October 26th, 2023 | 2 min. read
By Kim Kovelle
Find out exactly how marketing with Zoe Marketing & Communications works in a free guide.
Have you ever felt nervous about marketing beyond a few months? Maybe the results weren’t great. Or, more realistically, a budget crunch hit. Two in three marketers saw budgets cut at least 5%-10% in late 2023.
Long-term marketing can feel daunting, but stopping too soon has big consequences. At Zoe Marketing & Communications, we’ve helped businesses navigate these challenges since 2020.
Here’s what happens when marketing starts and stops too soon.
Download Your Guide to Marketing With Zoe
From the first steps and your role in success to specific services, pricing and success stories, learn all about partnering with Zoe.
5 issues when your marketing runs less than six months
1. Reduced brand visibility
If people don’t see you, you don’t exist. It takes at least seven exposures for them to remember you, yet attention spans are less than eight seconds.
Stopping marketing — especially digital — means:
- Lagging engagement
- Dropping web traffic
- Waning sales
Word of mouth has limits. If you’re not visible, competitors will be. A sustained strategy keeps your brand “top of mind” and prevents you from fading into the background.
2. Erosion of credibility and trust
People need to see your message 27 times to trust your brand. And 81% of consumers say they must trust a brand to buy from it.
Marketing isn’t just about staying top of mind — it builds authority. When you disappear, you risk being forgotten or seen as unreliable. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose, as author M.J. Aldridge puts it. Re-engaging later is even harder.
3. Poor data insights
Digital marketing is cumulative. The more you do, the better the data — and 77% of consumers prefer brands that use data to personalize experiences.
But stopping too soon means:
- Losing insights into customer behavior
- Weakening search engine marketing (SEM, which improves with time)
- Costlier restarts due to lost data momentum
Stopping means less optimization and wasted budget when you resume.
4. Customer loss
The previous three problems lead to one outcome: lost customers.
Cutting marketing within six months can drive people away — and even a 5% increase in retention can boost profits by up to 95%.
Marketing helps you attract and keep customers. Turning it off makes it easier for them to leave for a competitor.
5. Revenue plateau or decline
No marketing? Expect stagnant or dropping sales. On average, research notes that companies see sales fall 16% after one year of no marketing and 25% after two years.
Even in recessions, cutting marketing can lead to a 15% revenue loss.
Stopping cold turkey means losing new and existing customers — and acquiring new ones costs far more than keeping the ones you have.
Next steps to increase your marketing’s effectiveness
Marketing is an investment. Cutting it too soon can hurt visibility, trust, data, customer retention and revenue.
Want to avoid these pitfalls? Talk to us. Zoe offers long-term plans (minimum six months) to keep your growth strong.
Still learning about marketing budget and duration? These articles are your best next steps:
Download Your Guide to Marketing With Zoe
From the first steps and your role in success to specific services, pricing and success stories, learn all about partnering with Zoe.
Topics:
