18th September, 2018
Are you thinking about your marketing budget for 2019? A general rule of thumb is to invest 5% of your revenue, this would go towards developing your website, employing someone to maintain (or contribute towards) a blog or social media account, attending events and more…
Investing 5% should retain your position, company awareness and visibility online. Investing 10% or more is suggested for growth and gaining a bigger market share. Economists and business owners will debate over the exact percentage to invest, so lets say most small businesses will allocate between 5 to 10 percent to marketing in 2019.
Sample Marketing Plan
Planning ahead in life (and business) is difficult, we don’t know what is around the corner. That said; planning ahead and having a goal is super important. I recently allocated some time to Tidy Design, mapping out the next five years and how I’d like things to pan out – it was a worthwhile exercise, offering much value. A marketing budget will need similar thought and planning applied; if we invest too much then we may break the bank, if we invest too little then we may disappear.
When I think of the term “marketing budget” I think ROI (return on investment). As business owners we all seek a ROI but this is not always easy. ROI’s require a mix of research, insights, planning and data analysis – this takes time and small businesses rarely have free time! It is easy to fall into a trap, too busy to plan!
Expectations…
You will need to know your marketing budget and set a clear plan within that budget (keeping realistic exceptions). Whether your budget is based on a fixed amount per annum or a percentage of revenue per month, knowing these figures is important.
So to conclude; when mapping out your 2019 marketing budget do your research and find out what type of campaign will have the best impact (ROI) for you / your business. It is a good idea to work backwards, identifying what you hope to accomplish at the end of it.
Rest assured that Tidy Design is on hand to help, we’d be more than happy to review your website (its design, performance and bounce rates), putting forward suggestions and ideas on how to improve it. Building a bigger customer base next year will require an upfront investment, we too are looking to develop and grow as a business in 2019, so lets do this together!
Thank you for reading, have a tidy week!
Mike