Sales and Marketing Strategy in an Election Year

Launch Team has worked to help companies grow for nearly 40 years—more than a few election cycles. I promise—this isn’t a political rant but a practical how-to. Read on for ways to optimize sales and marketing strategy and product launch right now. 

This year, 2 billion people will vote in 60 countries, making this the largest election year in history. We are beginning to see its impact, which echoes previous election years. How should you approach sales and marketing strategy and new product launches while competing for attention and action in the market? 

What does an election year mean to your business outlook?

Like past election cycles, we are seeing the following signs throughout our client base:

• Conservative approach to budgets and decision-making
• The ripple effect of government budget delays
• Anticipated stock market volatility and a direct emotional reaction in B2B sales
• Increased noise and news overload—particularly in social media
• Higher ad costs, as companies compete on price-per-click with political organizations
• Cash conservation

What’s the right move now? 

No matter how the election plays out, we will all get up and go to work the next day. These short—and long-term strategies can help you hit your targets in 2024 and lay the foundation for success in 2025.

Sales Strategy: Focus on pipeline size. While your sales cycle may lengthen, keep your marketing and sales efforts focused on right-fit prospects. Adjust your sales dashboard to focus on KPIs you can control, like outreach activities and customer contact, to help with retention.

Marketing: Look for new triggers and markets with built-in urgency. Pay attention to any seasonality that impacts your customers’ business. Experiment with new channels—we already see shifts between social media channels that you may have traditionally ignored. Consider auditing your digital ad spend—this is a good time to benchmark your cost per click and conversion rates. Update your market research and customer personas to understand better which buyers will be early movers and where and how they want to engage.

April 2024 social media users (in millions) by platform. (Source: Statistica) Launch is seeing specific audience engagement shift in markets by market, role, and demographics—for example, increased researcher engagement in Twitter/X and engineering engagement in Reddit. Update your customer personas to understand better what will work for your marketing strategy today.

Launch note: Reddit does not appear on the above chart, but since its IPO in February 2024, and recent ties to Google AI, most B2B companies should take a good look. It’s now the #6 website worldwide, and its user demographics are changing rapidly.

Operations: Aged receivables are rising as companies seek to conserve cash. Re-assess your terms or exercise your existing terms.

Product Launch: Don’t lose out on this time—push forward with product development, look for ways to position yourself for long-term competitive advantage, and plan now for strong 4Q product launches.

How are you optimizing for 2024 and planning for 2025? Reach out to talk it through.