Maximize Your Marketing Dollar

by Chris Brown

Published on this site: December 10th, 2004 - See more articles from this month...

Are you in need of a marketing budget?  Do you know how to get started? Do you know how to cut costs in your budget and still get results?

Chris Brown, founder of Marketing Resources & Results, offers these helpful tips on how to start and then trim a budget while continuing to have strong results.

To start your budget:

• Review your marketing plan.  What are you trying to accomplish?
  
  
• Gather quotes from your resources.  What does it cost to write, copy and mail a press release to the media?  What about running an ad in your target market trade journal?
  
  
• Put your budget in writing. This will help you to keep organized and it also allows you to have a visual of the budget.
  
  
• Use an ad to sales ratio.  If you don’t know what to budget, many companies start with and advertising to sales ratio.  It is a good idea to start at 5% of your revenues for the year.  If, you feel that this is too high, then start at 2.5% or if you feel that it is too low then start higher.  To support growth, you have to invest in marketing.
  
  Depending upon your business, I often recommend allocating 5% of your sales to marketing.
  
  
• Find out what your competitors are doing!  Do research by browsing the internet, newspapers, magazines, and business journals. Look for information you can find to compare and contrast your budget with other companies going after the same customers.
  
  
• Itemize your Budget.  What should you include in your budget?
  
  -  Press releases-postage, mailing lists
  
  -  Events/grand opening- food, promotion
  
  -  Sales materials-brochures, postcards
  
  -  Website-development, hosting
  
  -  Promotions
  
  -  Focus groups, surveys and other research
  
  -  Printing
  
  -  Writing
  
  -  Graphic Design
  

What happens when you add up your budget and it is too much? How do you “tighten the belt” and still get the same results?  Try these ideas to stretch your promotional budget and still get strong results from your marketing efforts.

How to Trim:

• Make a trade!  Trade a brochure for a postcard.  They cost less to print, mail and don’t even need an envelope!
  
  
• Partner up!  Plan an event with a non-competing “business partner.” This would be a company who is seeking a similar customer.  This could give you half the costs with twice the results!
  
  
• No stamps needed!  Send press releases via email to save on postage.  Be sure to send them in the body of the email and not as an attachment.  Also, make sure you have a strong subject line that will get your reader’s attention.

© 2004 Chris Brown, president of Marketing Resources & Results, a full-service marketing firm located between Cleveland and Akron. They help businesses introduce new products and build brands by providing innovative, cost-effective marketing solutions. To find out more, visit
http://www.resources-results.com/.