Creating a cost-effective marketing strategy is one of the most difficult tasks for business owners. You have a new product or service you want to promote globally. The question is, how will you market your product or service and how much will it cost?
An effective marketing budget is the answer. Yes, a great factory and skilled workers are important, but they won’t help promote the product or service. Your product or service is useless if no one knows about it, so developing a solid marketing strategy is critical.
How to plan a marketing budget
To assist you with your marketing budget, we have created a 5-step guide. The steps will help you create a budget and determine what you need to do to promote your product or service, whether you want to invest in SEO or digital marketing. Let us now proceed to the steps.
- Start with Goal-setting
- Make a plan
- Then You Can Plan
- Test
- Scale-up
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Start with Goal-setting
To create an effective budget, first decide what you want to achieve. Your budget revolves around your goals. To stay motivated and determined, you need to know what you are spending your money on. Remember to set SMART goals. This means that your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
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Make a budget
When you know what you want to achieve, you will probably have an idea about how much it is going to cost you for instance if you are looking to outsource SEO service you need to have an idea what you want to spend. Whether you plan to market your product via traditional means or via the internet, you must budget. This is where you start planning your budget. You don’t have to put everything in on the first try. Step by step. Start small and grow month by month.
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Then You Can Plan
After defining your goals and budget, the next step is to decide how you will spend your money. This step involves the marketing channels and platforms you want to use. Do you want to use billboards or promote your product online via social media or pay per click? This step organizes everything.
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Test
The key to a successful marketing budget is to test it beforehand. Don’t waste money and resources on your first run to get customers or clients. Prove which channel works best for you by testing small amounts of money.
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Scale-up
You can increase your marketing budget once it starts working. Many companies start with content writing and then move on to digital marketing. Do not stick to the same budget. Your budget should grow with your company. Increasing the budget gradually as you see a financial return on your marketing efforts.