How Big Should the Marketing Budget Be for Your Small Business?

Entrepreneurs often wonder how much they should budget for marketing. Unfortunately there are no convenient formulas to figure this out; for the most part it depends on: What kind of activities you plan to undertake The minimum investment needed to move the dial What the competition is doing This post will touch on these three ideas – I hope they help you put together the best possible budget for your small business. Marketing Activities: Time vs. Money Some marketing activities are labor-intensive and some are dollar-intensive. For instance, social media marketing is incredibly labor-intensive, but requires very little cash outlay. In contrast, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising cannot be undertaken without a monthly ad spend of a few hundred dollars to several thousand, over and above whatever campaign management fees apply. Many entrepreneurs gravitate to social media, content marketing and blogging because they are low cost – but are they? Whatever you calculate the value of your time to be – $50/hour, $100/hour, $500/hour – these “free” marketing activities can become an enormous productivity drain, keeping you from taking on other business-building tasks that hold greater potential. If you spend 20 hours a month on these activities, that’s $1000/month, if you value your time at $50/hour. After you make this calculation for your situation, consider: What kind of return am I getting on this $1000/month (or whatever) investment? If I stopped these activities,...
Source: Phil Gerbyshak - Category: Life Coaches Authors: Tags: Marketing Source Type: blogs