Planning your Marketing Budget
Here are a few tips to establishing a marketing budget and key things to consider when planning your marketing strategy for the upcoming year. One of the first things we need to know when taking on a new client is what is the budget. Time after time we get a blank stare on confusion. You are not alone, here are some tips for planning your marketing budget.
Budget: How do you come up with a budget? Well, on average successful businesses spend between 5%-10% of their projected gross revenue on marketing and advertising. Where you fall in here depends on your type of business, how long you have been in business etc. So, take a look at your numbers for the last few years and try to project what your revenue will be for the upcoming year and divide that by 5%-10% and that should give you a good starting point for your budget, you can choose to divide that up monthly or quarterly if you wish.
Target Audience: Once you have crunched the numbers for your budget it’s time to consider what your biggest target audience will be for the upcoming year. For instance are you targeting business owners, first time home buyers, seniors etc. Once you identify your ideal client and target market this should help you identify which sources of marketing and advertising will be best for you.
Cost per 1,000 impressions: How do you determine if a media purchase is a good deal or not? First, you identify your target market and look for mediums that reach that audience. Then you take the total audience and divide that by 1,000. Now take that number and divide it by your total advertising cost to determine your total cost per 1,000 impressions or cpm.
Other Considerations: Some other things to consider are your cost per lead or cost per action such as a filled out form, phone call, website visit etc. You may also want to learn how to calculate your customer acquisition cost and lifetime value of a client to help you evaluate your ROI.
What’s trending for 2013?
Search Engine Marketing: With lean economic times it’s important to get the most out of your marketing budget. I always say there’s no better way to reach your audience then to be where they reach for you. Positioning yourself on the first page of search engine results pages for key terms prospects use to search for your type of business will prove to be a great investment for you and your business.
Time to go mobile: With the amount of time spend searching online on mobile devices overtaking the amount of time searching online form laptop and desktop computers it’s time for you and your organization to go mobile.
ROI Tip:If you are a business that relies on referrals for a large portion of your business then do not ignore the power of marketing to current and previous clients. Help to facilitate the growth of your word of mouth marketing team.
