(marketing spend – 5 minute read)
Hi Accounting fans!
It’s not every day that I write about marketing. My strengths lie in finance and accounting after all. BUT, we’re talking about marketing spending here – so money still comes into play. I’ve seen clients spend thousands of dollars on marketing. It eats into their bottom line. So the question we’re looking to answer here is – how do we maximise that marketing spend?
Set a marketing budget
This is the first thing you want to do. There are a LOT of marketing solutions out there that cost a LOT of money. Its very easy to fall down the marketing rabbit hole and spend spend spend on things that you don’t even need. So you need to first work out what you can afford and then find solutions that can work within that budget.
As a general rule of thumb, if you are starting out, set your marketing budget to about 10% of your total sales for the year. This is just a rough starting point, each business is different and you need to figure out what works best for you.
Determine your marketing goals
What do you want to do? Brand awareness? Customer acquisition? Traffic generation?
Figure out what is most important to you at the stage your business is in currently. A new business may want to focus more on brand awareness whereas a growing business may want to acquire more customers to support their growing team. Businesses that rely on online sales may want to focue more on traffic generation to drive sales.
Identify your target audience
Knowing who your target audience is will help you create targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to be successful. This will also help you determine the most effective channels and tactics to use to reach your audience.
Allocate, monitor and adjust your marketing budget
With the previous steps in place, you can now allocate your funds to the various marketing channels and tactics you’ll be using. Consider factors such as the cost, effectiveness, and reach of each channel or tactic to make informed decisions about where to allocate your budget.
Regularly review and track the results of your marketing efforts to see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you make data-driven decisions about where to allocate your budget and adjust your marketing strategy as needed. Check out tools like Google analytics or Metricool to help you keep track of your marketing efforts.
Make the most of your marketing!
Marketing is an important part of growing your business. So it is important that you get the best value for money spend out of your marketing! Maximise your marketing and save your money for other business growth opportunities!!