Preparing Your Marketing Budget
Marketing efforts and their respective results can sometimes be difficult to measure. It is important to quantify as many aspects as you can in order to ensure you are getting the most return for your investment, especially if you are a small business. Preparing your marketing budget can also help you identify what is working and what is not in your marketing strategy. This can save you time and money. Here are some tips on preparing your marketing budget:
IDENTIFY BUSINESS & SALES GOALS
The first step is to identify what your overall business and sales goals are, then identify which areas of marketing will best support these goals. I go over this in more detail in my blog post about how to create a marketing plan.
IDENTIFY WHERE YOU WILL GET THE BIGGEST ROI
The next step is to identify which marketing channels are most worth your time and investment. Not every channel will be worth it for your business. A good place to start is whether or not you want to spend money on advertising this year. From there, you can identify what other channels will be worthwhile. I go over this in more detail in a recent blog post.
WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED?
A few things that should be included in your marketing budget are:
Salaries of employees and freelancers that are dedicating time & work to marketing efforts
Software costs
Ad spend
Gifting and promotions
Photography and videography
You should also have a section where you can see your budget broken down by marketing channel (social media, email, SEO/Web, Google/Yelp etc, events, partnerships).
MEASURING SUCCESS
Google Analytics plays a huge role in being able to track conversions from various marketing channels. I strongly suggest you set it up if you don’t already have it. Another way to try to track success is through analytics reporting from the various channels. This is the longer way to do things if you don’t have Google Analytics. Measuring should happen quarterly in order to track trends and where efforts are working and not working. This could also save you money by cutting out a channel that is simply not working.
Every business’s budget will look different. Many factors are involved, but having a budget is much better than not having one. Getting consistent feedback from the people involved in your marketing efforts will help you determine what is worth the ROI and where changes need to be made (whether that’s as big as abandoning a channel or as small as switching software). Hiring a consultant like myself can ensure you are getting expert feedback and guidance. Book a consultation with me to talk about how I can help your team with hourly consulting.