Successful marketing requires that you either spend money or spend “money equivalents.” What’s a “money equivalent?” Time, effort, barter and collaborations are all examples of “money equivalents.” They all have value, they are all finite, they all come with an opportunity cost, just like money, but they’re intangible.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Tip #5: Allocate your marketing budget to the top three goals/activities in the list you’ve been building that’s linked to your business plan. Use whatever percentages you want to allocate your dollars, knowing that investment impacts outcome.
Creating a marketing budget isn’t meant to lock you in with rigid parameters. But it does create guidelines, and it forces you to think about trade-offs before you snap up an advertising “bargain.”
Want to learn more about I’ll how to save time, stop wasting money, get results and create marketing programs you feel good about? Join me for my “30-Day Marketing Turnaround” webinar. And stop back while we count down through 30 of my favorite tips (but not all of them by a long shot!) here on the blog.
April 10, 2008 at 4:11 pm |
Hi Gail,
It is interesting that, as we are pursuing ideas for our Marketing Budget that we came across your Blog.
As somewhat new to this venue, we will always be looking for tips on marketing.
A very informative post! Yes, we agree that ‘Successful Marketing requires spending’! So many people only think about money. Thank you for emphasizing that there are intangible equivalents that need to be considered too.
Looking at the economy gives evidence that times are changing and that has forced a subtle evolution into how marketing dollars are to be dispersed in the future. Competition always increases where there is a need.
We have known for sometime how important the Marketing Budget is!
NO Marketing Budget made it so hard to get our ‘Brick & Mortar’ Business going! “I MEAN SLOW!” Therefore, Diversifying and endeavoring to generate additional streams of revenue has brought us to the Internet and we appreciate the goodness of people like you, who are here to help. We will make the effort to peruse your Site to glean all the gems!
Not having any budget (When We Started!) We began our search on finding something with, which to build one. Guerrilla Marketing is one venue we are moving on. One thing that caught my eye was a question I stumbled on searching for marketing budgets,
“What Is Better Than Free?”
Nevertheless, we found the answer to be in the Jay Conrad Levinson M.O. i.e.,
“Getting Paid For Doing It”
And this was right down our alley!
And now, we will soon be Cautiously GROWING Our Budget!
Thanks again for the GREAT Post, D. P. Gatten. http://tinyurl.com/2d88ck for more.