You have big, audacious goals for your business and want to crush the competition. You know marketing will play a pivotal role in your efforts, but how much should you be spending to get there? Here are questions you need to ask yourself when determining a marketing budget.
1. How old and how big is your company?
Younger companies that are first trying to get the word out and establish themselves will generally need to spend more than a business that’s been building its brand for a while. A newer company might need to spend 12% to 20% of its gross revenue on marketing initiatives, especially if budget must be allotted to building a website and establishing a visual identity. But an older business might only have to spend about half that amount. Typically, smaller businesses spend a larger proportion of their overall budget on marketing than larger organizations — and B2C companies also tend to spend more than B2Bs.
2. What are your specific marketing goals?
It’s critical to set a realistic marketing budget that has a reasonable probability of meeting business objectives. If you want to grow revenue, you need to ask yourself by how much, through selling more of which of your products or services, and to what type(s) of consumers. If you take a budget and spread it too thinly across marketing channels, you risk decreasing your chance of successful penetration in any one area. Are your goals to rank higher in organic search (SEO); generate leads through pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns; increase your engagement on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok; or drive more visitors to your website with a targeted direct mail campaign? You not only have to look at your overall budget but also how it’s divvied up across marketing channels and what the minimum recommended spend per channel is to achieve the desired results.
3. How competitive is your market?
Competition drives up virtually every aspect of marketing costs. Bidding on more competitive PPC search terms can be significantly more expensive — and more content needs to be created to rank higher organically on Google. If many businesses are competing for attention and sales in your space, you’ll have to spend more to get noticed.
Stretch Your Marketing Dollars
Take a long-tail approach. More specific long-tail keywords that align with your unique selling proposition are easier to rank for than trophy terms. They also typically boast higher conversion rates, since they tend to tap greater buyer intent. Specificity and niche marketing can help maximize the potential impact of your advertising budget.
Start small and track ROI. No amount of money spent on marketing is a good deal if it doesn’t generate results. Don’t undertake any marketing initiatives without testing and tracking results to see what’s working to improve ROI over time.
Repurpose content and marketing collateral. Whether it’s a blog, infographic, video, podcast or other media format, adapting and repurposing content is a fantastic way to stretch your budget. Turn a longer video into shorts. Combine blogs into an e-book. Edit a podcast into audiograms. You’ll still need to be contextual in your marketing by addressing the audience of each particular platform, but in many cases existing content can be adapted to expand its omnichannel marketing impact.
Don’t silo marketing services. Use a full-service agency, where things like digital marketing, content creation, creative services, web development and printing can all be handled under one roof. An integrated, one-stop-shop approach allows for greater efficiency and lower marketing costs versus hiring a separate video production company, writing service, graphic designer, web developer and direct mail vendor.
Kymera offers flexible, full-service marketing packages for small to large businesses. We can set up your website and digital marketing platforms; produce your written and video content, handle newsletter and press release distribution; design, create and implement large-scale direct mail campaigns; and even wrap your fleet of vehicles. We’ll pull together experts from a variety of disciplines to create personalized, omnichannel marketing campaigns for your franchise or business — and help you set a marketing budget with realistic sales goals. Contact us today for a complimentary marketing consultation.
Sources
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243790
https://www.salesforce.com/resources/articles/how-to-create-marketing-budget/
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/marketing-budgets-by-organization-size
