The new year is a time when we naturally pause and reflect on the prior year to decide what we want to do differently moving forward. We do this in our personal lives almost instinctively, but it’s essential to take stock of what we need to change in our businesses, too.
One of the most important assessments that your business needs to make is how much to budget for marketing in Digital Marketing Companies in Kansas City 2020, and how exactly you want to allocate that budget. Marketing is essential to reaching your target audience, to promote new products and services, and to grow your client list. Without it, you’ll struggle to scale your business successfully. Deciding how much you should budget, of course, can be a challenge in and of itself, let alone deciding how you want to spend it. To help you make these decisions, let’s take a look at how you should determine your digital marketing budget and what exactly you should be budgeting for in 2020.
The top marketing channels include:
Business website
Social media platforms
Email marketing
Organic media (like content marketing and SEO)
Paid ads (like PPC and Google Ads)
Podcasts
Word-of-mouth
You may not know exactly what you’ll spend where, but having a basic marketing budget plan is a good place to start. You can always adapt it as the year goes on and you see which platforms are worth investing in, as well as accommodating for any new changes in technology, platform or ad options.
Even if your business’s profit margins aren’t always steady, it’s good to have at least a basis of a plan. As Peter Drucker is so often quoted as saying:
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
One study estimated that around 50% of small businesses don't have a marketing plan, likely because 86% of respondents want to focus more on other business activities instead of marketing. You don’t want to make this mistake for your own business! Related Content: Content Strategy on a Budget: How to Grow Your Online Presence on a Shoestring
Marketing Budget Breakdown: What You Need to Budget For
Let’s say that you’ve decided you have $10,000 per year to spend on marketing. This might seem like a big number at first, but if you’re not careful, it’ll be gone before Independence Day! Keep in mind that your marketing budget needs to pay for all of the following:
Costs associated with running campaigns, like ad spend for PPC campaigns or the payout you give influencers (including industry blogs, if relevant) to post about your products.
Marketing, advertising and consulting services, including graphic design, copywriting, SEO optimization experts, and strategic development.
Cost of software used to improve, create or streamline marketing campaigns, like graphic design software, social Digital Marketing Companies in Milwaukee media scheduling software, and keyword research tools. Training for any internal team members (including yourself!) about latest marketing best practices, which may include online courses, subscriptions to reputable publications, conventional classes, workshops or conferences.
Depending on the way your business’s budget is structured, you may also need to factor in paying the employee(s) responsible for managing your marketing campaigns. Even if they work on separate tasks, too, and only spend half their time on the marketing, you might need to factor that into your overall payroll and see how it all impacts your total bottom line.