How to develop an inbound marketing budget

February 6, 2017

Rick Knutsen

Whether you have just stepped into the inbound marketing light, or have been basking in it for some time now, it’s always important to manage your spending. Here are some recommended steps to follow when developing your inbound marketing budget:

What are your goals?

Get clarity on financial goals for your business and how this translates to your product or service. Then set the goals of your marketing investment. Try to be as realistic as possible and understand the time frame that you will be working in. All of these will influence the size and scale of your budget.

What should you spend?

Before focussing on your inbound budget you will need to determine your total marketing budget. This is generally determined by allocating a percentage of revenue and depends on your industry, company size, brand establishment, and projected growth. The average company allocates about 30% of their total marketing budget to digital marketing. You need to understand customer behavior, competitors and your business to select the right portion for you.

What works best?

Evaluate which paid advertising strategy work best, from past experience or consumer research. Rank your inbound options in order of success. Consider technologies that can bring your effective tactics together. That is, combining email with content marketing, or linking your social media marketing.

What are the costs?

Estimate the price for each of your inbound options in order to determine your affordability and what gives you the biggest bang for your buck. If you have historical quotes, use those and adjust for annual increases. Otherwise, ask for a few estimates to get a feel for how much you would have to realistically allocate to each item.

What are the additional costs?

You will need to keep in mind supporting costs. Don’t forget items like travel, special events, training, hardware, specialist consultations, and maintenance. Your budget needs to make sustainable provision for your month-to-month costs over the period.

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About the Author

Rick spent 20 years in the insurance industry in finance, primarily developing reporting platforms for B & C stakeholders. His ability to speak to consumers of data (managers and analysts) and translate their needs to programmers led him to start his own digital marketing agency in 2004 to develop data driven solutions for business owners.

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