How to Set a Marketing Budget for Growth 

Posted on by Hot Dog Marketing

Marketing is a key aspect of running a business, but most of the time, it’s difficult to run the marketing yourself and manage your business.

One of the significant challenges business owners face is the marketing budget itself. How do you know what will help your business grow? Luckily, it isn’t rocket science to figure out what marketing budget works best for your business.  

What is a Good Marketing Budget?  

A marketing budget outlines the cost you must incur to achieve your business goals within a certain amount of time. Once you figure out a budget, you can move forward with establishing a marketing plan with a partner. These costs include promotions, pay-per-click advertising, print materials, and software like HubSpot. 

How Do You Set Your Budget?  

The 5% Rule  

The rule of thumb is that marketing should take 5 to 10% of sales revenue for growth. Sometimes you may spend more, for instance, when starting a website or buying software.  

Industry Marketing Budget and Statistics 

Marketing costs depend on industries; therefore, consider your competitors’ spending. Look into research marketing data to come up with essential benchmarks.  

Consider the Budget ROI 

Your marketing budget depends on your position in the marketplace. If you are selling multiple products or services, your budget should cater to the needs. Often, a business spends a lot of money on marketing during the initial stages of setup. 

How Do You Start Marketing?  

Conduct Market Research 

Market research entails collecting information about your potential customers, their thinking partners, and their location. Marketing research also helps identify initial sales forecasts and what competition is like. 

Define Your Target Market 

Promoting your business to everyone is pointless. You need to segment your customers depending on their geographical location, consumer behavior, demographics, and lifestyle. 

Define Your Selling Proposition 

You should strive to stand out among your competitors. Usually, your uniqueness depends on your skills and knowledge. Therefore, figure out what makes your business different and deliver that to your target customers. 

Develop Your Brand 

Regardless of the size, every business needs to build a brand. A brand is more than a tagline, color, and logo. A brand conveys your traits, targets certain customers, and expresses what you can deliver. Your brand should be unique to your business. 

Choose Your Marketing Channels 

You can use different marketing channels, and the right one depends on your target market. Sometimes, you need to focus on building a user-friendly website before you begin marketing efforts. Sometimes, it starts on strategic social media marketing or SEO. A strong marketing partner can draft a plan based off your budget and business goals.  

Set Marketing Goals and Allocate a Marketing Budget 

Marketing goals define what you want to achieve with marketing activities. Your marketing goals should be specific, measurable, relevant, and time-based. You need to define a marketing budget for your marketing goals. The marketing budget should cover advertising costs, branding costs, website development, SEO strategies, and any printing of promotional materials. 

Find a Partner to Help You Grow  

The success of your business goals will depend on your marketing efforts, including creating a good marketing budget for business growth. If you are a business owner figuring out your marketing budget, click here for our free marketing budget calculator. If you want to learn more, we recommend stopping by our pricing page.  

When you sign up, we will look into your business size, marketing goals, and target market. Our marketing experts will work with you to develop a marketing budget and plan to suit your business’s unique needs.