As a small business owner, determining your budget for marketing is actually not the hard part. The challenge is where to best use your budget and maximize your ROI on the funds your investing in marketing. With so many platforms available, narrowing your focus to reach the right customers is key. We'll get to that in a minute. As for budget, as a digital marketing agency in Los Angeles, focused on helping small businesses, we recommend a budget of approximately 10% of your revenue to maintain your current market position. To really grow and scale your business, we recommend going up to 20% of your revenue towards marketing. As I mentioned earlier, determining the budget is quite simple. Sticking with best practices as a percentage of your overall revenue is a principle every business will do well to follow. Determining where to place your marketing funds is where the science and the art of marketing really come into play and where our digital marketing company can really help you allocate the funds and obtain the ROI you're looking for.

What about marketing return on investment (ROI)?

As a baseline, successful marketing campaigns should bring your company a 5:1 ROI on your investment. To illustrate: If your company's revenue is $250,000 per year. You should be spending at least $25,000 per year on marketing and that $25,000 in marketing should be bringing you $150,000 in revenue for your company. If you really are looking to grow and scale your business at 20% of your revenue or $50,000 in marketing, you should expecting to see $250,000 in new revenue in the new year. Now of course, you will need to plan for increase production, staff, etc. to accommodate the growth. That's what marketing is all about - helping your company grow new customers and expand your client base.

Quality

Any marketing plan we suggest for a business, the product or service quality you are offering needs to be of the best quality and highest value in the market. If it's not, all the marketing in the world isn't going to convince people otherwise. There is no better marketing than a satisfied customer and satisfied customer's can be a great place to start for your marketing.

Placement

Determining where to place your advertisement is really industry specific. There is no one size fits all here. Gone are the days of placing a newspaper ad and expecting the town to come to you. Marketing has gotten a lot more scientific and audience specific. People are more picky about what messages they are listening to and with almost 10,000 marketing messages every day for the average person, you need to cut through the clutter with a clear, concise, and specific message. Of course, identifying your target audience is key to reaching the right people with the right message at the right time. To determine where to place your messaging, you need to know who you are trying to reach, and where to find them. That's where hiring a Los Angeles marketing firm like ours can help. We have experience helping hundreds of businesses effectively allocate their funds for marketing and running high quality, high impact campaigns that bring results to businesses bottom line.

Messaging

Never underestimate the value of good, clear marketing messages. Anyone can create an ad on social media, but to get results, you need to create multi-channel, clear messaging that cuts through the noisy marketplace of ideas and competitors. On average it takes 8 touch advertising messages before someone recognizes your brand. This means, you need to invest in more than one marketing channel. We recommend at least 3 marketing channels for an effective campaign. What is the offer and why should your prospective customer choose you over your competitors? You need to communicate this to your prospective customers in a very short amount of time. No longer do people have to listen to your television or radio ad. In order to be relevant you need to be highly targeted and compelling in your messaging. You need to stand out from the crowd and quickly explain how you will solve customer problems. You need to identify your specific customer's problem and pain point and then tailor your message to your customer's needs. Creating a compelling offer and communicating the unique value of your firm over others is something that takes time and strategy. Once you've determined your unique brand message, creating the right offer can get movement on your campaign and customers willing to try out what you offer.

Best possible service & experience

Next, overwhelm your customer with the best possible service and experience to create raving fans, who tell their friends, leave great reviews, and spread your brand message.

Repeat & Grow.

If you want help crafting your marketing plan for 2021, let's talk. Schedule a free no-obligation appointment today to discuss your goals for the new year.