How to make marketing investments when the economy is rough

Accompanying blogpost: Marketing in a recession: How to make marketing investments when the economy is rough

Winter is coming. The economy is, sooner or later, going to go into recession. This will be rough for SaaS companies.

Over the past few years valuations have been rising, investment rounds have been raised hastily and B2B SaaS companies have mostly been in hypergrowth mode. Many companies have already started making significant lay-offs and, to those who are invested in watching the health of the tech economy, it feels like the tip of the iceberg.

During periods of panic about the health of the market, SaaS companies worry that they will not be able to sustain their burn rate and look for ways to tighten their belts.

Marketing spend – both capital cost (ad budget, general marketing spend) and talent budget – is one of the first expenses to be cut during times of economic worry. Many SaaS companies believe marketing to be a cost center rather than a profit generator. Others believe that they already have a working channel and it will continue to ‘tick over’ without management or additional investment.

But both of these views are flawed.

During times of economic uncertainty, B2B SaaS companies should increase their marketing spend so that they capitalize on the vast opportunity presented by less secure competitors in their markets.

In this episode, we’ll look at:

Why companies think that marketing should be first to goWhy companies should approach marketing as an investment portfolioHow to make better investments now and in an economic downturn

By the end of the episode, you’ll have a much better framework to use to assess marketing investment now and in the future.

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