Reaching Local Governments at the Start or End of Their Fiscal Year: Key Data to Have
Many local government marketers want to reach their target buyers either right before the end of a local government’s fiscal year, or right after.
Here’s the thinking:
End of Fiscal Year:
Local governments’ “use it or lose it” culture may drive a fair number of them to spend more right before the end of their fiscal year
AND/OR
Start of Fiscal Year:
A fresh, new budget may embolden a fair number of local government to spend more at the beginning of their fiscal year
No doubt these strategies can work for certain products and services. But before you execute either approach, there are some facts about local government fiscal years that you need to know.
Just the Facts
Fact #1
Only 50% of local governments’ have fiscal years ending in December. Each month of the year is the fiscal year end for at least some local governments.
(Bonus Fact: Power Almanac lets you target specific decision-makers in each local government based on the last month of each government’s fiscal year. Schedule a demo and see for yourself!)
Fact #2:
As you can see in the chart below, the most common months for local government fiscal years to end are the last month of each calendar quarter: March (7%), June (26%), September (10%), and December (50%).
Fact #3:
The chart above also demonstrates that there are significant differences between municipalities, townships, and counties when it comes to fiscal year endings. For example:
Fact #4:
You can often predict a local government’s last month of the fiscal year based on its state location. For 35 of the 50 states, 90% or more of the local governments in that state have the same last month of the fiscal year. For example, the 378 local governments in Iowa that represent more than 1,000 people all have a fiscal year ending in June.
However, like almost every aspect of the local government market, there are exceptions to every rule. So be careful about over-relying on Fact #4. For example:
For local governments in Illinois representing more than 1,000 people, the last month of the fiscal year depends largely on what TYPE of local government it is:
For municipalities in Missouri representing more than 1,000 people, there is no clear pattern:
Leverage the Data, Capture the Lead
To run special campaigns around the beginning or end of local governments’ fiscal years, you need to identify the correct month for each local government on your list. There isn’t one rule that applies across all the local governments, or even across all the local governments in any particular state.
You can identify the last month of the fiscal year for all local governments from the US Census Bureau, OR you can use Power Almanac to target local governments (and specific decision-makers in each government) based on the last month of each government’s fiscal year, because we’ve already loaded the Census Bureau data into our application for you..
Either way, NOW is always a good time to market to local government decision makers.
