We don’t want to sound like your parents, but if you’re in business and don’t have a marketing budget- that’s not a good thing.
Getting a budget together is not only smart but necessary.
It will help you do a couple of things: dictate how to spend your money and tell you where your money is going.
Today we’ll go over 14 easy-breezy ways you can maximize your marketing budget.
1. Create a budget
Create a budget.
Yes, we’re starting as basic as it gets.
Most small businesses generally allocate around 8% of their total revenue to marketing, so start there.
2. Goals & Tracking
Set your goals, analyze your metrics, and keep track of your successes and losses.
Words to live by:
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker
3. Optimize your online ads
Optimize your online ads and make sure to A/B Test to find out what’s going to work and what isn’t.
4. Where’s your money, honey?
Look and see what you’re spending money on.
Are you paying for your digital marketing tools? Are you using them?
You may be paying small monthly fees for some of these tools, and those will add up fast.
So, if you’re not using them or if they’re not contributing to your ROI, lose ‘em.
Keep in mind that some of the tools out there have different types of subscriptions, look at monthly vs annual memberships.
5. Turn to an expert
Hire experts when necessary.
We get it. You don’t want to spend all that dough on an expert’s hourly rate, but if you miss an entire day of work to learn it on your own, was it worth it?
Pay the fee and have someone with the know-how give you a lesson.
It will pay off.
6. Be agile
Be agile in your marketing.
Companies that truly win at content marketing are those that are daring enough to try new mediums and agile enough to ditch what isn’t working.
7. Customer retention
Focus on retention and customer loyalty.
A 5% increase in customer retention can increase a business’s profits by 25% – 125%!!!
We’ll take it.
8. Segment
Segment your marketing – make sure you’re connecting with your buyer persona with the right information based on where they are in your sales cycle.
9. Maximize your 20
While the exact proportions will naturally vary, this principle generalizes that 20% of the effort leads to 80% of the results.
What does this mean for you? If 80% of your leads are coming from 20% of your marketing campaigns, focus on the 20% that’s bringing in the leads, conversions, and sales.
10. Create an evergreen content marketing strategy
Focus on evergreen content.
This is the content that will still be relevant to your reader a year from now.
Of course, you can always update as needed.
11. Email marketing
Your money is in your email list.
Yes, social media sites are important, but they may go down or get nosier with messages.
Put time and energy into something solely your own: your email list.
12. Partnership marketing
JV/partnership marketing is a real thriving thing and not taken advantage of nearly as often as it should be.
Partnering with a non-competitor on your marketing initiatives is an excellent way to save money and get seen in more places.
A win-win.
13. Don’t create a bidding war
Don’t create a bidding war when there’s no need for one.
Here’s what we mean: say you sell widgets and a Googler Googles “widgets,” and there you are, ranking organically in the top 1-4 spots.
But you know you’re in a competitive market, and your competition might have a larger marketing budget than you.
You notice that no one is running Google ads for widgets.
You might think to yourself that you can easily be at the very top if you start spending a little money on Google ads.
And that may be true. You probably could for a little while, but we can tell you that shortly after, your competition will swoop in and throw more money at it, and now you’re in a bidding war that you started.
14. Online reviews
Focus on testimonials and reviews.
Be quick to respond to good and bad reviewers.
This helps transform your customers into your salespeople- and they work for free!
It also helps you gain customer trust and can give you a website ranking boost.
Go forth and maximize your marketing budget
And, look at that. Your parents would be proud. You’ve created a working marketing budget that you know how to get the most out of.
