Marketing budgets have been cut in recent years as companies try to control costs and stay afloat. When marketing is scarce, some people find creative ways of getting their message out there with personal or unique tactics. With a $100,000 budget, this questioner wants to know what the best way would be for them to utilize it.
Let’s face it: creating a marketing budget for a small company isn’t always a top priority. Most of the time, we just don’t have enough money to justify a formal marketing budget. We sometimes avoid performing one because it is gloomy. After all, what use is having a marketing budget if you don’t have any money to spend on it?
What’s the point? The solution is straightforward. If you don’t make a marketing budget, you’re more likely to be reactive than proactive with your marketing. In other words, instead of having a constant strategic approach throughout the year, you may be deciding what to spend your marketing budget on at any given time.
If this rings true, don’t be too harsh on yourself. Most likely, what’s holding you back is a belief that you don’t have enough money to accomplish what you want with your marketing.
As a result, for today’s activity, I’d want you to adopt a mindset I learnt more than 20 years ago. I was trying to find out what I wanted to do with my life at the moment. One of the thought leaders at the time suggested that you remove your constraints from the equation so you can see clearly what you want to accomplish. He advised that you pretend you had a large sum of money to get around your financial limitations. Instead of being limited by financial restraints, you may concentrate on your ambitions and objectives.
This is the short exercise I’d want you to consider about doing with your marketing budget right now.
I think you will get three big advantages as a result of doing so:
- Your company’s marketing budget will finally be formalized.
- You’ll have a better understanding of what you want to achieve with your marketing.
- Instead of being reactive, you’ll be more proactive with your marketing.
Putting your $100,000 budget to work
To begin our exercise, consider where you’d want to put your hypothetical $100,000 budget (of course, you may make this figure greater if it makes more sense). I’ve outlined the major elements that should be included in every excellent marketing system below. Examine the parts below, make any necessary changes, and then distribute your $100,000 in a manner that makes sense for your company over the following year.
Marketing Techniques
Development of a Campaign
- Creating Content
- Designing Graphics
- Landing Pages are a kind of web page that is used
- Steps to Take Next
- Measurement
Channels of Promotion
- Advertising
- Promotions
- PR
- Writing
- Speaking
- Referral Programs
Engagement of the audience
- The Internet and Social Media
- Engagement
- Blogging
- Marketing through email
- Updates to the website
Elements of Credibility
- Testimonials, Case Studies, and Reviews
- Submissions for Awards
- Books and eBooks
Tools for Selling
- Development of a Proposal
- Packaging for a product or service
- Promotions for cross-selling and upselling
- eCommerce
Making the numbers make sense
Now I want you to pay attention to where you spent the most money. Take notice of the sections that are significantly weighted since they are likely to be more important to you.
Then, take note of where you’ve spent the least amount of money. It stands to reason that these areas are either of the least significance to you or that you believe you can handle them on your own at little or no expense.
Finally, delete any areas where you have made no allocation since they either don’t apply or aren’t a priority for the next year.
What is your ACTUAL phone number?
If you had the budget, it should now be obvious where you would put your money. Let’s now bring our marketing budget down to earth. To begin, I’d want you to calculate a sum that you believe you can spend inside the year. Here are a few reasonable strategies to determine your marketing budget if you’re having problems figuring out what this amount should be.
The easiest method is to allocate a proportion of your net sales or net profit to marketing—a percentage you believe you can afford.
Another option is to look at how much money you spent on marketing last year and see whether you could manage to spend the same amount or maybe a little more this year.
A third strategy is to look at your monthly sales and then set aside an amount that you believe you can afford to manage month to month, recognizing that certain months are busier than others throughout the year.
A modest company budget generally necessitates some sacrifice. It might come from cutting out the cliched “daily latte,” saving money on other expenses, lowering your salary, or borrowing. Just make sure you don’t miss any sleep as a result of your sacrifice!
Keep in mind that investing in your marketing budget is similar to buying shares in a firm. The difference is that you have knowledge of this industry—yours! it’s
Creating a realistic budget
You now have your phone number. I’d want to review your budget again. Let’s imagine you have a $10,000 yearly budget instead of $100,000. Is it possible to lower each number to 10%, or are some of them now absurdly small? Is it still the case that the areas you highlighted as critical are given greater weight? Can you cut costs in the areas that aren’t as critical in order to spend more money elsewhere?
You’ve undoubtedly noticed several places where you may save money by reorganizing your budget. Make sure that these components don’t pile so much on your plate that you can’t possibly complete them all without risking other aspects of your organization.
Examine your updated to-do list. Now prioritize it based on its significance and your skill level. Can you put them on hold for now if they aren’t critical and you don’t have experience with them?
For the time being, you may need to cut certain expenses from your marketing budget. Keep a note of these places in a “parking lot” budget sheet, and go over it when you have additional money to spend. It will provide you with fresh ideas to execute in the future as well as a budget estimate to aim towards.
Take a peek at what you’ve made now! Do you think you’ve figured out where you want to go with your marketing now? Do you think you’ve come up with a marketing budget that’s both inexpensive and realistic? Are you interested in doing something new with your marketing?
Having a structured marketing budget provides you with a useful benchmark against which to assess your marketing efforts. It will assist you in growing your company and provide reliable advise on where to concentrate your marketing efforts.
What methods did you use to arrive at your marketing budget? What worked and what didn’t work for you? In the comments section below, share your recommendations and anything you learnt about your marketing budget approach as a result of this exercise.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do with an extra marketing budget?
A: This question is too broad to answer. If you have an extra marketing budget, then you can make a commercial or use it in other ways that help your business profit and grow.
What should I spend my marketing budget on?
A: This is a tough question for me to answer because I am not the one responsible for marketing.