” I never worry about action, but only inaction”
-Winston Churchill
New year, new beginnings.
At the beginning of the year, friends and family ask us the same question: “What’s your resolution for the New Year?”, and off we go on the race for the most original or ambitious one, with the understanding that It may or may not happen; however, for businesses, this means a new fiscal year with goals and budgets that “need” to happen.
At the end of the year, and in addition to sales and profit evaluations, sales and marketing departments set new goals using the historical data at their disposal. A healthy relationship between these two would also consider external forces like competition, unexplored new trends or simply new market niches. Furthermore, having a good marketing agency brings invaluable information from an outsider’s point of view, amplifying the effectiveness of such evaluation.
So, the question remains: How much should I allocate for my marketing budget? Well, the short answer is: “It depends”. Even thought some industry professional will say it ranges from 5% to 10% of the gross sales, it truly depends on the clients situation and current market conditions.
Most marketing campaigns need time develop in order to deliver the right message and influence an action from the right audience. Depending on what you want to achieve like top-of-mind awareness, call-to-action, and/or branding association for a fairly new business, it won’t happen in a short term campaign, and in the case of some digital tools like SEO, results will start showing after at least 6 months. So at the end of the day, the answer to the question is: A well thought budget takes into consideration the length and costs of the marketing campaigns elements to be used in order to achieve the goals and expectations set. Everyone in business should know how much it takes to bring in a new client/customer and what the lifetime value of that customer is, what is the competition doing and also keeping in mind current industry disruptors. With these data, a business owner can decide how aggressive or passive they want to be in the upcoming year. So how do you decide what approach to take? That’s where a marketing agency comes in and has to be genuinely interested in understanding the client, products or services offered, as well as an analysis of revenue streams not only of the market variables, but also the ROI of each campaign.
For 2020, there are multiple, if not thousands, of ways to deliver a message to a prospective client/ customer either via traditional or digital media. Partnering with an agency creates a synergy for an efficient marketing campaign of products and services as well as the creation of purposeful content ideas and storytelling strengthening the brand. What tools or new media have you fully explored?
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