Marketing can make or break a business, yet it is often overlooked - especially by small businesses that don't have lots of money. A marketing budget ought to be contained in every company's plan, irrespective of how big or small. The first thing to take into account is excatly why you're marketing. Pinning down everything you want to accomplish may help focus your efforts. Have you been a big company that is attempting to influence your brand image? Have you been a tiny company that really needs to attract clients? Do you want to increase customer loyalty? Gain referrals from customers?
Second, you will need to figure out who you're directing your message to. Determining your specific target market or markets is key to seeing a get back on your investment. If you determine your target market is teenagers, maybe you'll want to run a commercial on a local Top 40 music station or develop into a sponsor for a senior school sports team. Getting before your custom pins no minimum intended audience is the main goal. Some forms of marketing are better as of this than others. But if that you don't reach your target, your marketing will most likely not be very successful.
Next, you must think about what you need your prospective customers to do. Your primary goal has become the purchase of one's goods or services. But how about the people who don't buy? Can there be some solution to still convert them? Maybe they can register for the newsletter or donate to your blog. Or you may hand out something for free like a button or sticker. At the least, your brand or marketing message can keep spreading with it.
After you have seriously considered every one of the above points it is time for you to start planning your budget. Take into account everything you will need to do to achieve your prospective customers and how much those avenues cost. Normally a business should set aside 8-12% of net sales for marketing. This could vary greatly depending on how established business is, how big the enamel pin maker business is, and what they want to accomplish. Earlier this week James wrote an article about the price of different marketing mediums and the worthiness of SEO. Sometimes SEO is overlooked by businesses because it is not a traditional approach, but it may have a big impact and be very cost-effective. Obviously it is not for anyone, but it is worth considering.
It can also be important to think about if you want to implement your marketing strategy. For a business who has a certain busy season, it could be important to focus all of the budgets on the months leading up to that season in order to gain as numerous sales as possible. For another company that doesn't have a busy season, it's important to prevent "feast or famine." Keeping the marketing consistent will ensure you never have a "famine." Many businesses could have this problem should they forget to keep marketing when they're very busy or successful.
Finally, don't forget to track your ROI. It's often simple for web-based businesses to track marketing success due to analytics programs. But also for other businesses you can certainly do things such as asking customers how they been aware of you, implement separate online codes for different sales, create multiple 1-800 numbers, etc. Make use of this data to track which marketing strategies work best and revise your plans, or reallocate funds, as you go along. There's no one right answer, but when you create a technique, a budget, and track your success, you must start to see greater returns.
