How to Spend Your Marketing Budget Wisely

Over 60% of SMEs plan to increase marketing budgets for 2022 and for good reason.

But which channels or tactics will work best for your business? We’ve created a list of tips that can help you spend your marketing budget wisely this year. Remember that it’s not about what works today, but rather investing in what will work tomorrow.

Media Spend | Above the line

Media spend for both above and below the line media strategy include paid activity. This can be in the form of more traditional print, out of home, digital, TV, radio, social media, to less conventional leafleting, events.

Businesses should spend approx 40% of their digital marketing budgets on paid media channels to reach new audiences. Greater spending should be allocated for B2C brands, with B2B businesses often finding that content that is built for unpaid social channels can offer a higher return on investment.

Creating Content

Creating content requires time and investment and is extremely valuable in your marketing strategy. For example, you may need to hire a copywriter, pay for scheduling software or enlist the help of a virtual assistant.

10%-30% of your budget should be spent on talent to create content for your marketing channels. Educating your audience on your business and creating engaging content helps to both attract new audiences and convert leads into paying customers. Therefore, you are likely to see a great ROI with this cost-effective form of marketing.

SEO

Businesses with a local presence should focus on local SEO. This is an excellent way to ensure customers find your business and can help your ranking on search engines — which means more visibility and more visits from prospective customers. Approx 10-30% of your marketing budget should be allocated to this, depending on your business needs.

Graphic Design

To avoid getting lost in all the noise and not standing out, invest in the design of creative assets for your brand. You can do this easily by outsourcing – it shouldn’t take up more than 5-10% of your marketing budget. Hiring a designer could help with your image, branding and overall delivery of your business.

Customer Retention

It is a fact that keeping old customers is far more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Not only are they loyal they also tend to spend more. Therefore, customer engagement is imperative even when marketing spending is down.

Your customers can be valuable assets who come back again and make referrals to their friends and family because they trust you to deliver quality service and products.

During challenging times it’s important to go the extra mile to support and reassure your customers. Failing to recognise this can be detrimental to your business. Don’t limit your best offers to new customers, or your existing ones may feel undervalued.

Summary

In the wake of the pandemic, the world is changing faster than ever, and small businesses must pivot to succeed in this new landscape. You need to be constantly thinking about where your consumers live online and what they do there. These shifts mean your marketing strategies must be more creative than ever before, but success can still be found through resourcefulness, innovation and originality.