Tall Zebra Designs have witnessed intense pressures on businesses this year so they decided to go out and help companies in need with their marketing tips.

Tall Zebra Designs are a Chorley-based creative digital marketing and web design agency. They showed concerns over the declining economy and they feel business owners are being thrown into a real state of distress. Currently, they are witnessing many business decision-makers reassess their financial planning and make cuts to streamline outgoings.

Tall Zebra Explain The Current Digital Marketing Situation

Tall Zebra’s creative director, Alex Chadwick, explains the situation: “The main problem is that many businesses are making ‘panic cuts’ to their marketing budgets when in reality they really need exposure and advertising more than ever to help them ride the storm...”.

Business owners may see Google Ads, social campaigns, and PPC not performing as well as they used to and dismiss them as redundant. However, incoming leads are slower for lots of businesses right now, but it is not due to campaign quality, it is because fewer people are prepared to spend right now. So, that means, to generate a steady workflow during these uncertain times, businesses marketing budgets, at the very least need to remain the same and increased where possible. Right now, businesses need to ensure their potential client pool is larger than ever before to be seen by more people who are willing to purchase. The more people who can find their products or services, the more chance they have of gaining a lead or a sale.

Tall Zebra Designs researched the advised amount for new businesses to allocate to marketing. They found that it is suggested to be between 12-20% of their gross revenue, while for established companies who already have a presence and existing customer base, it is recommended to spend between 6-12% on their marketing budget. However, during these uncertain times, Tall zebra think it is more realistic for all business types to aim for 20% to gain as much exposure as possible. They have first-hand experience and data to support how much it can pay off and help businesses stay afloat and remain profitable during these financially uncertain times.

Tall Zebra's Top Tips For Emergency Digital Marketing Plans

They also are giving businesses several critical pieces of free advice and recommendations to help them achieve the most out of their marketing budget right now:

• Say no to boosted posts

• Tall Zebra is advising against boosted posts on social media platforms because all social advertising needs to be specifically targeted to each individual business' demographic. Boosted posts just fire out content to everyone and anyone meaning most of the spend will be wasted.

Optimise Everything

In the current scenario, businesses must be making full use of the resources they already have. Website SEO needs to be on point so potential customers can find services and products organically on Google. All Google ads need to have a score of ‘Excellent’ and be optimised. If businesses are not managing their own Google ads account, they need to be asking for access and looking at the data. Tall Zebra give their clients full access to Google Ad accounts and provide ‘no fluff’ reports showing exactly where and how client budget is being spent and how much return they are gaining.

Businesses should not go crazy with discounts
This Lancashire-based digital agency are advising businesses to go easy on promotions and discounts, explaining they should be saved for special occasions. Although it may be tempting to offer frequent discounts as it generates sales and instant gratification, it will also cheapen the reputation of many brands. The more sales a business offers, the more potential customers will hold out from purchasing, until the next sale is offered which ultimately has a negative effect on the overall business.

Use Free Online Tools

HubSpot is a firm favourite for Tall Zebra and they believe it is a hugely underrated tool that many businesses are not aware of. Tall Zebra's Alex explains “We manage lots of our client’s accounts here and gain so much indispensable information from it. You can connect all campaigns to it and monitor all leads, this allows you to see exactly how much return you’re making a client on your marketing efforts.” Hubspot also has lots of great downloadable templates to help businesses manage their marketing budget.

Do Not Spend Less; Spend Smart

Business owners should calculate honest figures for themselves, looking at how much their time costs per hour, how much time they spend trying to generate organic traffic on social media and how much return they get from their efforts. They can use this figure to see if it would be more appropriate to pay a third party to manage their socials instead and increase business returns. Sometimes it is not about spending less, it is about spending smart. If you can spend the same or slightly more and see much better results, and save yourself time, then it is worth making the change.

Play To Your Strengths

In a normal climate, Tall Zebra Designs are all about exploring the market and taking risks but advise that right now is not the best time to experiment. Rather than spending budgets on spontaneous marketing campaigns, the latest trends or new and unfamiliar areas of marketing, businesses need to stick to what they know works and expand on the types of campaigns they have previously gained positive data from.

Speaking Of Data…

Tall Zebra Designs cannot stress enough the importance of collecting as much data as possible. By surveying customers and prospective clients, businesses can gain a better understanding of their own business, products and services. Businesses need to integrate short questionnaires into their correspondence with customers or make courtesy calls, follow-up emails, and review links as part of their daily processes if they are not in place already. The more feedback, the more improvements can be made, and ultimately more sales.

Tall Zebra Designs incorporate all advice offered in this article into their own practices with their clients to ensure their services are cost-effective and result-focused.

Company owners looking for business-specific advice and are interested in Tall Zebra’s services can contact them directly with a free-of-charge discovery call.

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