How to Create a Marketing Budget for Small Business

No matter how big of a company you have, you should always have a marketing strategy. Promotion of a business is essential and you must always have finances to invest in various advertisements. If you are a beginner, you should know how to create a marketing budget for a small business.

Any business has to invest in a marketing budget unless they want the audience and customers to go someplace else. Of course, this is still an investment, so it has to come with a certain risk. Here is how you can begin and create your first budget for marketing.

1. Set Your Goals

The whole purpose of having a budget is to keep track of the finances and to know where you’re spending it. In other words, in order for the budget to work, you must define your goals. If you’ve set your priorities straight, you won’t spend cash on unnecessary things. Keep in mind that your marketing budget shouldn’t be too high. Be realistic. The finances meant for advertisement shouldn’t take away money that could be used elsewhere.

Your small marketing budget for business should cover everything that you plan to use in the advertisement campaign. This includes things such as copywriting, design, and printing your leaflets, as well as the cost of distribution. Ignore any of these expenses and you will probably find yourself in debt.

2. Plan Yearly

You should always plan ahead. Goals should always be set yearly, and you should always plan a year ahead. For example, a lot of companies have the highest income during holidays, but they don’t earn so much during summer. Always keep this timeline in mind when planning.

3. Define Your Target Audience

Defining your target audience is one of the most important things when it comes to creating a marketing budget for small business. It might not look like that, but identifying your audience on time can really save you a lot of money. If you don’t know to whom you should distribute your leaflets, you can find yourself doing everything else in vain. Giving leaflets to people who wouldn’t be interested in your business isn’t smart, and it can end up being costly. Knowing who to focus on can save you a lot of money in the long run, and it can even help you gain profit.

4. Do Not Ignore Other Marketing Channels

Even if you want leaflet distribution to be your main focus, you shouldn’t forget that there are other ways to advertise a business. Leaflets can make a huge change when it comes to reaching your audience, but you should always have something else in mind as well. The most important thing that every company should have is a website – and having a real website costs. In modern age and time, all businesses should be present online. In fact, one of the calls to action on your leaflet should be an invitation to visit your website. Make sure to write that down on your budget planner.

5. Do Your Homework

Research the market as much as you possibly can. You should always know what is going to happen in the following year and be prepared for it. This way, you will have finances for things such as events or other meaningful opportunities.

6. Think about ROI

The whole point of the marketing campaign is ROI (return of investment). Think about all your past goals and what has worked for you in the past. Especially focus on your previous distribution campaigns that were successful. How were they designed? How large the leaflets were? What was your target audience? Most importantly, what were the results? This way you will know what to focus your budget on. Also, this way you know where to invest more money, as you will be taking fewer risks if you know something worked.

7. Make Sure Your Marketing Budget is Annual

A mistake that many companies make is creating a flexible budget. On these occasions, the budget will depend on the cash flow, market trends, or even a particular past campaign. Some companies don’t even make a budget ahead and will simply spend money whenever they can. This is a bad idea.

New companies should spend 12-20% of their total budget on advertising. This can vary, but this is the general number. Look at your past spending, if you have any, to set your own marketing budget.

8. Set a Monthly Limit

Your marketing budget should align with your monthly budget. Not every month is equally successful. This is why, as we’ve said, it’s important to plan everything ahead. In some months you may spend more and on some less. Take everything into the account!

Start Defining Your Marketing Budget for Small Business Today!

Now that you know how to create a marketing budget for small business, you can start planning.

• Check out your current budget planning. Compare what you have been doing to what you should do now to see if you were doing something wrong.

• Make sure that you will have ROI in order to profit.

• Track the results to know if you are having success.

• Always make sure to have a plan for unexpected expenses.

When you use these 8 steps for creating a marketing budget for small business, you will surely see results fast!