This is a common question that most marketers are struggling with right now – how much should you spend on your digital marketing campaigns this year? This is a tough question to answer, but not an impossible one. Here is the problem, if you spend too little then you will fail to get the desired results and if you spend too much, you might end up losing more than you will probably gain.
Here are some of the most important questions you need to answer before the year ends:
- What is your monthly budget for digital marketing campaigns?
- What are the different tactics you will be focusing on – social media, eMail marketing, content marketing, etc.
- What is the spending limit and ratio for each tactic?
- Other expenses that you plan for (and unplanned for).
Here are 5 tips that will help you make a decision:
Clear sense of direction
The first thing you need to do is create a plan, set your goals and have everything laid out in black and blue. This will get things out of your head and help you brain storm ideas. Instead of trying to focus on everything at once, try to pick a few things at a time and master it. Set specific goals and targets.
Track your efforts
Tracking your efforts and marketing campaigns is one of the most important things that you will do in the next year. There is a reason why big data is so popular. You need to understand which marketing campaigns are working and more importantly, which ones are not working. This will help you weed out the non-productive campaigns out and allow you to focus on the ones that are giving you the maximum results.
So you must install Google Analytics on your website to track traffic and conversions, track your retweets and mentions, follow your Facebook insights and get a hang of your LinkedIn page.
For every bad marketing campaign there are basically two alternatives – improve it or flip the kill switch.
Research trends
Research and development are like two fundamental pillars of any organization, and yours is no different. Keep a close eye on your competitors, try to figure out what they are doing or where are they getting their results from? Try to be innovative and creative instead of simply copying from others. SEO and social media have made it easy to spy on your competitors. You just need to get the right tools for the job.
Numbers game
Once you start analyzing your campaigns using a specific set of tools, you will be presented with a lot of numbers and charts. You need to learn to crunch these numbers in order to make the right decision.
Small budget big impact
So you have decided on your budget and you have set aside the amount that you are going to spend on your marketing campaigns. But you still need to make sure that every dollar is working for you. You must strive to get the maximum bang out of every single penny that you spend. Why? Because this is the smartest thing you can do when you are working on a shoestring budget.
The importance of digital marketing cannot be over emphasized, and this is probably the best time to lay down your blueprint for the next year.