Here is how to get the most out of marketing budgets.
1. Invest in what works best
Set up your goals to effectively measure the source and quantity of leads or sales. Then find out what sources or channels generate the majority of sales to tune up your budget allocation. Identify the top 20 percent of your traffic sources that generate 80 percent of good results. Focus your budget on that.
2. Stay in control.
Instead of spreading your budget thin on a large variety of platforms, focus on the ones where you are in full control of both targeting and cost. The more control you have on what you can spend your budget on, the more you will be able to get rid of what does not work and focus your limited resources on.
3. Don’t scale up until it’s profitable.
Any marketing campaign, online or offline, should be started on a small scale with narrow targeting. Once it is profitable, the campaign can be scaled.
The reasoning is, the profit from the initial campaign creates a buffer for potentially unprofitable additional campaigns and business owners know exactly what works well
4. Align all marketing efforts.
Communicate the same message across all the channels including includes accounts that you may have never used for paid campaigns. Social media accounts and similar branding efforts are never free and should be seen similar to paid marketing solutions, such as print collateral and paid online advertising campaigns.