impact.

But it is recommended for this to happen in a setting where the CMO offers evidence and logic for spending while addressing important questions. A side benefit of this approach is that non-marketing leaders will appreciate that marketing is an investment, not just a cost.

13

41 reads

Run experiments

The gold standard for building a business case for marketing spending is to run an experiment using a control group that does not get marketing spending.

The goal is to build a strong understanding of the counterfactual — what if marketing spending had not occurred? This might be done in small-scale experiments in the field or in the lab.

13

48 reads

Don’t ignore the impact of marketing on costs

Recent research published in the Journal of Marketing finds that satisfied customers are more responsive to brand marketing and sales efforts, more open to future company offers, and more likely to share positive word of mouth — netting, on average, a 3% savings in future expenditures.

This is something a CFO can take to the bank.

13

46 reads

Appreciate the metrics-to-budget connection

According to surveys, 41% of marketing budgets are based on the previous year’s expenses and adjusted during the year if needed, while only 10% of marketing budgets are revisited every month or quarter to meet company objectives.

One reason budgets are not scrutinized more regularly is that metrics are not collected very regularly. Given this metrics gap, how can marketers ask for changes to budgets? Marketing leaders need up-to-date knowledge to drive conversations about budgets.

13

40 reads

CURATED BY

erbrigh

Surveyor for building control

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving & library

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Personalized recommendations

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates