We still find it hard to believe that we have to start our holiday gifts for this year. But what about the more important task of creating your marketing budget for 2013? Yes, it’s that time already too! Creating your marketing budget for the upcoming year can be a daunting task. We’ve listed 4 steps that will help your company – no matter the size, industry or stage that your business is in – to help jump start the planning of your marketing budget for 2013.
Review Your Current Marketing Budget:
A surprising amount of companies skip this step when they begin creating a marketing budget for the new year. Have you been updating your marketing budget and keeping current with your marketing dollars for each initiative? With 9 of the 12 months wrapped-up, you should have a solid idea of where you stand, budget-wise, and what the remaining 3 months of the year will bring. What about the occasional “unplanned” marketing dollars that have creeped into your budget? Were they accounted for? Without knowing the actuals vs. the estimates of each dollar your spent – your marketing budget will continue to be a guessing game for each new year.
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Determine Your Business Goals:
Are your current business goals clear and clarified through each department in your company? Many companies have departments that are working independently – such as sales and marketing – and not coming together to create unified business goals. Each department might have their own initiatives, but are they in-line with the overall business goals for the entire company? For example, if you’re launching a new product, the sales will have their own numbers to adhere too – but are those numbers aligned with the marketing dollars you must spend to advertise and promote the product? For example, if you planning a launch with your public relations department, have you allotted a number for events and social media? Having clear initiatives and goals outlined for everyone will help each department stay on track.
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Create a Marketing Plan:
Your company should outline a strategic marketing plan that aligns with your current business goals. The marketing plan should identify key initiatives throughout the year to focus on and have a budgetary number allotted to each initiative – advertising, print collateral, tradeshows etc.
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Estimates Vs. Actuals:
It sounds simple but keeping a document with actual costs for all of your marketing dollars – planned and unplanned – it will help you to create a more accurate marketing plan for the following year. Small numbers can add up – especially for a small business. If you’re marketing budget has allotted $5,000 for a tradeshow and you use $4,000 to secure your booth in show, you’re within your budget, right? But did you add in shipping costs, travel, re-ordering business cards, printing/reprinting for marketing collateral, extra promotional pieces for giveaways and so forth? These may seem like smaller costing items, but if you’re not factoring these numbers into the budget, the $1,000 dollars you have left in the budget can disappear.
If you need help in creating a marketing plan, we’d be happy to help create a strategic plan for your company using a marketing budget of any size. Email us at studio@elementsdesign.com or call us at (203) 776-1323 to get started.
~Allyson
