Where to cut MarTech spend without breaking anything.

The 6-category diagnostic for finding 20%+ savings in 30 days

When a CMO calls me and says 'we need to cut 20% from the marketing budget by end of quarter,' this is the diagnostic I run. Six categories, eleven questions, three traps to avoid.

Category 1: Redundant tools

The average B2B marketing team uses 12-15 tools. At least 3 do overlapping things. Map every tool to a job-to-be-done. If two tools do the same job, keep the one that integrates with HubSpot (or your CRM) and kill the other. Common overlaps: SEMrush + Ahrefs, Mailchimp + HubSpot email, Hootsuite + Sprout Social.

Category 2: Unused licenses

Pull login data for every tool. If a seat hasn't been used in 60 days, it's waste. Most companies are paying for 30-40% more seats than they use. This is usually the biggest single savings.

Category 3: Agency overlap

If you're paying an SEO agency AND a content agency AND a social media agency, there's overlap. Map deliverables. Consolidate where possible. One agency doing SEO + content is cheaper and more aligned than two agencies doing them separately.

Category 4: Reporting tools you don't need

If HubSpot can generate the report, you don't need a separate BI tool for it. I've seen companies paying $2K/month for Databox when HubSpot dashboards do 90% of what they need. Kill the nice-to-have. Keep the must-have.

Category 5: Event and sponsorship spend

Events are the hardest to cut because they feel strategic. Ask one question: can you attribute a single closed deal to this event in the last 12 months? If no, cut it. If yes, calculate cost-per-deal and compare to other channels.

Category 6: Content production waste

How many blog posts did you publish last quarter? How many got more than 100 views? If you're producing 12 posts/month and 8 of them get under 50 views, you're wasting production budget. Publish less, promote more.