You’ll find a lot of advice on how and where to spend money on and for your business. When it comes to marketing, this budget can run up expenses, so it’s important to plan out this particular part of your budget so it doesn’t get out of hand nor get spent in vain. Advice is something you can take or leave, but any expert would tell you a marketing budget needs to be there. It then becomes a matter of how to allocate the money; which is what this post will talk about.
So, now let’s go through the best way to distribute the money going into your marketing.
Decide the goal
The ultimate goal is more sales, but a small company starting with a limited budget will differ than an established company. The main 3 choices would be branding, lead gens, or sales. So a brand new company might prefer to focus on branding, especially if working with a small budget.
A list of platforms
There are lots of platforms out there, so decide which ones you want to use so that you can target the near-exact costs. When deciding which platforms, you also want to prioritize them. It’s important to be specific. Don’t just say, ‘social media.’ Write down which social media platforms because it will make a difference as you’ll see in the next piece of advice.
Potential ROI
Needless to say, some platforms are more expensive than others. Despite costing more, these platforms can be high in your return on investment (ROI). At the same time, some platforms are more for building relations. Besides the obvious cost of a platform, you have to take into consideration other costs you might need to spend on, such as:
- Hiring pros to consult or execute your campaigns
- Hiring others to produce graphic design, photography, copywriting, or strategy. This could be a one-time payment or ongoing.
- Costs of trial and error attempts, like a blog post or ad campaign that didn’t convert.
Who gets a piece of the pie? Consider your marketing budget a pie, and now you’re going to distribute out the pieces. The best places to allocate your money towards would be:
Digital marketing
There is no doubt that one of the most important parts of marketing is digital, especially in this day and age. A digital marketing budget will aim your efforts at the right people at the right time, and provides a better experience for customers. Digital marketing consists of the following, but not limited to:
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Content marketing
Even smaller businesses can now easily afford to have a compelling website, where much of the marketing budget will go into. But a fancy website needs great content to push the audience to. Content is the base of almost any marketing strategy, regardless if you’re running a social campaign or using paid ads. Creating good content is one main branch of marketing you’ll want to spend on.
SEO
It’s used to rank high on a search engine page, and is a set of strategies aimed to increase website traffic by implementing a number of tactics and strategies proven to make you visible in various search engines.
Email is still very much alive and kicking, and over half of almost every company decision-makers still consider it their favorite mode of communication with clients and customers.
Social media
While it does get sales, social media marketing also helps tremendously in building customer relationships.
Mobile
With everyone looking down at their phones, this is the era of mobile marketing. It consists of ads that appear on mobile smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices.
Search engine
Search engine marketing is the practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s greatest power is that it gives the opportunity to put ads in front of motivated customers who are ready to buy at the precise moment they’re ready to make a purchase.
Other aspects of marketing to look into could be:
Events
Many companies forget about event marketing when planning their budgets. Events give you the opportunity to engage with your customer genuinely.
Traditional marketing
Although it’s costly, print material, and TV ads are still being used and depending on your budget and strategy, you could look into it.
Negotiable vs non-negotiable
Some aspects of your marketing can be negotiable and might not be needed according to the scope and the set goals of your business. At least they might not be needed during your current stage, but always plan for growth. Other aspects are non-negotiable and your online side of the business will not survive, which could lead to even more drastic consequences for your business as a whole. Marketing is fluid, and so is the technology being used in it, so you need to keep track, understand the data, tweak when necessary and use it to achieve your business goals.
