{"id":3072,"date":"2022-09-20T20:27:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T20:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/?p=3072"},"modified":"2022-09-20T20:30:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T20:30:01","slug":"how-to-set-your-small-business-marketing-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/how-to-set-your-small-business-marketing-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Your Small Business Marketing Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a question a lot of small business owners ask themselves: does my business actually need marketing? The answer is an unequivocal yes! Whether you\u2019re just starting out, or you want to give your business an extra boost to take it to the next level, setting a marketing budget is essential. But if you have no experience in marketing it can be hard to imagine where to start when it comes to setting a budget and potentially outsourcing your marketing needs. Following is a quick guide to get you started:<\/p>\n

Step 1.) Establish A Marketing Plan<\/h2>\n

According to Threaded Marketing Group Founder and President Kelly Jo Jefferis, \u201cWhether you\u2019re a small business or a big business\u2014you need a plan.\u201d If you haven\u2019t established a business plan, do. \u201cYou should always be looking 3-5 years out, and your marketing plan should support your business goals.\u201d If your business goals are, for example, to raise brand awareness, use that as a jumping-off point to help you get into specifics, such as creating a social media campaign, determining how many posts you want per week, how much you want to spend on social media advertising, and so forth.<\/p>\n

Step 2.) Consider Your Business Type and History<\/h2>\n

Many business owners want to know what the recommendation is for how much revenue to spend on marketing\u2014but there is no one-size-fits-all solution, as there are many factors at play. It\u2019s important to take some time to completely examine your business to get a sense of how much you should spend. For example, are you a business-to-consumer (B2C) company or a business-to-business (B2B) company?<\/p>\n

According to Forbes.com<\/a>, B2C companies need to spend more on marketing to capture consumer interest and spend an average of 9.6% of their revenue on marketing\u2014as opposed to B2B, which spend an average of just 6.3%. Also, consider whether your business is established or new. Per the same Forbe.com article, If it\u2019s a new business, you\u2019re going to want to spend between 12%-20% of your revenue to establish your brand and generate sales. However, if your business is already established, you may spend between 6-10%. For<\/p>\n

Step 3.) Evaluate Your Competitors\u2019 Strategies<\/h2>\n

If you are hitting a wall and would like additional guidance on what your goals should be and how much you should spend, Threaded Marketing Group\u2019s Strategic Marketing Director Cindy Johnson suggests you look at your competitors for insight. \u201cIf your competitors are spending a certain amount of money on pay per click advertising, for example, that can be a good guide for your business as well.\u201d By looking at what several of your biggest competitors are doing well, you can see the areas you should focus on, and how much to invest in your business.<\/p>\n

Step 4.) Plan for the Unexpected Expenses<\/h2>\n

When planning their marketing budgets, a major misstep businesses make is not thinking ahead. Jefferis explains, \u201cMaybe one of your biggest clients asks you to do some community involvement or a charity run. Having guidelines on what you will add and what you will not add to your marketing budget will give you some cushion to make that happen.\u201d By planning for these extra expenses, you can protect your budget and make sure you stay on track to achieve your marketing goals.<\/p>\n

Step 5.) Calculate How Much Things Will Practically Cost<\/h2>\n

According to Johnson, another stumbling block businesses make in setting a budget is not truly understanding how much things will cost. \u201cLet\u2019s say a business needs business cards\u2014not only do they need to pay the cost of a graphic designer to design the cards, but we also need to know how much the direct cost is to print and ship the cards. Those direct costs can add up if you don\u2019t plan for them.\u201d Similarly, Johnson notes businesses don\u2019t often consider management costs. Consider social media, \u201cPeople may want to post several times per month, but to do that efficiently, you might need a third-party software, like Hootsuite, to make that work efficiently, and there\u2019s an additional cost that comes with that.\u201d Knowing the practical costs of your marketing efforts will help you budget better for yourself and create achievable and realistic goals.<\/p>\n

Step 6.) Remember\u2014Marketing Is Essential for Success<\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re developing a marketing budget and feeling apprehensive about the costs, it can be easy to write marketing off as an unessential expense. But as Jefferis notes, \u201cThe whole point of marketing is to support the business. If you want to grow, you will need some sort of marketing budget.\u201d Johnson adds, \u201cYou might have a great product and great customer service, but it\u2019s possible someone else has the same thing.\u201d That\u2019s why marketing\u2014and a marketing budget\u2014is so critical for your business. \u201cMarketing establishes what makes you different and what makes you better. Setting aside time, effort, and dollars to communicate and promote those differences will take your business farther in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a question a lot of small business owners ask themselves: does my business actually need marketing? The answer is an unequivocal yes! Whether you\u2019re just starting out, or you want to give your business an extra boost to take it to the next level, setting a marketing budget is essential. But if you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3076,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions\/3076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threadedmarketinggroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}