In marketing, there’s a time to save and a time to spend. When sales slow down, it’s tempting to pull back. While you should certainly prioritize marketing initiatives, remember that branding and lead generation are two of your most important strategies to focus on for ongoing success. In a situation like we have today where the buying cycle is longer, remarketing becomes even more important to keep prospective buyers coming back to your website.

With the longer sales and homebuying cycle, it is crucial to keep your online presence current by highlighting your customer services, salespeople, quality products, and incentives. You’ll continue to build relationships with your customers and reach new audiences.

Here are 4 reasons you shouldn’t cut your digital marketing budget when times get tough.

#1 Decline of Brand Awareness 
Your brand awareness, trust, reputation, and visibility which took months or even years to build, will decline if you pause your online presence, making it harder to build trust and credibility with your potential customers.

#2 Competitor Advantage
Your competitors are likely to keep up their digital marketing efforts, so if you pause your efforts, you are helping your competitors to gain an advantage over you in brand visibility and reach. Keep up with the competition, and stay alive while more prominent builders continue with their enormous budgets.

#3 Decline of Lead Generation
Your online campaigns are a proven method for generating leads, so pausing your budget may result in a decline in lead generation. The leads you are currently getting are most likely earnestly planning to buy a home. (Unlike a couple of years ago when non-serious leads were pouring in with little effort.) So when home shoppers reach out, they are deciding which builder has the best price/deal and quality for their purchase.

#4 It’s Difficult to Catch-Up
Digital marketing is an ongoing process, so you will lose progress if you pause your campaigns. Furthermore, it will take a long time to catch up once you decide to reinvest. For instance, pausing a well-structured campaign in Google Ads can lead to a loss of momentum and a drop in overall performance – all of which is  detrimental to your account history.

As we’ve shown, cutting your digital marketing budget can cause long-term damage. Instead of cutting budget when sales slow, we recommend adjusting it. How? 

• Websites, Google Business, Bing Places, and Social Media platforms are inexpensive, and you can re-adjust the budget and/or reduce the number of campaigns for your paid social media advertising, Google Ads, and Bing campaigns.
• Remarketing is key during longer buying cycles. Give your prospects a reason to keep coming back to your website. Keep your remarketing display ad creative fresh and with a variety of messaging that will resonate as they get closer to making a purchasing decision.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is also a must regardless of the market situation. Keep your website up to date and pull-in a professional. Your website’s contact forms, emails, and phone numbers should all be easily visible in order to focus on making it as easy as possible for visitors  to convert into a lead.

To summarize, it is essential to continue spending on digital marketing so that you can:

• Maintain a constant presence in your market areas.
• Show that you have the leadership to keep offering your quality products and services during difficult times.
• Keep up with the competition.
• Target new opportunities. Many people are still relocating to be closer to family and also have the opportunity to work remotely.

Written By: Cristina Kelly