As a wise man named John Wanamaker once quipped, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Sound familiar?

If you’re like many companies, you’re wasting a significant chunk of your marketing budget without even realizing it. And if you really want to deliver results and impress your boss, it’s time to break up with your bad budgeting habits.

Here are three ways that you’re wasting your marketing budget–and what you should be doing instead.

Numbers? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Numbers!

How do you evaluate progress if you’re not measuring it? It’s a trick question. You don’t. And you certainly can’t tell whether a marketing dollar is well-spent if you don’t know whether the effort succeeded.

So why are you running your marketing efforts without tying them to a measurable result?

Maybe your marketing automation tool needs help. Maybe you keep moving the goalposts during the project. Maybe you’re not setting any goalposts at all and hoping for the best.

Whatever the reason, you need to winnow down why you’re not using measurable results to track your progress and break the habit.

Sales and Marketing are NOT Getting Along

Sales and marketing should be like peanut butter and jelly. If your sales and marketing departments are more like gasoline and a lit match, we’ve got some bad news: money is getting lost in between the cracks.

The problem is that marketing and sales disconnect is more common than you think. A whopping 51% of marketers are not pleased with the communication between teams and 53% of sales professionals are dissatisfied with the support they receive from marketing.

The problem is that sales and marketing often misunderstand each other’s goals. The sales team often thinks the role of marketing is to bring them leads, while marketing wants sales to stick to the script. The reality is that they have different facets of the same goal: driving sustainable revenue.

If your sales and marketing teams are more likely to point fingers than work hand-in-hand, their miscommunication will cost you.

Times, They Are (Not) a Changin’

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result isn’t technically the definition of insanity, but it is remarkably foolish. And yet, far too many companies use the same crutch: “It’s what we’ve always done.”

Just because you’ve always done something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

This is a tricky one because it’s often difficult to pitch progressive ideas to traditional management, which is why this crutch is so common. However, if a tactic isn’t turning up any additional ROI, it’s time to try something new.

The key to pitching a new idea is to back it up with numbers. Show how the new method would be an improvement over what you’ve always done, giving traditionalists a concrete reason why “what we’ve always done” isn’t the right answer.

Let’s Stop Wasting Your Marketing Budget

Do you see your company in these bad habits? If so, we think it’s time to stop wasting your marketing budget on tools and tactics that don’t work.

We’ve created comprehensive tools that make it easy to create open communication, track your progress, and demonstrate real results. No more wasted effort or wasted dollars.

Ready to change the way you use your marketing budget? Let’s talk. Click here to schedule a demo.

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