Investing in a marketing strategy for your business has never been more critical. The economy is booming, and consumers have money to spend. Are you putting your business in front of them?
Marketing your business is integral to showing the world why everyone should choose you for the services or products you offer. Most successful businesses utilize a solid marketing strategy to acquire customers and clients to grow their business. This takes time and money.
Marketing strategies can consist of emails, social media posts, logo designs, reviews, and much more, but perhaps the most important thing to consider about marketing is your budget. A realistic marketing budget is a necessity for growth. If you grossly underspend, you’ll start believing that marketing doesn’t actually work.
This doesn’t mean you have to overspend grossly. It’s simply a matter of spending wisely.
Why You Need a Marketing Budget
Simply put, a marketing budget will allow you to put exact dollar amounts toward the types of advertising you plan to utilize. Word of mouth is one of the greatest free marketing tools, though you need to generate that word by bringing in clients with advertising. With countless other business expenses to consider, spending on marketing can often be an afterthought, but budgeting for it now can help boost profits in the short and long term.
If you’ve already got a website up and running, you may think you don’t need to invest in other marketing avenues. However, the reality is that the more targeted exposure you have, the more likely potential customers will navigate to your website, learn about your products or services, and convert to paying clients. Setting a marketing budget will help you plan for your business’s elevated exposure for optimal growth.
What Happens if You Don’t Budget for Marketing?
Failing to budget appropriately for marketing means you might overspend or underspend when advertising needs arise.
Covering all your bases ahead of time will ensure no speed bumps in your marketing campaign. It would be best if you had a quality marketing plan because your potential clients need to see you, and like with any necessary expense, a budget will save you from unneeded stress down the line.
Following Your Marketing Budget
It’s one thing to create a budget, but something else entirely to stick to it. When you set a budget for any aspect of your business, you know following that budget down to the cent is of utmost importance in reaching your revenue goals. Marketing is no different. A solid marketing plan will return your investment to you and then some, but not if you neglect your budget and spend unnecessarily. Failing to adhere to your budget can lead to expenditures not being accounted for, but you can save yourself from that headache by planning ahead.
What’s Necessary vs. What’s Optional
Creating a realistic marketing budget will also help you tell the difference between a business want and a business need. You may envision an extravagant marketing campaign with every advertising strategy under the sun, but you may not have the funds for that. You have to consider your target audience and plan to invest in the marketing tools that are most likely reach them. Budgeting for those tools can help you do that.
Types of Advertising to Consider in Your Marketing Budget
The types of advertising that will work best for your business ultimately depend on your target customer base. For example, if your target audience is millennials, your best bets are probably social media and email marketing. By contrast, if your target audience is an older generation, print and television/radio ads will probably be more successful. Other types of advertising to consider in your budget include:
- SEO and content marketing
- event marketing
- billboards
- and, of course, your website.
Once you identify the types of advertising you wish to utilize for your marketing campaign, you can start researching services and crunching the numbers for your budget. If you invest in stellar marketing services, you can realize your return on investment and keep working toward your long-term business goals.
Reaching Your Business Goals
You likely have a timeline for revenue milestones in mind for your business. For each milestone, you will ask yourself questions such as:
- What is my target revenue mark?
- How many sales will I need to make to hit that revenue mark?
- When could I hit this revenue mark?
To achieve these goals, you need to have a budget in place. Budgeting for your current marketing needs will help you anticipate future marketing needs as you reach your business milestones. Once you reach a specific milestone, you may want to boost your marketing efforts.
Fisher Green Creative Can Help You
If setting a marketing budget, researching marketing tools, and coming up with the best plan of action for your business sounds a bit overwhelming, you don’t have to do it alone. The experts at Fisher Green Creative can help you.
We understand that growing a business can be costly and stressful, so we help our clients find cost-effective, low-stress solutions for their business marketing needs. We offer professional social media and email marketing services, search engine optimization, website design, coaching and consultation, logos, and print materials. We can help you bring your vision for your business to life. Contact us today at 207-232-6659 or fill out our online form to get started.
Jenny Green, Chief Marketing Officer
On a mission to provide effective and affordable marketing services to small businesses. Let passion inspire growth!
