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Is the marketing budget a headache, or not? At least it shouldn’t be a headache as long as you correlate it with some performance indicators (KPIs). If you won’t do this, the battle is somehow lost from the start. In the following article, we’ll provide guidelines in planning a marketing budget.

First, let’s set the scene

1. There’s no unique way of setting up a marketing budget. Yeah… we’ll give you guidelines, but you need to figure out on your own what’s the best approach for you.
2. You don’t budget just once per year… it needs to be an activity throughout the whole year.
3. Adapt the budget to your business’ type. Providing services or products takes the budget to different approaches.

The steps

Ok.. now we can begin with a step-by-step process to get you a healthy/ cheerful marketing budget.

1. Analysis: the most comprehensive part of all. Take into consideration: sales history, past activities’ performance, competition, costumers, product lifecycle, market trends… and whether you’re planning to launch new products/ services or enter new markets. Lots of things to consider, right?

2. Objectives: need to be SMART. But you already knew that, right? Then, another „boring” tip: keep in mind that marketing objectives need to be closely related to business objectives. Sounds almost funny, but businesses often fail to do this simple step.

3. Planning you activities: in most cases, it helps to categorize them and set up priorities. It’s not a matter of not having ideas, but having too many… and getting yourself in a position when you’re overwhelmed and completely out of focus.

4. Budgeting: well, we have a treat for you at this point. Check out the FREE marketing budget templates below.

5. Monitoring and adjusting: any budget should be accompanied by a set of KPIs. Here’s a list of top KPIs in marketing:

a. Sales
b. Profitability
c. Cost per lead/ or cost per sale
d. CLV (customer Lifecycle Value)
e. ROI of marketing campaigns
f. Conversion rates
g. Brand awareness (social mentions, PR articles, organic traffic etc.)

See… no need for headaches! But if you are still struggling on how to build your annual marketing budget for 2018, contact us at any time.

Yours dedicated,
Victor Gavronschi