Companies often cut the marketing budget when times get tough, but you shouldn’t. It is one of the most critical components of your business and without it, you will struggle to grow your business. It is important to look at what it entails and how you can create an affordable marketing budget for your business.
A marketing budget is made of two components, time and money. Both need to be invested in to make a successful marketing campaign. How do you work out how much money and time you need to spend on your marketing budget? Here are some questions to consider:
What are your Business Goals?
Do you want to make more sales? Do you want to create greater brand awareness? Do you want to stay on your consumer’s mind? These goals will affect the amount of money which you need to invest in your marketing strategies.
What Type Of Business Do You Own?
Depending on the business will depend on the money you need to invest in your marketing plan. If you are a start-up, you could spend 7% of your sales to help create awareness. If you are a business that markets to other businesses or a small niche market your budget will be smaller than someone who is in retail or has a global audience.
Who Is Your Competition?
Depending on who your competition is will depend on how much you need to spend on your marketing. If you are the only coffee shop in town you can get away with a limited budget, but if you are one of many then you will need to increase it.
Who Is Your Market?
Knowing who your consumer is, is critical when planning your marketing budget. If your market is older and is not fussed on digital media you may need to invest in traditional methods. If you are marketing to younger people who are consistently glued to their phones then you will be more involved with digital media.
When you have answers to the above you can start working on your budget. You will then understand which type of marketing media you need to use to promote your business. You will know whether it will be an investment in time or money that will bring you leads that could convert sales.
By having a budget, you will also be able to determine which marketing methods will create the best return of investment, this will help you to ensure that you are investing the right amount of money and time on the method that proves to be positive instead of wasting money on opportunities that have no ROI.
It is important to remember that marketing is an investment into your future, and therefore needs to be assessed with as much care as your investment into the actual product or service itself.