Marketing Budget
How much do you spend on marketing and advertising 🤑? While this varies depending on the situation, according to different sources and my own experience, I'd say:
If it's less than 3% of your gross revenue, your voice won't be heard.
When developing or launching a new service or product, it's okay to spend 5-10%.
Spending more than 10% is not very common, usually seen in very competitive markets or to attract demanding customers.
When drawing up a budget, it`s normal to allocate 15%-20% for content creation and 80-85% for promoting it. If you want to be heard, you should spend money.
We have to spend money to navigate through the noise.
When I started my digital marketing manager career in 2010 (oh yes, I'm so ancient, that was the year when Instagram was launched 🦖), it was possible to gain thousands of followers without spending any €. But 14 years later, it became nearly impossible for businesses to achieve significant organic growth.
What to consider when making a budget?
Market and Competitors.
It's crucial to conduct competitor analysis to define how much they spend on advertising across different channels (digital, offline, influencer marketing, etc.). It's also important to think one step forward. Do your competitors have the opportunity to increase their marketing budget 💰? If yes, what will happen in the market?
Competitor analysis is the key.
If they spend 5x, they will become 5x more visible. But you also can navigate through the noise to make your brand heard, leading to an increase in sales.
Revenue.
A simple question to check reality: how much can you earn from that brand? It's essential to find a balance between your grand ideas, other market players and expected revenue.
Channels.
Choosing the right channels might be tricky 😵💫. Think about changing your strategy to stand out and sometimes to reduce costs too. If everybody is using targeted ad campaigns on social media, maybe you should also try to go offline? When choosing atypical channels, don't spend more than 10-20% of the planned budget.
What to consider when creating an advertisement?
Customers don't want to hear us. They'd rather protect themselves from the information bumping into them at every corner 🙈. Because our era is so noisy, we can't even hear our own thoughts. Today, to grab attention, it's more effective to advertise using images and short videos, with videos being preferable.
Quick checklist for your future advertising campaign:
✅ How unique is the message? Does it provide any evidence why customers should choose you?
✅ How is the story presented? Does it contain something that will grab attention 🎯?
✅ How many people will see it? This depends on your budget and uniqueness (if it goes viral).
✅ How much can you earn? Are expenses and incomes reasonable?
Evaluate each bullet point from 1 to 10. This will provide an understanding of whether the advertising campaign will be successful or not.
Does your advertising grab attention?
If an advertising campaign is boring and mediocre, but the company has a lot of money to promote it, they will definetely get their market share. It's still an effective strategy, but there's a pitfall – they won't gain much loyalty.
The main thing is – don't be afraid to be different and bold, because many businesses are committing "brand suicide" day by day and someday will be truly forgotten 😒.
Let your brand shine as brightly as possible and ensure it's systematically heard!
