Every business, no matter what industry they are operating in, needs marketing. Each will have individual priorities and aims for the marketing process. Whether it is boosting brand awareness, increasing their market share or just generally driving the organisation forward, they all need a marketing strategy and they all have the same question “How Much Should My Business be Spending on Marketing?”
We would love to look really clever and give you a magic formula that will spit out an amount in pounds and pence as to how much you will have to spend to meet your marketing aims, but in reality, it’s not that easy! What we can do though is advise on how you can spend whatever marketing budget you have, wisely.
It’s a good idea to create a marketing budget, but you also need to ensure you have a comprehensive and well-researched marketing strategy to ensure that budget is well spent. Sometimes, it’s the most affordable online campaigns that can have the biggest impact. Often a solid understanding of who your target audience is, and a smart clever idea can do a lot more than a big budget! Understanding, and being able to use, modern social media marketing techniques is a huge advantage in today’s very competitive market.
Once you’ve established your budget, it’s time to begin building a foundation. In general, your marketing foundation includes:
Without a solid marketing foundation, the effort of your marketing activities will range from “not very effective” to “a total waste of money.”
Next step is how to spend your marketing budget and the easiest way to start is to carry out a
budget allocation by determining your marketing goals for the year. Marketing campaigns with defined goals have a higher rate of success and the most common factors include; Increased website traffic, increased targeted leads to the website and to grow new business. Before taking your marketing campaign live, ask yourself the following:
- Do you have a clear brand that identifies your company?
- Does your brand carry across all relevant media?
- How does your website compare to the competition?
- Do you have tools and systems in place to measure the success of your marketing?
- Do you have a solid strategy for business development and marketing related to it?
With goals set and a strong marketing foundation (including a marketing strategy), you’re ready to go. But if all of this leaves you in a spin, there is another option, bring on the professionals. Marketing is what we do best and we want to ensure that your business achieves as much as it can using the budget available. We operate differently to most marketing companies by providing highly targeted and extremely effective marketing services with a low and simple price structure. From digital marketing, SEO, PPC and online strategy through to videos, websites and social media, we have the correct marketing solutions for your business. To find out more get in touch with us on mark@caffeinem.wpengine.com and we’d be happy to discuss your marketing in detail.
