Although it is not yet an age-old question, how much money you should be investing in your digital marketing strategy is definitely an important one.
If you don’t spend enough money, your marketing efforts won’t reach anybody but spending too much means you will not have the budget you need for other marketing campaigns or strategies. And you still might not end up achieving what you wanted.
So, how much should you be spending and how can you come up with a budget which allows you to create and execute your digital marketing, yet still have some cash leftover for investments in other areas?
Have a Clear Marketing Strategy
You can’t figure out how much you need to be spending if you don’t have your marketing strategy nailed down. Before you even think about setting a budget, pick a direction for your strategy and set goals for it. What do you want your marketing strategy to do? Are you trying to build up awareness for your brand, or do you instead want to increase sales by X amount within your existing customer base?
Before you look at your budget, know what your goals are, otherwise, you are not going to know what your budget needs to be paying for.
Be Industry Aware
Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing and what is going on within your industry. Are your competitors all using social media to connect with their customers and launch their new marketing strategies? If it is working for them, it will work for you. That’s not saying you should copy them, but taking inspiration from something which is clearly working is not going to cause you any harm.
Don’t Cast Aside Your Previous Marketing Efforts
Even if your last marketing campaign didn’t go as well as you had hoped, you should not just cast it aside and forget about it. There are lessons to be learned even from the best marketing strategies, which means the bad ones hold even more value.
As a marketing team, you should be aware of marketing strategies which were most successful, which didn’t work as well as you hoped and the ones which completely flopped. It doesn’t matter what you are measuring or how you are doing it, but harvesting data from previous marketing efforts is a brilliant way to focus on the areas which will yield the most success and this will help you on your way to deciding on a budget.
When You Have a Budget, Stretch it
Not a single penny of your marketing budget should be wasted; it should all be used to make the biggest impact possible. If you want to get the best bang for your buck, you need to be producing some thoroughly engaging and emotive marketing campaigns which capture your audience’s attention and make them want to learn more.
Make sure to invest in quality and don’t settle for anything less than perfect. Even if you need to hire a developer to make something for you or pass over your Facebook page over to a third-party agency to run it for you, if it will help your marketing make the splash it should, it is worth doing.
What to Know Before Investing in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is something every company needs to be thinking about always. Even if you’re not an online business, you need a digital marketing strategy – your target audience is mostly online now, and this is the best place to reach the people who matter. There are a few things you should know about digital marketing before taking the plunge though:
It’s All about Mobile
Most of your audience will now be using their mobile device to access the internet and, for the most part, this is the primary means by which they will do so. Over 50% of internet users are now exclusively using their mobile devices, so you really need to make sure that everything about your website and potential digital marketing campaigns is mobile friendly.
Have you optimized your website for mobile use? Does your potential marketing campaign also cater to mobile users, or will it look cramped and unsavoury?
An App is a Worthy Investment
Apps are another thing which is growing in popularity; more and more businesses are investing big money into personally-tailored apps.
Many companies are now pushing their personalized apps just as much as their core website or products because many customers now opt to go straight for an app over a website if there is one available. If you don’t have an app for your brand, business or service, you should seriously consider having one made for you. It is what your audience wants.
Related: What does a digital marketing consultant do?
24/7 Availability
Today, you have but a few seconds to satisfy your customer’s needs, otherwise, they are going to move on to your competitor. It is a harsh truth, not helped by the fact that all of your competitors are available at the tap of a screen. It is not the same as being the only shoe shop in a five-mile radius, where you can make a customer wait for assistance without fear of them leaving for the sake of another store.
If your brand or company has an online presence, it is important that help and customer support is available 24/7, 365 days a year. You will likely be serving customers from all over the globe across different time zones – it is no good only having customer support agents in the US who go home at 5 pm when most of Australia needs help at 8 pm.
There are plenty of solutions to this, such as employing remote workers, freelance customer support representatives or even incorporating chatbots into your social media pages. Being available 24/7 is not something you will need to worry about when you are just starting up, but as you begin to grow, it is certainly going to be a requirement and is something you need to be aware of.
