7 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Your Marketing Strategy
1. Setting a Budget That’s Too Detailed
Just as your overall business expenses vary from month to month, so will your marketing expenses. Not accounting for this fluctuation in spending may give you an inaccurate view of your finances. Setting a marketing budget that’s too strict will limit marketing opportunities for your business and will make it more difficult to effectively drive traffic and sales.
This is where it’s important to account for unforeseen circumstances. You might one day have to foot a bill for something unexpected – like a company-wide event – or cut marketing costs in a revenue slump, and failing to plan for that will hurt your business in the long run. It’s a good idea to start a savings fund to anticipate such unforeseen expenses in your business.
2. Reviewing Expenses Irregularly
Just as you review your marketing plan regularly, so should you review your marketing budget regularly. Keeping an eye on your marketing expenses regularly will give you a better idea of how well you’re staying on track with your overall plan. Don’t wait until the end of the year. By reviewing your expenses in shorter increments (monthly or even weekly), you’ll be more likely to notice where you can save money or where spending would be more effective in other areas.
3. Not Allocating for Outsourced Work Agencies
Let’s face it. There are times when you and your team are too swamped to accomplish everything you need to. Hiring an outsourcing firm is a cost effective way to supplement the work your marketing team does and bring your campaigns to life quickly. Budgeting for outsourcing to an agency can be tricky, as costs vary from project to project and not all outsourcing agencies charge the same rates. If you have experience working with outsourcing, looking at how much you’ve spent in the past will be a solid baseline for how much you’ll want to budget. If you’re new to working with agencies, get quotes to gauge how much you should expect to spend give us a call!
4. Disregarding the Little Things
You surely don’t want to forget to track large expenses, but what about the little ones? A social media tool subscription or quick outsourced project may seem insignificant at the time, but those little expenses add up quickly. Accounting for these smaller expenses in your budget will give you a more accurate idea of your finances. It will also allow you to see where you can cut costs and put that money towards more effective use in your marketing plan.
5. Spreading Your Advertising Too Thin
Not every marketing tactic works for every business – and there are a wide variety. Rather than spending your marketing budget on a large number of platforms, you want to focus your efforts across a select few— the few your target audience will engage with. This will result in more effective efforts, giving you the most bang for your marketing buck. Fewer platforms also make it easier to maintain control of your marketing and present a cohesive message across all channels.
6. Setting and Forgetting Your Budget
With everything else you have going on, it’s easy, and perhaps tempting, to set and forget your budget. In order to create and maintain an efficient marketing budget, you have to view it as a living document. As your marketing plan evolves and other expenses come into play, you’ll need to tweak your budget to reflect those changes. When you see trends in reality, like revenue increases, paid advertising decreases, new software purchase and more, you need to alter your budget to account for those changes in the coming months.
7. Rushing Through Your Budget
We understand financial management isn’t the most exciting part about marketing a business — but it is one of the most important. Creating a solid budget for your marketing plan isn’t something you want to rush through. Doing so will result in more time spent working on your marketing plan down the road. Spend the time early on to create a well-planned budget. That way, you’ll be able to confidently stay within your marketing budget throughout the year and tweak it only when necessary.
Taking these common budget blunders into account when planning your marketing budget will save you loads of time and money. You’ll know which pitfalls to avoid when planning for your marketing budget, allowing you to plan for and create more effective marketing strategies from the get-go.
If you feel this information is overwhelming or you just want to run some ideas past our team, just give us a call. We would be happy to help.
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