5 Essentials to Building a Marketing Budget

Have you built a marketing budget? What is the purpose of the budget you have built? Are you documenting expenses or determining how to grow your business? Many business owners attempt to rationalize expenses and call it a budget, but the truth is failure to take marketing seriously and create an appropriate budget negatively impacts your business’ return on investment results. Building a marketing budget varies from business to business, however is it essential to building your brand and reaching out to your target audience on a mass scale.

What Constitutes a Marketing Budget?
Remember there are many marketing mediums that should be considered into your marketing budget to provide your business with a return on investment. Essential marketing tools are some of the most cost-effective such as, your website and social media networking sites. Allocate your marketing budget based on your marketing strategy and what marketing tools are going to be the most effective for generating a return on investment for your business. You need to determine the categories appropriate to your business, but most likely you are looking at advertising, direct marketing campaigns (both print and electronic), lead generation, website, promotional items, public relations, events, search engine optimization and more.

Percent of Revenue
Don’t worry about budget, rather worry about the return on investment you are receiving. When businesses allow the budget to build itself, it is built with a bunch of nonsense. For example, giving tickets to your clients is not marketing. Instead, use your budget to create direct marketing campaigns that reaches a wide audience. Remember between 1 and 3% of your budget should go towards marketing when you’re a service-based company. You are trying to create a return on your investment then build a sound marketing budget and marketing strategy that is designed to deliver.

Your Comfort Level
Don’t spend more than you can afford; however, build a marketing budget that is realistic to accomplishing a return on investment. You have to feel good about how much you’re spending on your marketing in order for it to be a success. If you are not feeling comfortable with the amount allocated for your marketing budget, then you are going to be holding back which only hurts your business in the long run.

Know Your Target Audience
Knowing who you are marketing determines how to build your marketing budget. Who is your target audience and what media outlets are they likely to use? You are more successful in marketing when you establish your niche in the market. This way, when building a marketing budget, you are able to determine which marketing tools are the most effective to your target audience.

Set Monthly Goals
When building a marketing budget, it’s essential to develop goals and use analytics to track your progress. Every business owner wants to see a return on investment and make sure the money they put towards budgets is worthwhile. In order to ensure that you are getting your money’s worth, be sure to track your monthly results to see what is working and what isn’t.

Five Key Takeaways:

1. Know what marketing tools and strategies are necessary to create a marketing budget
2. Keep in mind your return on investment rather than how big or small your budget is
3. Stay within your comfort level when establishing a marketing budget but know what’s best for your business
4. Know who your target audience is
5. Set monthly goals to track what is working and what isn’t from your budget

About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.