Tips, thoughts and topics on marketing for small to medium-sized businesses in Michigan and
throughout the world. Contributions by Chris Slocumb, Casey Frushour, as well as other members of the Clarity Quest team.
A new
MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report found that more than 55% of marketers surveyed in the hardware and software industries plan an increase in their 2010 social media marketing budget. This trend implies that B2B marketers recognize that IT buyers are using social media to make informed purchasing decisions.
Labels: B2B, marketing budgets, marketing sherpa, social media
Read a
great article in Entrepreneur by Robert Kiyosaki on reasons to keep up your marketing campaigns during bad economic times. The six week cycle of promotion is an interesting concept - we have seen this type of result in our business with calls coming in 4-8 weeks after a promotion.
Labels: entrepreneurs, marketing, marketing budgets, recession, robert kiyosaki
An EMetrics survey released today states only 15% of respondents plan to cut online marketing spending. The online survey, which had 60 respondents, found marketers will increase or maintain their budgets for e-mail, keyword search campaigns, social media and video advertising. Nearly 84% of respondents said they planned to increase or maintain their e-mail marketing budgets.This is consistent with our business with many of our new leads coming in the areas of web marketing such as pay-per-click campaign optimization, organic search engine optimization, link building, and online reputation management.
Labels: emetrics, improve search engine rankings, marketing budgets, michigan survey, online marketing budgets, online reputation, pay per click, web marketing michigan
Is your business spending enough on marketing? According to our surveys, if you're like many of your colleagues, the answer is no. Go-to-Market Strategies recently released the results of a survey showing that 42% of marketing budgets fall below the 5% of revenue mark. In fact, only 36% of companies felt they spent enough to be successful by their own standards.
Determining the correct amount to spend on marketing is an often perplexing task for small to medium-sized companies. The correct way to start is by formulating a marketing plan - ideally for a one-year timeframe. With a marketing plan that outlines your firm's goals and and a simple budget spreadsheet you'll be able to track and measure effectiveness of each campaign. You'll also be able to quickly visualize if you are putting your eggs in just a few baskets instead of taking advantage of integrated marketing. For example, if you are spending 90% of your budget on advertising and none on public relations, you are missing the great "bang for the buck" of PR.
We advise clients to put together the platinum plan based on about 15% of revenue. That way certain campaigns or tactics are not left off the plan upfront due to "budgetary reasons". Then prioritize campaigns and only execute the ones within a comfortable budget for you. Ideally your company should be spending 5-8% of PROJECTED revenue, not last years' numbers.
Wikipedia has a great page on Marketing Plans and Budgeting if you are looking for a free source of information.
Labels: marketing budget amount, marketing budgets, marketing plans
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