Budgeting for advertising can be a lot of work. Here’s 6 tips to getting on the right track.
Determine Goals
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the success of your past and current tactical marketing plans, it’s time to determine your 2021 goals for your marketing budget. After all, you can’t take a road trip if you don’t know where you’re headed. Start from the top by determining your short and long-term business objectives. With this information, you can understand the amount of revenue you will need to achieve those goals, which tactics you’ll need to reach them, and how.
Markers
Set markers for measurement throughout the year and account for them often. It’s important to check in on how your campaigns are performing and where adjustments need to made, ensuring flexibility to shift when necessary in order to reestablish funds in areas giving you the most ROI. This can vary from person to person and business to business.
Focus on ROI
An emphasis on understanding and driving tactical planning based on return on investment has been a priority for CMOs for a while now. Line items which are unproven when it comes to driving revenue and margin, are most likely to be cut. It is critical to show the outcome of marketing as a department, but also understand the impact of individual line items.
Understand Your Market
You should conduct research to better understand your target market. Market research can be conducted using primary and secondary research. Look at the data, and answer key questions about your target market. Look at the demographics of your buyers. Where do they live? What is their education level and average income? Are there any exterior forces that could impact them and in turn affect sales?
Sales Cycle
When you create your marketing budget breakdown, you want to establish your sales funnel. Your sales funnel is a critical component of your marketing budget because it determines where you’re going to spend your money.
Research Strategy Prices
Whether you’re going to run your campaigns on your own, hire a freelancer, or hire a digital marketing company, you need to know how much it costs. Your marketing budget breakdown should focus on how much each strategy will cost your business.
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