“Where do I start?” That’s typically the first question I get when a client is about to begin the daunting task of developing their annual marketing budget.
While there are no hard and fast rules on how best to establish a marketing budget, I usually recommend starting by asking a series of questions — about the company, the competition and customers. Here are five questions to ask to get your budget discussion started.
01
What’s the state of your marketing engine?
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How long have you been in the business?
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What are your sales and marketing goals?
Once you have some rough numbers in place, a good next step is defining your sales and marketing objectives. What does success look like a year from now? For some companies, success may be a 10% to 20% increase in sales. For others, success may be landing one big fish. By defining your end goal, you can start laying the groundwork and begin outlining tactics. Once you have goals established, be sure to share them with your team and check back throughout the year to ensure you’re on track.
Also, your objectives and goals of any marketing plan should include what KPIs will be used to ensure success. For example, if 20 new clients are worth $20 million to the business, and if you can attribute your marketing efforts to driving qualified leads that turn into those 20 clients, would it be worth investing 5% of that value to acquire the business? Set expectations as to your costs per lead and track that constantly.
04
What do your customers’ buyer journeys look like?
How do your customers find new business partners? If it’s primarily online, then allocating a large proportion of your budget to digital outreach is a smart choice. But if your customers rely on old school one-one-one sales, then you may need to bolster your sales tools. Chances are, you’ll probably require a mix of online and offline tactics to reach your customers. If you’re unsure about customer buying patterns, then I suggest you start with the development of audience personas. This can help define customer pain points, outline business needs and paint a picture of your customer’s overall mindset.
05
How competitive is your industry?
Remember. Math is hard.
Developing a marketing budget is not easy. You have to look at a number of factors and data points, all while managing demands from players within your organization, from the CEO to the sales team. It takes hard work, research and some good old-fashioned guesstimating. So go ahead and get a first draft on paper and then refine from there. Seek advice from your counterparts in similar companies. Share a draft with your sales team. Or better yet, share your marketing budget with your agency to get their feedback. We do it all the time and we’re always here to help. Good luck and happy budgeting.
Know your customers.
- What’s in his bookmark bar
- Where he gets his news
- His favorite podcast
- What magazines he reads
- Where he gets advice
- His favorite business blogger
- Trade shows he attends
- How he makes decisions
04
Create an authentic and compelling messaging platform.
With personas in place, you can develop core messaging based on customer challenges and needs. The best platforms are clear, concise and used consistently in all communications; in this way, your messaging will draw a common thread throughout all customer touch points (websites, decks, emails, etc.). The most effective and authentic messaging platforms are informed by a discovery process that may include client interviews and workshops. The results are worth the investment!
05
Content is critical.
Do you operate in a highly competitive field where you are one of a hundred players competing for limited mindshare? Are you a startup with little name recognition? Or maybe you’re lucky enough to be the industry leader and you just need to use marketing to maintain your pole position. Each of these scenarios provides its own challenges. Typically, the more competitive your industry, the more budget you’ll need to get noticed. So be honest about the competition and be realistic about your marketing goals. That’s the only way to create a budget that yields results.
06
Bring sales and marketing teams together.
Digital marketing can go wrong if sales and marketing are siloed. On the other hand, when these teams have a mutual understanding of the buying journey and objectives, digital marketing supports your sales and marketing ecosystem and can help it thrive. Marketing knows which leads are most valuable to sales. And sales provides insights to help marketing create and update your library of content to bring in the most-prized leads. Magic happens. Deals close.
Find opportunities for teams to work together.
07
Make your website a workhorse.
If your website isn’t hardworking and multifunctional (and fine-tuned before you kick off), it can severely impact your success. As your storefront, your site is the cornerstone of your sales and marketing strategy. On top of that, it should be built with your core audiences in mind (which is easier to do with personas and messaging platforms) and it should be able to evolve and expand over time.
08
Optimize, optimize, optimize.
Digital marketing can fail if it’s not dynamic; this is not a “set it and forget it” endeavor. In fact, a major strength is that it provides tracking data. You’ll be able to see how customers and prospects are engaging, evaluate what’s working and what’s not. This data is your tool for optimizing results. Establish a regular reporting cadence and always keep adjusting and improving.
09
Measure the right metrics.
Data is digital marketing’s strong suit. But data for its own sake will not help your cause. Efforts that fail can be guilty of defining the wrong metrics. It’s important to have a clear idea of your campaign’s objectives before you embark on any digital marketing effort. And don’t fall into the trap of tracking the same KPIs through every stage of the buyer’s journey. Instead, shift indicators as customers move through the sales funnel. For example, track impressions and reach at the top. Then measure form fills and conversions as prospects move from consideration to action.
Customer journey.
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Lastly, don’t forget to be creative!
Although based in data, planning, evaluation and optimization, as we’ve mentioned, B2B digital marketing misses the boat if it forgets that the customers are real people. So be clever. Get creative. Catch their eyes. Make some waves! Use your brand personality, your messaging platform and personas as the basis for creative, focused messaging that connects memorably with your customers.
