Do you know you should be marketing your business to an audience but are overwhelmed and unsure where to begin?

One of the first things you will need to consider is how much to spend. Once you have your budget determined, you can look at tailoring different marketing strategies in a way that you will be able to afford.

But how do you determine this marketing budget? We’ve come up with a brief guide below to help you do just that:

Consider where you are in the growth cycle

Are you a new business just starting out? Or an older and more established company? The age of your business will have an effect on your marketing budget.

For example, if you are a new business, less than five years old, you should probably be spending between 12 and 20% of your gross revenue on marketing. Why so much? Because if you are new to the business world you will not yet have an established name and will need to spend more to reach a wider audience than if you’ve been in the game for some time.

If your company is older than five years, invest between 6 and 12% of your gross revenue into your marketing budget, as a rough guide.

Research properly for the best strategy

Companies can often be cautious about spending money on marketing, but you need to spend something to see results. If your budget is going to be small though, don’t fret. All this means is that you will need to properly research and draft up a marketing strategy so you can ensure every dollar is well spent and no money is wasted.

Prioritise the main elements of marketing

It can be overwhelming deciding which channels you should use to market your product or service. However, there are some essentials you should invest in first before you consider other marketing elements.

These include your company’s branding, social media, website, content and events. The amount you choose to spend on each of these variables can certainly vary widely, but ensure you do invest in these essentials in some way at least.

Marketing cost estimates

How much do these marketing essentials cost? Prices can vary widely, but we’ve drafted up a rough guideline for you below.

Branding:

Depending on the size of the agency you choose and whether or not you opt in for branding collateral such as letter heads, email templates and business card designs and printing, the cost can vary. The larger agencies will most likely work with you face to face and even carry out some workshops to truly nail your branding, hence the expensive cost. Branding is no mean feat and an expert can truly help you get your business’s message across effectively.

Website:

If you choose an easy to operate website platform, such as WordPress or Wix, you might be able to figure out how to design a website yourself and do it for no cost at all. However, in most instances it is best to leave it to a professional to create a custom built website, because you can’t risk launching a site that looks messy and unprofessional. If you want someone else to do it for you on these platforms, you can expect to have to put some money aside in your budget. For fancier websites with more design, automation and functions, prices can become expensive.

Social media:

If you want to cut money from your digital marketing budget for social media, consider hiring an intern to work it out for you, or hire a professional to help you create a social media plan to stick to.

Content:

You can entrust an intern with your content if you have a smaller budget, or pay an agency for a fee which can vary depending on your word count.

Events:

If you have funds in your budget, why not host a networking event, or join up with a similar business to create a co-event? Depending on the scale of your event, costs will vary widely.

There’s no hard or fast rule to creating a marketing budget, but one thing is clear – try and stick to it once you’ve decided on how much you want to spend, as you don’t want to waste your company’s revenue on unsuccessful advertising.

And don’t forget there are huge benefits of working with a great marketing agency that is professional, such as ours, Adcreators. You can expect to be impressed and we take away all the stress behind creating the perfect marketing plan.