It’s an overwhelming task to build your marketing budget. Knowing where to allocate your digital marketing budget can be a lot to take on. If you’re like most businesses, your marketing budget needs to be spent wisely. Every single dollar is important and can make or break your marketing strategy and outcome.
In today’s world, more time is spent on digital platforms than ever before. That means more and more people and chances to touch potential customers through digital marketing. Today we will spend some time examining some of the best ways to allocate that digital marketing budget as part of your overall marketing plan.
Digital Marketing Defined
Digital marketing includes a vast number of opportunities to reach your customers and potential customers within the digital world. Some of the most popular examples of digital marketing include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Paid ads
- Blogs
Through the use of digital marketing, you can truly put yourself in front of more people in more places than ever before.
Digital Marketing and Its Benefits to Your Business
In a growing digital world, it’s important for your business to take full advantage of its benefits. Some of the benefits you’ll find through digital marketing include:
- The chance to build your brand
- Bring in potential customers
- Ability to reach new customers you wouldn’t have been able to reach any other way.
- Provide a great, user-friendly customer experience
- Capability of measuring marketing results much more accurately
How Much Should You Allocate for Your Digital Marketing Budget?
Every company is different in ways of setup, needs, history, reach, and more. There’s no one “right way” to allocate your digital marketing budget. There are, however, some beneficial things to review that may help give you some direction.
Are you a brand-new company that’s just getting started or an established business? New businesses (five years old or less) typically require up to 20% of their revenue on marketing, while those companies that have been around for a while may spend closer to 12% or less.
Steps to Help You Properly Allocate Your Money for Digital Marketing
While you do have many choices on where to direct your marketing budget, there are sure to be areas that will benefit your specific business the most. Below are some guidelines to help you get the most bang for your buck.
1. Set goals and stick to them
What revenue goals do you have for your company this year and long-term? These goals are what will help guide your marketing strategy as well as your digital marketing strategy. Be sure you have zeroed in on your company’s most vital priorities and what digital marketing opportunities you believe will help you get there.
You’ll also want to examine what kind of things will be happening for your company in the next year. Will you be introducing a new product? Do you have an annual sale that launches your business into the new year? What events will need your attention and digital marketing resources to succeed?
2. Don’t ignore the past
It would be foolish to ignore the previous year(s) digital marketing strategy and be reminded of what worked and what didn’t work. Think of your digital marketing budget as something that is continually progressing and developing. If you are constantly looking at your digital marketing results and measuring the return on investment (ROI), you will know much better where to allocate your funds now and in the future.
Some questions you may ask yourself during this review process include:
- Which marketing initiatives added to our overall profit?
- Should we continue the same marketing initiatives for the remainder of the year and beyond?
- Which marketing channels did not add to the bottom line?
- Does it make sense to tweak a marketing campaign to try utilizing those marketing channels that didn’t contribute as much as expected?
- What new digital marketing avenues do you want to try this year?
3. Decide on the best digital marketing channels
Once you know your marketing goals, have taken time to review past strategies, and know what has and hasn’t worked for you, it’s time to choose the best digital marketing channels.
When you’re working to decide which channels will be best for your business, here are a few questions to think about:
- Who is your target audience? Is it a specific age group or interest group?
- Do you need to create brand awareness?
- What kind of analyzing or tracking do you want access to?
Some of the most common digital marketing channels you may want to utilize are:
- Content marketing – Utilize this as part of your overall SEO strategy.
- Paid search or Pay-per-click (PPC) – One of the most used digital marketing strategies, paid search campaigns are a great way to be able to track your clickthrough rates and get a good idea of interest.
- Paid social media ads – The number of potential customers you can reach with this marketing channel is considerable! Social media tools such as Instagram and Facebook can be extremely effective, but only if they make sense for your target audience.
- Customer relationship management (CRM) tools – Get help managing all the things, including your sales, contacts, customer email communication, customer service, etc.
- Video marketing – Increasing in popularity, this is a fun and exciting way to reach your customers.
Over Your Head in Decisions?
Don’t give up a good night’s rest worrying about how you’re going to allocate your marketing funds. That’s where ARYU can help ease your stress. Our team can help you create a digital marketing strategy that not only makes sense for your digital marketing budget but will also bring great success to your bottom line.
If you would like to learn more about our digital marketing experience and expertise, contact us to chat about your company and your specific needs and goals for your business. Starting today, make your digital marketing budget work for you in the best ways possible.
