Planning Marketing Budgets for SME Business Success

MSME Business Owners! 2022 has started and I hope you have decided on your #Marketing budget. It is one critical factor that ensures marketing success. Many of us don’t think about this and hence never get to what we always want to achieve, i.e. a successful lead generating marketing plan. Here are some things which you can include in the marketing budget.

A Marketing budget can be categorised into fixed and recurring spends. Here is what you need to know about both of them.

FIXED COSTS

Usually required at the start of the business or when looking for an upgrade). Here are some of the elements to consider:

1. Branding – Brand Guidelines, Logo and Stationary. Get an identity to look good and let customers relate to your story.
2. Marketing Collaterals – Brochure / Corporate Profile, Product Portfolio or Look Books.
3. Website – Costs Depends on a B2B/ B2C website or an E-commerce Portal. Invest in a good website. It is the gateway to your world for the prospect.
4. Photography – Nice Visuals and products shots works wonders. Don’t cut corners here.
5. Corporate Video – Always a great way to connect with people. Usually the last thing people get to and costs some money too…but it’s worth it.
6. Trade Mark – Its your brand protection. Doesn’t cost much but certainly helps you in the long run.
7. Certifications – Any certifications you need to sell your product or to have compliances. Some of these could be SEDEX, GOTS, FSSAI, ISO etc.

RECURRING COSTS

This is one thing you have to be careful with. Spend every penny wisely. This is also the place where your Marketing Budget can go out of control. Learn the basics you need to know before putting money into it. Not putting money here is not a solution.

1. Brand Awareness campaigns – You can hire Social Media Marketing companies or hire a resource to do it. Many of us tend to do it ourselves. Be careful with it as it most of us Business Owners start doing it enthusiastically but loose our way soon.
2. Performance Marketing – These are for your paid digital campaigns. Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin Paid Marketing or Google / Bing Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns.
3. Trade Shows – Trade Shows / Exhibitions are a great way to generate leads and you must allocate a budget to participate in a trade show. Look for the trade show in your industry at 10times.com
4. E-Commerce Paid campaigns – If you are present on e-commerce portals like Amazon, ETSY, Flipkart etc, then you must plan for visibility and spends on these portals too.
5. Softwares & Subscriptions – You may need to take subscriptions of mailing tools like Mailchimp, Zoho or Hubspot or some designing tools like Canva. Its great to have a good CRM tool as well to manage your clients like Leadsquared, Zoho etc. Look for all possible costs associated with it.
6. Team Members – We must have a dedicated resource dedicated towards marketing. Somebody needs to take care of communication, data search and mailing campaigns.
7. Conferences – We must attend minimum of one conference from our trade every year. These conferences keep us upto date with latest industry trends and you also learn new ways of marketing and progressing forward.
8. Industry Bodies & Trade Associations – Join your local industry body or your industry trade association. Trade associations regularly organise buyer seller meets, conferences and trade shows which is a great place to meet new buyers for new business opportunities. The memberships doesn’t cost much but is a great value add to your marketing.
9. Networking Forums – There are several networking forums which exist which can help you network with like minded people. Membership costs depend on how prestigious the orgnisation is and what is their focus. Choose your local networking forum which has a global footprint. This will expose you to businesses across the world. BNI is one such trade association

Critical here is that you don’t cut corners and regularly allocate marketing budget towards these if you want to scale up. Lack of planning on these elements is a recipe for non-effectiveness in marketing. And this is the money which you shouldn’t think about saving. Spend it. Spend it wisely and you will see results soon.

At Go4Growth Consulting, we help business owners with a series of trainings and consulting to address similar marketing challenges. Click here to know more.

Cheers!

Gagan Kapoor, Marketing Consultant.

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