How to spend the rest of your marketing budget in the fourth quarter

I never said no.

As a freelance writer, I knew saying no would cost me not only the job I was saying no to, but potentially the one after that, and the one after that. Agencies always call freelancers they think will say yes.

Nobody likes rejection.

And so I said yes. To everything. To crappy jobs. To mindless jobs. To fascinating projects. To white papers and solution briefs and brochures. To an endless stream of power point slides.

I learned that the fourth quarter is a profitable and busy time for freelancers. On a macro level, corporations intent on some level of financial “management” often insist on spending money in the fourth quarter to meet their profitability goals for the year. On a more micro level, marketing managers often wake up about November 15 and realize if they don’t spend their budget, it will be taken away for the next year.

Nobody likes to have their money taken away.

And what do companies have to show for it? Fourth quarter work can feel insubstantial. It can taste like busy work. It’s like the last drip of toothpaste squeezed from the tube. Unsatisfying and inconsequential. It’s rare that a project can get the end-to-end client attention and focus it needs to thrive. It’s nearly impossible to schedule meetings, reviews, interviews, etc.

When January rolls around, it’s full speed ahead again with the full attention of the full client team, and the 4Q work can be easily forgotten, marginalized, or redone since not everyone got to weigh in.

I gave up the freelance thing about three and a half years ago, becoming a regular agency employee . This holiday season, our agency finds itself again managing a flood of projects, deliverables and even new clients that seem to have materialized from thin air, all in the fourth quarter. I find myself in the enviable position of getting to pick and choose which projects I want to work on, which clients I want to work with. When my team has had its way, we’ll turn to the freelance pool and help put presents under the tree.

So, if you’re looking for ways to spend your fourth quarter budget and you have access to an agency, here’s how I would approach it:

(1) Make sure your regular agency team is fully engaged. Freelancers can be great, but your agency A-team is better.

(2) Don’t do anything that’s going to require the input and approval of a dozen leaders and colleagues. Save it for next year.

(3) Buy some strategy. When January hits, you’re going to want to make sure you’re ready to hit the ground running. Tap your agency to help you think about what really needs to be done.

(4) Get some fresh ideas. Rather than tasking your agency with specific creative deliverables, give them some room to breath and ideate for a change. (And if they do need to tap freelancers, this is a great task for fresh eyes.)