Marketing Plan and Budget – What Do They Mean? Marketing plans outline specific goals of how to conduct a marketing strategy to reach a specific audience. These goals are based on company objectives and business plans. Often the budget is the single most important element in determining the success of a marketing plan.
Marketing Plan and Budget – Key Concepts and Steps Create a plan and allocate funds to reach the business goals: Create a written budget using the cash flow analysis method. Assess existing costs and compare anticipated new costs against current costs to determine whether the business goals can be achieved within the budget. A good budgeting process allows timely assessment of expenses and allocation of resources. Once a budget is established, the key is to monitor it consistently over time to make adjustments where necessary. The budget is an estimate of future expenditures. Businesses use budgets to motivate, control, and limit resources.
Marketing Plan and Budget – How to Create One Create a budget for marketing activities. The marketing budget is more than just a list of costs; it is a living document detailing activities and costs associated with reaching business goals. In addition, the budget should include all necessary material costs, including wages, materials, overhead, and professional services firm costs. To ensure a complete budget, consider hiring a professional services firm to help you create the budget and ensure a realistic view of your projected marketing budget. It is recommended to develop a marketing budget early in the planning stages and review it periodically to ensure that it is still effective.
Marketing Plan and Budget – The Risks of Budgeting Marketing activities involve risks, which means you must take certain precautions to protect the investment. One of the best ways to mitigate the risk of budgeting is to carefully consider the ROI (return on investment) of your marketing efforts. Marketing activities, as compared to other forms of advertising and sales, can have significant impact on your bottom line profit, so the importance of a budget for marketing is often overlooked. Unfortunately, mistakes in budgeting can have dire consequences. Some of the common budgeting mistakes include overspending on campaigns, using too many staff for marketing activities, not creating goals or metrics, spending excessively on offline marketing efforts such as direct mail, TV and radio, etc., and not setting enough aside for online advertising.
Marketing Plan and Budget – Setting the Target Amount Spend what you can spend. Marketing budgets should never exceed the estimated amount of the budgeted budget. A common mistake is to spend more on one medium than on another medium. Therefore, some businesses spend more on television advertising than on Internet advertising. Likewise, some firms spend more on offline marketing than on online marketing.
Marketing Plan and Budget – Why You Should Include Marketing In Your Marketing Budget A good marketing budget is necessary for every firm to manage effectively. Businesses are all different and so marketing budgets are also varied. While some firms have budgets solely for media buys or print ads, other firms have budgets that include Internet advertising, promotional activities, loyalty programs and loyalty rewards. It is better to have a broad range of funds rather than a narrow one, which leads to the inevitable question: why don’t I include marketing? The answer is very simply because marketing is such a unique part of any business.