Anyone who thinks they can avoid numbers and accounts when working in communication is mistaken. When it comes to advertising campaigns, numbers are part of the work routine and defining and managing the marketing budget is one of the activities in this area.
And this is not an easy task, since determining the marketing budget involves several factors, such as the organization’s strategic planning, the sector’s objectives, the product and sales area and, of course, the financial aspect.
Generally, the marketing budget is defined annually, along with what is stipulated for other sectors. Therefore, planning is even more important, and keeping an eye on the calendar is the key to devising the correct strategies and defining the appropriate value.
Marketing planning
Marketing plays a central role in how the company is seen by the market and the audiences it can reach. Therefore, if the area is not yet a priority in the company, it is necessary to reconsider and understand where marketing actions can take the organization.
It is not just about promoting products and managing social networks, but also having complementary actions that allow you to promote products, increase the visibility of the brand and its values, and position it against competitors among the target audience.
Part of this includes, for example, the use of paid media. On certain dates or for specific periods, it is important to select a part of the budget for this type of strategy.
A retail company targeting women, for example, may allocate part of its budget to events such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. Toy stores will invest more for Children’s Day.
But there are also other strategies, such as offline media, participation and sponsorship of events, purchasing merchandising items, printing graphic material, as well as hiring third parties for specific actions.
Therefore, before defining the numbers, the company needs to make a marketing plan and define its strategy for the sector, considering:
Target Audience
To whom this communication will be made is one of the most important aspects when defining strategies. Is the desired audience aware of the company’s solutions, or are there still opportunities to win more customers?
Furthermore, is there any new segment or niche that the company intends to conquer in the current year? If so, how does it differ from the current audience, what channels do it use, what are its consumption habits? Answering these questions is what will pave the way to define what will be done.
Previous results
Analyzing what has already been done is also an important reference. If the company noticed that in the last year there was an increase in engagement on Instagram, is it time to invest in paid ads on the network?
Or how the site appears in Google searches? Is there any way to improve this? Using previous data helps to chart the next steps.
Goals
What does the company seek with its actions? If a new product or solution is planned to be launched, even if it is within 10 months, this amount needs to be reserved so that there are no problems in the future.
If the focus is to increase the lead base, it will be necessary to invest in a CRM platform or one specialized in internal marketing. It may even be that a tool already exists, but it is insufficient for the actions in progress and needs an upgrade, which will increase the cost of the monthly fee.
How to calculate the marketing budget?
Planning, as important as it is, will come up against budgetary issues. In an ideal scenario, the company has enough funds to carry out all the actions, but this is not the reality in most companies.
Therefore, after defining the plan, the actions must be budgeted so that it is possible to have a concrete indication of how much it will cost. Even so, the funds made available by the company must be balanced between areas.
Therefore, experts argue that those who are starting to invest in marketing actions should make up to 20% of the amount available by the company. But this can vary a lot, as organizations with a defined structure in this sense can bet around 7% to 8%.
According to some research, the amount spent on marketing ought to match the share of the market that the company hopes to capture. A company must set aside 20% of its budget for marketing if it hopes to gain 20% of its market.
Furthermore, a security budget needs to be considered in this account, including dealing with unforeseen events, such as to enhance actions that were not included in the forecast.
With a changing market, digital marketing becomes increasingly important for an organization’s strategies. In addition to offering competitive advantages over competitors, they also have a direct impact on sales, considering that online purchases increase annually.
