If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times – marketing matters. Effective marketing is the peanut butter to your jelly, the donut to your coffee, and the Ted Lasso to your pandemic. It can make a business or break it.
To see the kind of growth that leaps off planning sheets and converts into real customers, you will need to rely on experts that can get your brand out in the world.
But, how much is too much to spend on your marketing game, and how should said money be spent?
That is the question of the century!
So, let’s start at the basics.
Evaluate Your Current Expenses
Before you start thinking about how you want to allocate your funds and create a marketing budget, it’s helpful to know how much you’re spending overall.
The size of your marketing budget will solely depend on your goals and how much money you have to spend.
While many companies can spend anywhere from 7-15% of their overall revenue on marketing, does that number work for you, or should you aim higher?
If you’re a new start-up looking for quick growth and new leads, 7-15% might be a bit low of a number. For this reason, you might decide to spend around 20% on your marketing efforts.
In the end, it all depends on your needs, and your goals.
Whatever you decide, remember to not spend money that you can’t afford to lose.
Deciding Your Marketing Budget
Now, that you’ve decided how much you can spend on your marketing, you have to determine how you should allocate the funds you have.
That is why we have three steps that can help you in this thing called marketing.
Set marketing goals
“Don’t move until you see it.” That principle can honestly apply to any situation and especially in situations concerning your business.
You can’t know what to give out until you know how much you have to give and what your limits are. This is why it is crucial that you set up a marketing budget to house all of your goals (and realistic ways to get there).
Consider making SMART goals
Specific: Include details in your goals and avoid vagueness.
Measurable: Ensure you can measure your progress toward your goals.
Attainable: Your goals can be ambitious, but they should also be realistically achievable.
Relevant: Your marketing goals should be relevant to your overall business objectives.
Time-bound: Set a time limit for achieving your goals to help keep you on track.
Here is an example: “work to increase revenue by 50% by the middle of the year” or “acquire 10 new leads by the end of the quarter.”
Create a Plan for the Year
Plan ahead, like way ahead. Try sitting down and planning the vision for your business for the full year and what you can do to make that happen. Don’t forget to keep your marketing goals at the forefront as you’re planning. This can give you a great forecast to keep you on track and save you time so you don’t have to go month to month or by quarter.
Some marketing avenues to consider:
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media marketing
Hire professionals
How are you planning on executing your plans? Will your internal marketing team do the work, will you hire a marketing agency, or will you work with freelancers? You might use a combination of these methods.
When choosing marketing channels, a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is the 70-20-10 rule. This guideline says that:
- 70% of your budget should go towards strategies you know work well
- 20% should go to new strategies that help your business grow
- 10% of your budget should go towards emerging or experimental strategies to keep you ahead of the competition
To save money, you could write your own blog posts and manage your own social media.
If, later in the year, you notice competitors overtaking you in search engine results, you might shift some of your PPC budgets to content marketing. All of this might be overwhelming at first, but you got this.
So, how about it? Are you ready to get your marketing strategy in gear? Take a targeted approach, and let us help you see growth! We’re here for you.