When it comes down to it, budget is always an issue in any type of marketing. You can spend too much money or not enough- there are no neutral budgets.
A limited budget can be a challenge for marketers as we know that more investment means more exposure and attention for your business.
That’s what you want really! So how do you find the right balance?
Level 1 strategies are typically cost-effective alternatives to more advanced tactics. These types of strategies usually focus on generating brand awareness through social media postings, creating strong community leadership, engaging with others in conversations about your product or service, etc.
Many small businesses start out using these types of strategies before moving up to more advanced ones. By starting off with some basic strategies, you give yourself a chance to develop your skills before investing in longer term projects.
Level 2 strategies are slightly more expensive than level one ones but they have bigger impacts as well. Examples include producing professional advertisements, developing a website, hiring additional staff members (for example, social media managers), etc.
These things all add up so a little bit extra goes a long way. It’s important to look into the costs of each strategy ahead of time though so you don’t go spending beyond your budget.
A marketing strategy is something that determines how much money you’ll spend on advertising, what messages you’ll use to convey your message, and which channels will be used to spread your message.
The level of strategizing about spending in this area can range from having a very limited budget to being very high-budget.
There are two main types of budgets: direct response (DR) campaigns and general business campaigns. Direct response campaigns are typically focused on getting people to purchase a product or service by using advertisements or messages that emphasize products or services.
General business campaigns usually focus more on spreading your brand name and influencing potential customers to choose your product over those of others. These brands do not necessarily have to be related to selling a product or service, they could be for sponsoring an event, creating content to share with the world, etc.
It is important to know when it comes to DR campaigns that the cost per inquiry is usually higher than other levels. This is because you need to advertise enough to get someone into contact with your company so that they will buy something!
For general business campaigns, the costs per exposure are lower as you do not really care if one person sees your advertisement or magazine article – you just want them to learn about your company. Therefore, less expensive media like social media ads, billboards, and word of mouth are better for these campaigns.
Sources: https://www.quicksprout.
As we mentioned, creating a marketing plan is an important part of any successful campaign. This includes determining how much you want to spend on different components of your campaign.
You will need to determine what budgets are allowed for each component. For example, if you wanted to launch a new website, you would look into finding a good domain name and ensuring that it is legally secure before buying it.
From there, you can start looking into web hosting, someone who has their own site can help with WordPress, and then find software such as Microsoft Office or Google Suite which helps promote your product online. All of these things cost money!
There are many ways to source budgeted products so none of them should be too expensive unless you are paying very close attention.
As mentioned before, spending money on marketing is not a high-level strategy. It is instead categorized as middle level because it touches upon how much you spend, but only indirectly with what products or services you offer or how you position yourself with others.
Level one strategies are directly concerned with how much to invest in advertising, media, and other types of marketing. This includes things like investing in social media sites, hiring an influencer to promote your product, or sponsoring an event.
These are all very cost effective ways to market your business and can easily be done at a very small budget.
However, there are also higher level strategies that go beyond that. These are more involved and expensive to implement, but they have greater lasting effects than just short term gains.
The two major categories here are rebranding yours or someone else’s brand (repositioning) and creating new brands for your company (naming brands).
Both of these require substantial time spent developing logos, slogans, and advertisements. They both take longer to execute than buying a few ads or recruiting some influenceers, so they are considered higher level strategies.
A less expensive way to market your business is creating your own creative assets. This can include logos, flyers, advertisements, and other promotional materials that help promote your company and brand.
Designing your own logo or advertising slogan is a great way to start investing in marketing for your business. By designing your own logo or ad-line, you will be giving yourself some extra time to edit it and try different versions before finalizing it.
There are many free resources available online where you can design your own logotype or ads.
As we already mentioned, social media is one of the most important ways to promote your business. It’s easy to start using all sorts of apps, platforms and tools to spread your message, but you should be careful about how much money you spend without proof that it works.
Just because something has been deemed successful by someone else doesn’t mean it will work for your company or for your market. You have to test out theories yourself!
That said, there are some services that offer affordable packages with limited features, which can help get your feet wet. For example, you might be able to create an account, put up a photo and a few keywords, and see what kind of response you receive.
You could also choose to do an advertising campaign through a pre-existing platform like Facebook or Twitter. Or maybe you’ll decide to write your own posts and pin them as pictures so people can comment and connect with you.
As we mentioned before, spending money on marketing is not an easy feat. It takes time to plan your budget, finding what works for your business and tracking it all, so you can make changes if needed.
Just because you have enough money does not mean that your campaign is successful! If you are looking at the numbers and nothing is changing, then you may need to evaluate how much money you have spent and determine whether or not it was worth it.
You will want to keep testing new things out until you find something that works for your business. This way, you will know just how much you spend on advertising and what effects it has on your business.
Testing different strategies is one of the most important parts of level three strategy, as well as investing in technology and media to promote your business.
