Did you know that almost half of all businesses in the United States operate without an official budget?
You may be wondering how that’s possible! How do they keep track of spending and not spend more than they make?
That’s a good question. It can be nearly impossible to do that!
That’s why creating a small business marketing budget is so important for your business.
Ready to learn how? Read on!
Identify Your Marketing Goals
When creating a small business marketing budget, the first thing you need to do is identify marketing goals. One of your girls may be to build a direct sales funnel. Another goal may be a long-term revenue stream that you want to create.
Whatever goals that you have, it is important to keep this in mind as you create your budget. Determining these goals will help you allocate your business funds in the correct manner.
It is also important to have short-term and long-term marketing goals in order to create their correct kind of budget. A short-term goal may be to boost brand awareness in the next five months, whereas a long-term goal may be to generate 20% new customers over the next five years.
By creating short term and long term goals, you will keep your business moving in the right direction with the budget you create.
Know Your Target Audience
After you determine your goals, you need to figure out your target audience. Do you want to make sure that you are marketing towards your target customer and buyer persona rather than everyone.
For instance, if you are a toy company, you are most likely going to want to market to parents. Marketing to 10-year-olds is not going to be the most financially sound plan. The same goes for other industries.
You need to figure out your audience demographics such as age, marital status, education, motivation, goals, location, and more to know how to market toward them.
Research Your Competition
Before you start marketing, you should also research your competition. This can help you get a better understanding for your target market.
When you look at your competition, you should consider which competitors are performing well. Once you decide that, figure out what types of ads and marketing strategies they are using. If you can, it can also be beneficial to figure out how much they are budgeting for their marketing department.
Choose the Marketing Channels You Want to Use
Lastly, when it comes to your digital marketing budget creations, you have to figure out what marketing channels you want to use. Each one is going to cost you a different amount, so knowing which you want to use can come in handy during the planning process.
For instance, there are many different types of marketing channels.
There is digital marketing, which includes online social media marketing, website marketing, paid media marketing, online advertising, and pay-per-click ads. Some of this type of marketing is free, but you are still going to need to pay someone to do it for you.
You also need to consider inbound marketing like e-books, videos on YouTube, blogs, and other SEO forms of advertising.
Outbound marketing includes radio advertisements, direct mail marketing, and trade shows. This is not as popular as other forms of marketing, but still needs to be accounted for in the budget.
By figuring out which channels you want to market on, you can start to allocate the budget in the right direction
Avoid These Mistakes
As important as it is to create goals and figure out the digital marketing goals you have, it is also important to avoid mistakes during the process. These are the biggest mistakes you will want to avoid when it comes to creating a digital marketing budget.
Not Correcting Bad Data
When it comes to digital marketing, you do not want to just take any random shots in the dark. You should be constantly analyzing your data. If you don’t, you were putting your company at financial risk.
Before you make marketing decisions, you should always check the data. The same goes for marketing—you need to take a look at the data before you know whether or not to keep using that marketing technique or if you need to pivot.
Discounting Current Customers
It can be easy to fall into the trap of creating larger discounts for current customers. Do you want them to be happy and do you want to keep them.
However, it is not going to help you to consistently discount current customers. This is because you are not going to get everyone to the end of your sales funnel. You have to rely on income from your current customers as well as your potential new customers that you will get from your marketing campaigns.
Sticking With the Same Budget Year-to-Year
The last thing you want to do is use the same budget two years in a row. Budgets are constantly changing, priorities for businesses shift, and consumer mindsets shift as well.
That means that a budget for one year may not be helpful or the same as the next year could be.
Every year, there should be a budget creation process to reexamine company goals to see what the budget should be for the current market.
Creating a Small Business Marketing Budget
When it comes to creating a small business marketing budget, there is a lot that goes into it. However, if you follow these tips and avoid the mistakes above, you will be creating a budget that works for your business.
And the best part is that you can always change the budget as your business changes!
If you are ready to create the best marketing budget for your business but don’t feel that you can do it yourself, then we are here to help!
At Marcus Hansen, we pride ourselves on helping deliver marketing campaigns that actually work. Ready to see for yourself? You can book an appointment online today.