“How Much” vs. “How” to Budget
Before you ask yourself how much your marketing spend should be this year (and where it should be allocated), ask yourself what your measurable goals are. Management guru Steven Covey advocates for beginning any activity with the end in mind, and this is a perfect example of why. Begin with the end goal in mind, and make it as specific as possible. What are your marketing/sales targets, and how will you know if the many elements of your marketing spend helped you get there? If you aren’t measuring this, you can’t know which tactics are most effective in driving sales, and therefore deserve the most investment.
Marketing is becoming more and more measureable with the internet marketing tactics like social media, website promotion, blogging, pay-per-click advertising, link building, and (more effective than you may think…) email marketing. Tactics are also creating better lead qualification and, therefore, clearer follow-up sales opportunities with yet more measurement options to consider.
Marketing Makeover #1: “I want more business.”
Of course, but how much more? What kind of business? Do you need one good repeat customer, or one hundred quick sales? Are you looking for more volume or more margin? Do you need more business or better business?
The Reveal:
“I want X number of brand new customers who will buy X number of products or services from me. The tactics most likely to get me there are: _____________________________________________ “
Fill In the Blank options may include:
- adding targeted landing pages to my website
- creating a professional PPC campaign
- launching an effective blog to drive traffic to my site
Marketing Makeover #2: “I need more customers.”
Have you also considered selling more to existing customers? How effectively are you assessing the changing and growing needs of your existing customer base? Creating new products to meet those needs? How often are you reaching the right decision makers within existing customer organizations? Are you sure they know everything you can do for them?
The Reveal:
“I need X number of new customers and these tactics are likely to bring them in: _______________”
Fill In the Blank options may include:
- create more online advertising
- improve effectiveness of my followup
- use social media to increase inbound marketing efforts
“I also want X number of existing customers to buy X% more products or services from me. I’ll likely make this happen by: ____________________________”
Fill In the Blank options may include:
- launching a quarterly email newsletter
- offering special discounts on new services purchased by existing customers
- surveying existing customers twice this year to assess their needs
Marketing Makeover #3: “I need to spend more so I’ll get more traffic to my website.”
Do you need more traffic, or better traffic? Do you know how much traffic you have, where it’s going, and whether it’s turning into new business? How do you measure whether traffic is turning into sales? Have you assessed where your traffic is coming from?
The Reveal:
“I need X number of website visitors to do this every week: ____________________________”
Fill In the Blank options could be:
- fill out a contact form for my sales staff to follow up on
- request a quote on a particular item or service
- get a personal followup phone call from a qualified salesperson
“I also want to inform my spend by: ____________________________”
Fill In the Blank options should include:
- tracking traffic sources more closely
- seeing what content attracts the best leads
- reevaluating my keywords for relevance
“Then I’ll know where to spend $X: ____________________________”
Fill in the Blank options might be:
- SEO enhancements and some PPC ads
- organic search improvements with better content development
- new conversion forms and some inbound linkbuilding
Marketing Makeover Realization:
Unless you know what you want to achieve, you can’t know how to achieve it effectively.
