How much should we spend on our marketing? I’ve been told that some companies budget for 10% of their total sales.
It’s a little like what comes first- the chicken or the egg.
Marketing is like air--without it your business cannot thrive as well as it could. Marketing is a mindset and set of actions that you implement in a very strategic manner. Even if you only have a limited budget, you need to create marketing initiatives to help get the word out about what it is you make or who it is you serve and why you do it better than others that may be in the mind of the buyer.
Ideally you should allocate up to10 percent of your gross revenues a year to fund a variety of strategic actions that all leverage each other, and importantly are all consistent which will add to the key message you want your particular target segment to understand about ‘your brand’.
For the same reasons that you wouldn’t recommend your customers to do or make what they need from your business (and expect 100% results) you need to think the same way about your marketing plan and tools by outsourcing those tasks to professionals who can deliver superior and professional results for you.
On a limited budget that could mean doing some or all of the following:
- Getting a professional logo designed and professional business cards (seek out a graphic designer for this)
- Creating a web site that not only communicates to your current customers but is optimized (SEO) to ensure people that don’t know about you ‘land’ on your sight when ‘searching the web’.
- Creating a colorful professionally designed and written brochure (stay away from typical tri-folds and work with a professional copywriter for the messaging)
- Creating and mailing an oversized direct mail piece (aimed at your designated target segment).
- Attending local or regional networking venues where you can hand out your brochure and postcard