As a society, we are currently in a unique position when it comes to finances. We haven’t seen a producer price index like there is today since the beginning of 2008, the early phase of the Great Recession. With inflation rates rising not only across the country but around the globe, it’s never been more important to get a good understanding of how to protect your company against inflation, especially your company’s marketing strategy.
Today, we are here to give you some tips on how to inflation-proof your company’s marketing strategy. We have reached out to several [blank positions] and [blank positions] and have asked them for their expert input on this important topic. Keep on reading to see what the experts have to say about protecting your company against inflation.
1. Make Spending Visibility a Top Priority
The first tip we have is to focus on spending visibility. Spending visibility is the foundation for protecting your company against inflation, as it reveals exactly how much money is being spent on what things and by whom. Tracking the company’s spending in this way is very helpful in understanding how money is flowing through the company. Focusing on spending visibility means creating repeatable ways of tracking spending by cost, function, and unit. Spending visibility makes all other efforts to protect against inflation more actionable and can help the company maintain an upward financial trajectory.
Ryan Rottman is a Co-Founder and CEO at OSDB Sports, a company that specializes in digital sports platforms with the most extensive sports information on the web. “If you want your company to survive and excel during the current inflationary period, then you have got to know where every single penny is being spent,” he says. “What is this money spent on? Who is spending it? What is the purpose? All these questions must be asked, but establishing a tracking system that focuses on spending visibility makes it so much easier to answer these questions. Instead of needing to ask each individual question, all of the data needed to answer these questions should already be in the system. This ensures proper accountability within the company and that the company’s finances are being put to good use. Now more than ever, spending visibility is key to the financial success of a business.”
2. Get Rid of Unnecessary Work
Secondly, eliminate any unnecessary work taking place in the company. In other words, only do what is necessary and what adds the most value. Now is the time to take a step back and take a look at all the work happening within your company. Determining what work is necessary versus what work is redundant or can be better accomplished in a different way can be a difficult task, so it would be wise to bring on some fellow professionals to help inform you of this decision. Figuring out what work is unnecessary allows you to utilize those funds elsewhere and send the appropriate labor where it is needed. Your company will become much more efficient when busy work isn’t eating up your funds and labor.
Ann McFerran, a CEO at Glamnetic, thinks that eliminating unnecessary work is the biggest thing you can do to help your company deal with rising inflation. “Glamnetic uses what’s called a zero-based redesign,” McFerran says. “This means that when we analyze our company to eliminate work that doesn’t add value, we have a blank mindset. We aren’t looking at the company as a whole and all the little parts that are working inside it. Rather, we imagine that the company is a completely blank slate, and then we ask ourselves, ‘What work do we need?’ We need more work to be done in marketing and less to be done on mundane tasks. This helps get rid of the distractions of all the other moving parts and reveal what work is actually adding value.”
3. Automate Tasks as Much as Possible
Our third tip is to automate as many tasks as possible. There are so many technologies available today to help with this, such as intelligent document processing and robotic process automation (RPA). Automating tasks helps your company function more efficiently and use your time and finances more wisely. This way, you can focus more of your efforts on successful marketing strategies.
Daniel Tejada works with Straight Up Growth as their Co-Founder. He provides this example about the importance of task automation: “Say one of your employees is responsible for a lot of mundane little tasks. If you’re a retailer, this could be putting in case dimensions, product quantity, updating the website inventory, and so on. All of these things can be automated, and then that employee can help with tasks that actually add value to your business. When they are freed from the responsibility of busy work, they’ll be able to think creatively and help your company thrive. Automating tasks leads to more efficient employees, successful marketing, and valuable work.”
4. Communicate With Your Suppliers
Our fourth and final tip for you today is to communicate with your suppliers and not be afraid to bring on second and third suppliers. With the inflation steadily getting higher every day, it would be a good idea to prepare for some of your suppliers to fall through, whether that means they close shop or their prices go up to more than you can afford. Over-communicate with your suppliers to see what is currently the most in-demand so that you can prepare for supply challenges that might arise.
The CEO of Spot Pet Insurance, Trey Ferro, recommends getting a long-term contract with your supplier. “It’s impossible to fully know what is going to happen in the economy these days,” Ferro says, “so getting a long-term contract with your supplier for the products that are most in-demand will put you far ahead of other companies, especially when no one can get a hold of those products. It’s important to not put all your eggs in one basket, though. Talk to other suppliers, and settle with two or three to stick with.”
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We hope this article was helpful in showing you how to protect your company’s marketing strategy against inflation. By listening to the advice of these experts, your company will be safe and sound as the inflation rate rises.
