“How much should I spend on my marketing?” is a question I’m frequently asked by prospective clients – or, “If I spend £XXXX on marketing what will I get?”
Those are basically the wrong questions. We need to turn the conversation around and ask; “What do you want to achieve?”
Marketing targets
The answer is usually “More” – more sales, more leads, more visitors…
That’s a good start. Then the next question should be; “How much or how many, and by when?” It’s easy to say you can’t have too much, and want it tomorrow.
Consider if you were to increase clients by 10X in a month, what effect would that have on the business in terms of resources and finance? So, it helps to to set a realistic target and timescale.
Put a value on it
The last question is; “If that target is achieved, what will it be worth to the business in terms of gross margin?” Then what is it worth spending to get that return – 10%, 20%, more?
In very simple terms, that’s the basic principle behind guiding how much you should be spending on a marketing project. Whether you can hit your objective within that budget and how you do it – well that’s the question for your marketing consultancy or agency. But most consultants welcome a guideline as to what costs you are prepared to allocate to a project. If it’s not sufficient, you may just need to adjust your, “How much or how many, and by when?”
