Use It or Lose It: 7 Creative Ways to Spend Your End-of-Year Budget

Popping champagne to ring in the new year … in July? Seems like a case of bad timing, but for many organizations, a new fiscal year for accounting begins on July 1. Is this you?

If you’re sitting on some unused budget that needs to be allocated in the next less-than-30 days, we have some creative, content-focused ways you can spend it while you’ve got it.

1. Revisit your wish list

Is there a communications initiative you’ve wanted to do allyearlong, but just haven’t gotten around to it? Maybe you’ve been dreaming of launching a company intranet or hosting a podcast. Now’s the perfect time to make it happen — or at least get the ball rolling.

2. Create new content

How’s your social media feed looking? If you’ve been feeling uninspired lately (it happens to the best of us), you can put that money toward creating fresh new content. Plan a few months out to get ahead of impending deadlines, or boost your high-performing posts for even more reach.

3. Do some A/B testing

If there’s a debate raging over whether your audience groans at punny headlines or clicks on them, there’s no time like the present to find out! Create segmented emails to see which ones have better open rates. Or, take your tests to the digital ad space with two versions of the same campaign.

4. Upgrade

Raise your hand if you’re trying your best to scoot by on the free versions of software programs and other services you use. If you have money to spend, why not go ahead and level up? Many companies let you pay a year in advance, and that upgrade often gives you access to additional features that will serve you well as your audience (and your business) grows.

5. Attend an event

Is there an upcoming conference or webinar that either you or one of your employees has been eyeing? Now that in-person events are coming back, it could be the perfect time to get out of the office (or the home office), dust off your skills and learn something new.

Small budget = big impact

If your remaining budget is too small for your biggest ideas, consider picking a project that will make an impact on employee satisfaction.

6. Create a toolkit for employee appreciation

Research says people quit managers, not jobs. So why not make it easier for your managers to retain talented employees?

Give them templates for thank-you notes or other tangible ways to recognize team members. Offer team-building ideas or share a list of conversation starters to make employee engagement easier. Then—and here’s the secret sauce—offer them a budget to make it happen.

7. Produce a highlight reel

You’re building a more inclusive place to work, and it shows. That’s good for your company culture, and it also means better ideas for products and services.

Tout that to your company—and the world—by producing a short video showcasing your diversity, equity and inclusion accomplishments.

Or, have you helped more working moms relaunch their careers? Improved your parental-leave policies? Invested hundreds of volunteer hours? Highlight these wins in a video or infographic, and put it on your website.

If you need help, give us a click at WordsFresh.

And, if your remaining budget is near zero, we’ve put together a few ideas to still ensure that your content is high quality.