Every business should have a solid marketing plan in order to share their content to a wide audience, and while it can be tempting to join every platform that catches your attention, it isn’t the best route to take. You need to plan your marketing campaign around the interests of the business and where your target audience is likely to be based.
A lack of concentration on how best to steer your marketing plan may mean you lose focus on the most suitable options, as well as taking out a huge chunk out of your business budget.
Marketing can be extremely worthwhile if it’s thought about wisely, so it’s important to think about where your budget could be best spent for success. So, we have come up with a useful guide on how you can budget for your marketing plan.
Study an accountancy course
If you run a business alone without a team around you, it can be difficult to get into the swing of budgeting if you have had no prior experience, or don’t consider yourself good with money. This is where it would be a good idea to study an accountancy course, so you’re able to learn the budgeting processes, performance evaluation and how to prepare financial records. As marketing usually takes a huge chunk of the company’s budget, it’s important to understand where the money should be spent to receive the best return on investment (ROI). Click here to find out more about how to enroll in an accountancy course.
Decide what you should spend
There has always been a debate on how much money should be included in a marketing budget – some argue nothing should be spent until the business is earning some profit, but this wouldn’t be the best plan of action. Marketing is one of the factors that helps turn over a profit in the first place, as people need to be aware that the business exists.
Here is some useful advice to work out how much you should be spending on your marketing budget:
- Your costs should be under 20% of your overall revenue; but if you don’t want to spend too much too quickly, then stick to the minimum to start off.
- Don’t spend a significant amount of money that you just can’t afford to lose. There is the element of risk within marketing that usually always does work out in your favor; but if you’re worried about landing your business in financial instability, don’t pay out over the odds.
Create a list of the marketing tools you wish to use
Once you have established how much money you have to work with, think wisely about the marketing platforms that are likely to do well for your business and make a well-informed list starting from the top priority. Here are some examples to bear in mind:
- Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
- Influencer marketing (Instagram)
- Content marketing
- Search ads such as Google Ads
- Email marketing
- SEO
Look at what’s already working and what isn’t
If you already have some marketing platforms up and running, consider what’s working for you and what isn’t. This will help determine whether you should end things now or keep them running. When you may have already invested thousands of dollars of hard-earned cash into a specific campaign, it can be difficult to make the decision to cut ties and try something else; however, there’s no point in paying out more on a dead-end campaign, if the cash could be best spent elsewhere.