A business owner, there is only a limited amount of money that you can spend on digital marketing execution. There are so many options when it comes to budgeting for digital marketing so it can definitely be challenging to decide where your digital marketing budget will be best spent.
Choose wisely – it’s like being a kid in a sweetshop – don’t get distracted by shiny objects.
In this article, our digital marketing experts offer some advice as to how you can best spend your digital marketing budget for optimal outcomes based on different types of business. Either way, the numero® digital marketing experts are happy to help you out with a free appraisal of options suitable for your needs.
Strategy first
Always begin with your plan first. A quick checklist for you
- Define your marketing goals – do you want lead generation, direct eCommerce sales, shop visits or brand awareness.
- Target audience – who are your customers and which websites do they spend time on?
- Analyse past performance – do you know where your best customers came from? Were they referrals, did they walk in, respond to an advert….?
Have Defined Goals
Know what you want to achieve with your digital marketing strategies. Are you looking for new leads? Do you want to improve customer loyalty? Do you need to drive more sales? Are you looking to increase your brand visibility?
Having defined goals will help you determine where your digital marketing budget will be best spent. What you needs are general benchmarks – what percentage of your annual revenues can you afford to spend, what return on investment is possible, do you have a salesforce, how long does it take to get a sale through – you get the idea.
These goals will vary if you’re a business to business (B2B) firm compared to business to consumer (B2C) and which industry you’re in. We know benchmark averages for most industries
Know Your Target Audience
Knowing your target market is absolutely essential when it comes to performance marketing in NZ. If you don’t know your target market, how do you know how you’ll appeal to them?
If you are unsure of the details of your ideal customer, you may want to look into running some market research so that you have a starting point. A good place to start is analysing your existing customers – who are they, where do they live and work, why did they choose to work with you?
You should also know if your ideal audience is local so that you know whether to invest in local SEO marketing.
Budget breakdown
Knowing how to divide up your budget takes practice. There are some general rules of thumb.
In general half your budget will go on cornerstone marketing. This includes:
- Website and user experience
- Search engine optimisation – long term organic growth engine
- Content marketing – valuable assets that engage your prospects
Paid Growth is the second group of marketing tactics. These can be 30-40% of your budget
- Search engine marketing (SEM/PPC) capturing high intent search web traffic
- Social media advertising targeting prospects based on interests, geography and demographics
- Display and retargeting ads – getting past visitors to come back and buy again
Community and Relationship building is 10-20% of your budget.
- Email marketing for nurturing leads, staying in touch with past and current customers
- Organic social media management – sharing content that builds brand loyalty and conversation
Lastly the Tools, Technology and Analytics
- paying fopr the technology that supports your marketing like CRM, Analytics and marketing software (email marketing in particular)
Speak to our Digital Marketing Experts
By speaking to our digital marketing experts, you’ll be able to get a clear idea of the results you can expect to get with your digital marketing budget, and how it is currently being used. We can suggest improvements and come up with a completely customised, result-driven digital marketing strategy.
Interested in getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to digital marketing in NZ? Get in touch for a free assessment today and we can come up with the best solutions based on your budget.
