How to balance your branding act on a shrinking SaaS marketing budget

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by Samuel Pordengerg May 23, 2023 News
How to balance your branding act on a shrinking SaaS marketing budget
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Growth at all costs has been found to be a failure. It is important to balance a successful growth plan with a solid branding strategy in the current economic environment.

How you build a strong brand foundation is an important question. How do you keep the essentials top of mind?

Jenny Sagstrom, CEO of Skna, used to focus on selling their services to a small group of interested buyers. The approach prioritized short term growth and conversions. Sagstrom says it's important to broaden the reach and engage with a wider audience for sustainable long-term growth.

Building a successful brand requires going beyond immediate results in order to attract future customers. Ensuring that your company is remembered when the need arises is part of this.

Sagstrom recommends a comprehensive marketing strategy that combines performance marketing and brand building. The CEO of Skna says that the approach includes both short-term performance goals and long-term brand-building efforts.

With the rising cost of capital, companies are shifting their focus to long-term strategies and making thoughtful decisions.

Growth at all costs is no longer effective in today's economy. It's important to strike a balance between growth and branding. B2B companies used to allocate most of their marketing budgets to performance marketing. It is recommended to aim for a distribution of 40% for branding and 40% for performance marketing. Immediate lead generation and sustainable growth can be achieved with this balance.

A lack of prospects in the future can be caused by only focusing on short-term results. It's important to invest in branding in order to maintain a sustainable customer base. Sagstrom said starting with a 40% allocation is significant progress. She says that the market is starting to consider factors beyond short-term performance.

Careful consideration is required when working with a small budget. It is important to allocate resources for long-term initiatives while also maintaining short-term momentum.

A campaign-oriented approach can be useful in facilitating decision making. A cohesive theme that meshes with your brand's identity is what this approach entails. Investing in quality content under this umbrella will lead to increased effectiveness.

Inaction is not a viable option, so prioritization is important. Staying inactive during uncertain times is not a good strategy. Sagstrom says that investing in branding during challenging economic periods presents an opportunity to gain market share.

A limited budget can be used to achieve a successful branding initiative. Sagstrom says that small-scale tests help identify effective approaches for your audience. It's important to double down on successful strategies once they're identified.

Companies with limited resources are more likely to invest in brand strategy, positioning analysis, competitor research, and understanding their audience and business problems. The internal work helps uncover unique insights and differentiating factors that make them stand out. The current landscape makes refining messaging important. Companies are able to position themselves strategically by engaging in this process.

With a tight budget, successful branding initiatives can be accomplished by embracing a test-and-Learn mindset and investing in internal brand development to refine messaging.

Tools such as brand awareness studies and platforms such as Blue Ocean can be used to track different key performance indicators. The most relevant metrics for a company include organic search, lead generation, and PR coverage.

Brand marketing allows for the personalization of metrics. It is important to refine brand strategy, messaging, and content marketing in order to build a strong brand. Measuring and testing the impact of branding initiatives using relevant metrics is important. Investing in both short-term performance marketing and long-term brand building is important for sustainable growth according to the CEO of Skna.

She says to build a strong brand in the current economic landscape is to discover your unique value proposition by understanding the problems you solve for customers. Employees can be brand ambassadors. Try different approaches to find out what works for you. Existing content can be re-purposed to increase its value. You should seek inspiration from successful branding initiatives.

Sagstrom says that complying with these strategies will help establish a compelling brand presence.