how to maximise the impact of your marketing budget.
We’ve all seen and felt the impact of the cost-of-living crisis at some level, and this will have undoubtedly affected your company’s budgets. Sadly, marketing budgets are usually the first to take a hit and see a reduction in available finances for marketing efforts. As most of us marketers will agree, this seems rather counterintuitive. Regardless of the cost-of-living crisis, however, marketing budgets can generally be limited, especially for small businesses, which means it is important to get the biggest bang for your buck out of your marketing budget.
> how to maximise the impact of your marketing budget:
Set clear goals and objectives
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve witnessed marketing teams throw a randomly decided amount of money at various PPC and paid social ads for no particular reason, only to find their budget is extremely tight later on in the year. Before you do anything marketing-related, you absolutely have to have clear, reachable goals and objectives laid out. This will help you determine the most effective marketing tactics to use and quantifiably measure the return on investment of your campaigns. Stick to the plan, don’t deviate and you should be fine.
Focus on your target audience
If you’re a marketer, this should go without saying (but you’d be surprised!). Focus your marketing efforts exclusively on your target audience, especially when bringing marketing budgets into the equation. It’s no good targeting dairy products to vegans and the lactose intolerant for example. Do your research and build the most detailed audience profiles for your products or services. This will help ensure that your marketing efforts are relevant and effective.
Use data and analytics
Ignorance towards data and analytics will hurt the bottom line here. Consider this - you know your target audience is based in London, so you could target a paid social ad in a 20-mile radius of the City of London and leave it at that. But, if your data shows that residents in Greenwich and Waltham Forest aren’t in your target audience for whatever reason, it will be far more efficient and friendlier to your budget if you take the time to adjust your geo-targeting to ignore these areas as conversions are not likely. Data and analytics can help you understand your target audience and identify the most effective marketing tactics. By analysing data, you can optimise your marketing efforts and make the most of your budget. For more tips on using data and analytics to advise your marketing efforts, click here.
Utilise free or low-cost marketing tactics
There are many free or low-cost marketing tactics that can be effective, such as social media marketing, content marketing, and email marketing. Social media in particular has strong potential to reach larger audiences through viral content and building an audience that wilfully produces user-generated content for you - essentially free marketing! Utilising these tactics can help you stretch your marketing budget further.
Test and optimise
The aforementioned points will certainly help to guide your marketing efforts in a more cost-effective and efficient manner, but, as we all know marketing to be how it is, nothing is ever certain and things change. Strategies and campaigns are never perfect, cookie-cutter, rinse-and-repeat processes that guarantee the same results every time. It is therefore important to test and review your marketing efforts regularly to identify what’s working and what isn’t, and then adjust accordingly to ensure that they are effective and optimised.
Assuming you have taken in everything explained here, you will now be better equipped to maximise the impact of your marketing budget and drive business growth!
If you want a killer marketing strategy that fits within your budget, but don’t know where to begin – get in touch to see how we can help.
