Marketing Budget Tips

As we near the end of the year, many companies are trying to spend unused marketing dollars as they simultaneously plan for next year. While budget amounts and allocation to specific marketing tools will vary from year to year based on many factors, there are some general tips to keep in mind as good practices:

1.  If it aint broke, don’t fix it – If there is a particular marketing tool that has been working to generate leads and sales such as sending out consistent email blasts or advertising with certain vendors, don’t stop allocating the same or a larger portion of the budget for the sake of trying new media or because the internal team is tired of repetition. Stay with what works!
2.  Tie the marketing budget to sales – If you’re having trouble determining a budget range or nailing down specifics, lean on the traditional rules. For relatively new companies 1-5 years old, marketing spend should be around 12-15% of sales. For more established companies, 8-10% is the norm.
3.  Measure – Make sure to track performance and ROI as much as possible, especially with all the digital marketing tools available now. Include measurable items in the plan and account for them in the budget – make sure your website has tracking analytics, pull and review reports for SEO (search engine optimization) and email campaigns, etc.
4.  Maximize existing content – Be resourceful with current materials and plan accordingly in the future. Articles or e-newsletters can be printed and used as sales sheets. Content from press releases and white papers can be reused on the website, blogs and social media pages. A lot of content and materials can be spread across different media to save money and also build a more effective integrated marketing plan.

These tips will help any team or company start planning a marketing budget on the right foot. Regarding specific media, the top 3 marketing tools in 2014 for B2B companies were trade shows/events, search engine marketing (paid search) and email campaigns. Studies show that 30% of B2B companies plan to spend more on trade shows and paid search (SEM) next year, with spending on email campaigns to remain about the same. The top digital media tools across the U.S. in 2014, which work best for lead generation, were paid search (SEM), accounting for 31% of digital budgets, SEO and email campaigns at 18% each, online advertising banners at 13% and social media at 11%.

There is a lot of information to consider for a 2015 marketing budget. W-Squared can help you sort through the facts and map out the best marketing budget and plan for your business. Give us a call for a more thorough understanding of media and integrated marketing.