When I ask my client’s “What is your Marketing Budget?”, 95% of the time they tell me that they haven’t really thought about it or they don’t know. If you want to build a successful company it is necessary to market your products or services as well as yourself. The first thing you need to do is develop a marketing strategy and come up with a marketing plan. Once you have that then you are sure to be spending your marketing dollars appropriately and come up with an Annual Marketing Budget. According to Forbes there are six steps one should use to develop a marketing budget as part of your marketing plan.
1. Know Your Sales Funnel – have a reliable CRM that will allow you to track results throughout the revenue cycle from your prospects to customers.
2. Know Your Operational Costs - know how much it would cost you to deliver leads/contacts. contacts? Does your current staff have the bandwidth? Would you need to look at outsourcing this function? Know your costs and your ROI.
3. Set Your Marketing Budget Based on Business Goals – know what your quarter, yearly and five-year plan is.
4. Position Marketing as an Investment, Not a Cost – you should look at your marketing budget as an investment by bringing a measurable and sustainable return on investment over time.
5. Consider Your Growth Stage – is your organization in growth mode or planning mode?
Growth Mode – then you should consider deeper investments in more of the quick-win marketing techniques.
Planning Mode – then you should consider a longer-term marketing play through generating and publishing great inbound content and eventually earning new business over time.
6. Understand Current and Future Trends – it is important to apply different technologies to their marketing stack to keep up with the industry changes
I hope you found this helpful. If you need some guidance in these areas, MCA Consulting can guild you every step of the way. Please continue to stay safe and practice social distancing. Feel free to reach out with any questions.
