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Category: Marketing Strategy

  • Anchor Your Annual Marketing Budget in Reality

    Anchor Your Annual Marketing Budget in Reality

    A DIY Guide to Designing a Budget that Fits Your Business

    When you look at your business’ budget, do you have a category specific to marketing? Or does it feel like it’s just taking away from something else? Just like with a home who’s AC has broken down – if you don’t have it in your budget, it’s going to be painful when you really NEED it. So building in a category for marketing is a smart business move. But, if you’re like most business owners, you’re likely wondering how much you should spend, what to plan for, and maybe, where to even start?

    A great time to work on figuring your budget is when you’re already planning for the new year (that is something you do, right?). Creating a marketing budget to match your annual strategic marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. Let’s walk through it step-by-step:

    Step 1: Determine what you want your marketing to do for you.

    Ask yourself these three questions and answer them honestly – get rid of the “shoulds.”

    1. What do you want to accomplish this year?
      Use your marketing plan as a roadmap; if you’ve already followed my TIDE Framework for an Annual Marketing Plan You’ll Actually Use, this question is likely already answered! If not, then consider your goals and what you might need to do to reach them.  
    2. What’s realistic for this stage in your business?
      Take a look at your revenue for this year and what your anticipated revenue is for next year (if you’re not sure, this may be a good time to tag in your CPA or financial advisor) to determine a reasonable amount that you can put toward marketing.
    3. What do you actually need to do based on where you’re at in business? 
      Once you have clarity on your goals and the financial boundaries you’re working with, you can look at what’s required and what makes the most sense for right now to pull it all together. Maybe your website is ready for a refresh, your branding could be stronger or more market-aligned, or maybe you’re looking at growth methods. Depending on what you’re working toward, it might be time to invest in design support (so you’re not DIYing), strategic advertising (to reach the right strangers), or email marketing (to warm up your prospects and clients).

    Step 2: What Categories Can You Leverage for Your Marketing Budget?

    Before you start assigning dollar amounts, it helps to break your marketing needs into clear categories. When you categorize your investments, you can prioritize to make sure every dollar has purpose.

    Of course, every business is different. Here are some core categories to consider:

    This focuses on ensuring your business looks and feels consistent to create the best customer experience. This can include items like your visual identity, daily-use templates, brand photography and brand messaging. (If you’re not sure which pieces of your branding need attention, download my Brand Touchpoint Checklist self-audit.)

    If your business has not yet launched or just recently launched, expect to allocate 75-90% of your budget to this category.

    With or without your involvement, your business exists online, and  it’s usually the first impression that people see. You, as the business owner, want to control your online presence so it can build trust and connect you with your ideal clients. Online digital presence can include your website, social media, directories, and search engine visibility (SEO).

    Product-based businesses tend to allocate more energy/funds to an SEO campaign because they’re trying to reach strangers, while service-based businesses rely more heavily on referrals and word of mouth, and don’t need as strong of an SEO campaign. 

    The most important thing to keep in mind is that your online presence is ever-changing; you need to be updating your photos and content as your business grows and evolves.

    I always advocate for my clients to do their own content creation whenever possible. Who can tell your story and show what your business offers better than you, the creator? Content creation can include blogging, email newsletter writing, social media campaigns (paid and organic), and video. All of these efforts are designed to showcase your knowledge and the quality of your work, and it’s hard to recreate that passion as a third-party. If you choose to outsource, make sure you’re actively involved in the process.

    Advertising campaigns are your intentional (and most often paid) efforts to get in front of the right people at the right time. Advertising isn’t going to be a one-size-fits all effort; not all businesses will even need to pay for advertising. A lot of business owners think that the only way to advertise is on social media, but other options include Google Ads, paid directories, ads on/in specialized publications and websites, and, of course, physical advertising like postcards and flyers.

    The key to successful advertising is to understand your ideal market: where they spend time, how they digest information, and what speaks to their values and needs best.

    An oftentimes overlooked category, software subscriptions that help you market are a key piece of a marketing budget, and will likely recur monthly or annually – though some businesses can leverage free versions for the first few years. Some examples of marketing-related software that you may need to pay for include:

    • A Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) that will help you manage your business/client relationships in several different forms, including book of business tracking, task tracking, and in some cases, social media management and email marketing. One of the most popular CRMs out there is Hubspot. 
    • A social media management scheduling tool (i.e. Later, Sprout, Hootsuite, Buffer)
    • An email marketing platform (i.e. Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Kit)
    • Design tools that help you create if you’re DIYing (i.e. Canva, Adobe, CapCut)
    • Email signature host (i.e. Wisestamp, Signature Hound)
    • Website Design/Hosting (i.e. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, WordPress plugins, BlueHost, etc.)

    As a business owner, you’re busy running the day-to-day operations (working in the business) and doing the tasks that are going to bring in revenue. So spending time working on the business and doing the back-end marketing tasks that take time and energy is taking away from those revenue-generating opportunities. If you’re spending an unbalanced amount of time not actively making money, then it might be time to outsource.

    Here’s a real example: A business broker is going to be focused on communicating with clients who are interested in buying and selling businesses. Their focus is on in-person opportunities, networking, and finding their next client. To help in those tasks, they need an active content strategy in email or on social, and once they’re in the process of selling a business, they need outstanding materials that support the sale happening quickly. Passing these tasks on will help the business broker save time and energy, allowing them to focus on where the business needs them more: meeting new people and building relationships.

    Step 3: Pick a Marketing Budget Level 

    When it comes to setting aside a dollar amount, the options will vary. The right investment depends on where your business is today, the goals you’re working toward, and how much growth you’re ready to support. The easiest way to approach marketing budgets is to break them into three levels. Each tier will give you room to choose what fits your business, and what you realistically need in the short- and long-term. 

    • Low Budget ($3,000 – $7,500/yr):
      Ideal for new businesses and tight budgets. If you are a new business, be prepared to spend the majority of this budget to get you off the ground. I would highly recommend making sure you spend the money to set yourself up the way you imagined your business, rather than starting small and having to go back and change things later (i.e. don’t settle for ‘good enough’). If you have the ability, set aside a “launch budget” and then a separate marketing budget, even if it’s smaller for that first year.   This looks like:
      • You DIY most your marketing
      • You write most of your own content
      • You are not paying to advertise 
      • You are strategically and sparingly calling on your consultants for help (trading time for money)
    • Medium Budget ($8,000 – $30,000/yr): 
      Ideal for the business owner ready for consistent, attainable growth without having to do everything themselves. Most often a long-term, repeatable budget. This looks like:
      • You outsource at least half of your content and marketing tasks
      • Consistently investing in expanding your brand presence
      • You have systems in place that save you time (some paid, some free)
      • You are trying a lot of strategies to see what works best for you and your ideal clients
      • On the higher end of the budget, you’re likely running consistent monthly ads
    • High Budget ($30,000+/yr):
      Ideal for the business owners who have medium to large enterprises and are in aggressive growth mode. This looks like:
      • You outsource (nearly) all of your marketing tasks, or have brought on a marketing staffer 
      • You run aggressive conversion-centric ad campaigns 
      • You pursue media, PR, speaking, and podcast opportunities regularly
      • You no longer use free versions of systems because they don’t fit your needs

    Step 4: Revisit Your Marketing Budget Quarterly

    Marketing, and the budget that goes with it, is not a “set it and forget it” effort. You’ll need to revisit the plan and budget regularly to make sure you’re evaluating success, adjusting efforts, and amending the strategy as your business grows and changes. Checking quarterly and setting new goals annually is a great habit. Things to ask during your evaluation include:

    • What’s working? 
    • What’s wasting money? 
    • Where do you need more support? 
    • Where can you pull back? 
    • Consider what you don’t know. If a marketing effort still seems like a good idea but it’s not quite working the way you’d hope, you may need a consultant to help bring your ideas to fruition in a way that’s going to make the right impact on your business.

    Get Support for Your Marketing Plan, in Your Budget

    As the year winds down, this is the perfect time to pause, take a breath and take an honest look at how your business performed over the past year. 

    Whether you’re mapping out your very first marketing plan, choosing which budget level makes sense for this season of business, or realizing it’s finally time to outsource the work that is draining your time, I’m here to help. If you’re ready for guidance, clarity, or hands-on support with any of the items in this blog, I’d love to collaborate with you to make sure you start your year with a plan that feels aligned, intentional and sustainable.

    Schedule a Free Consult

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    Budget Must-Haves, Nice-to-Haves, and Cost-Saving Strategies

    Post Glossary

    • Market-aligned: Your ideal client isn’t everyone. Market-aligned means making strategic choices that make sense for your brand to best speak to the ideal person you want to work with. Click here to read a blog about determining who that is.
    • Email marketing: Sending out mass email to verified contacts through an email marketing platform like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Kit to advertise, share information, promote new products, etc.
    • Visual identity: Often includes the things that people see from your brand, like your logo, colors, fonts, icons, and other design style choices.
    • Brand photography: Most often references photos of you, your spaces, your team, and the tools you use daily. It can also reference the style of photography that you use in your marketing materials (i.e. people photos, landscape photos, grayscale vs. color, etc.).
    • Social media campaigns (paid and organic): Social Media campaigns are the strategic curation of content that you share on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter). Organic campaigns are the ones you’re putting out for free, and paid campaigns are the ones you’re paying real money to promote to the right people. Both can be effective when done well and consistently.
    • Conversation-centric ad campaigns: Your campaigns have gone from being designed to show prospects that you exist to being designed to sell.

  • How to Build an Annual Marketing Plan You’ll Actually Use

    How to Build an Annual Marketing Plan You’ll Actually Use

  • How to Choose a Business Name that Sticks

    How to Choose a Business Name that Sticks

  • What Are the Best Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Budget? Nine Key Tasks to Get You Started

    What Are the Best Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Budget? Nine Key Tasks to Get You Started

    If you’ve made the leap into being a small business owner, you know that clients aren’t just going to fall from the sky and pay you hundreds of dollars. (You do know that, right?)

    So what are the best ways to promote your business when you’re just getting started and don’t have a huge budget?

    The following nine tasks can help you be more visible to your ideal prospect and can help you convert them to an ideal client, faster.

    START HERE!

    1. Make a Plan for Your Small Business and Figure Out Your Offer

    You’ve started a business, yay!

    Now what? Where do you go from here? Start by making a plan! 

    Your plan should have a couple of key things in it:

    What you offer

    • Whom you’re offering it to
    • How you’re going to spend your limited marketing dollars
    • A timeframe
    • Goals to guide your progress

    This may seem like a waste of your time, because doing this right now isn’t making you any money. But the reality is that if you’re just doing work with no real rhyme or reason, you’re going to get burnt out and not know if your efforts have been worthwhile.

    Getting into the weeds figuring out details like your key offerings and ideal clients will allow you to measure future business decisions easier. You’ll be able to decide if your ideal client will benefit from you investing in something or offering something new or more niche. You’ll also know if you’re spending time on the right things because you’ll be able to judge them against these two metrics.

    Once you’ve made those decisions, you can set aside a dedicated marketing budget (remember, you have to spend money to make money!) and figure out how it’s going to be spent. When I go through this exercise with my clients, I like building out the framework for 12 months. This allows us to look at things like sending holiday cards, upcoming conferences you want to go to, and big networking opportunities.

    Defining a timeline and setting up measurable goals along the way will help you to know if the marketing efforts you’ve got in place are working, and if they’re not, you can dive into why not. Once you have your plan in place, add a block to your calendar once a month (I would recommend at the end of the month) to review and assess your progress.

    Want to know more about what this looks like? Tell me in the comments below, or book a call with me and we can go through this exercise for your business together.

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    2. Partner With an Expert

    No, this isn’t just in here because marketing is part of what I do.

    It’s here and number two on the list because you should be looking for and trusting people who are smarter than you! 

    Doing this early in your business development can give you more time to work on income-producing activities, and can give you the confidence to show up because you know things are getting done well.

    Consider this: if you’re a lawyer, you’re really good at contracts and serving your clients’ best interests, right? People come to you because you’ve been to school, spent time studying complex legal cases, and the state says you know your stuff. So why wouldn’t you do the exact same thing and trust someone who does what you need (CPA, Bookkeeper, Graphic Designer, Web Developer)?

    The largest benefit in finding a trusted partner that does what you need? You can get back to focusing on what YOU do best, and leave what THEY do best, to them.*

    This doesn’t just go for marketing professionals (but that is what I’m talking about in this blog). It can also mean hiring someone to take care of your books regularly, or hiring someone to write up your contract template one-time.

    *Yes, I know there are plenty of options out there for the DIY approach. But just because they exist doesn’t mean that you’re going to a) know how to use them, b) enjoy spending your time on them, or c) be able to use them to create an output that’s as good as hiring a pro and being done with it. Stop settling for good enough!

    3. Tackle Low Hanging Fruit First

    As a new business owner, what are the best first uses for your marketing dollars?

    I would argue it would be setting up your brand. That means figuring out what your business name is, what your logo looks like, and how you will present yourself to clients.

    That can go further into making sure you have branded documents, business cards, social media profiles, a branded email address, getting started on your website, and building a functional and beautiful email signature. 

    If you know that you don’t want your business name to be your legal name (e.g. Susie Smith, doing business as Susie Smith), you should allocate some marketing dollars to this first. Otherwise, you risk confusing clients down the road when you “all of a sudden” introduce a brand name and identity. And confused minds don’t buy.

    4. Make Yourself Discoverable Online

    So you’re out there doing good work and working with good people, but what if one of them wants to refer you to a friend? Where can that friend go to learn more about you?

    Let’s be real, if someone refers a friend to you, the friend isn’t going to just call you up (typically). They’re going to check you out online. They’re going to see if what you have to offer is actually what they need.

    And if they can’t find you, they’re going to have a hard time deciding on if they should call you. If they DO end up calling you even after they can’t find you… you’re starting that relationship off sans trust.

    Don’t do that to yourself!

    At the very minimum of minimums, have ONE really well-defined and active social media profile. Yes, even if you don’t like social media and don’t use it personally. You would be silly to believe that in this day and age, social media isn’t a search tool.  

    What’s better? Having a website that has all the things! 

    Your website is usually the one place online where someone can go to learn everything about your business. It showcases your brand, shares what you do, talks about who you do it for, and should include social proof (testimonials, portfolio items, links to social media, etc.) that says you know your stuff. 

    FREE OPPORTUNITIES

    5. Focus on Service

    Despite anything else you could be doing as a new small business owner trying to market themselves, you should be focusing on offering amazing customer service.

    Fantastic customer service is going to be the ONE thing that can wipe out any irregularities in your branding, and it is the most likely reason people will send you referrals.

    Folks just want to know that you “got this for them” and that you’re going to make sure it’s done right and done well. They want to know they can get in touch with you and ask questions. That you’re going to be their ‘go-to’.

    If you think about going to a store or restaurant where it felt like a breath of fresh air when interacting with the team members there, what did that look like? If you’re a Disney Adult like me, just think of the interactions with the cast members at any park. What do they do differently than most other retail establishments?

    They make you feel like the most important person in the world.

    Do that for your clients – the referrals will follow.

    If you want to read a book on how to create that experience, I highly recommend Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard! (That’s NOT an affiliate link.) It’s a quick read, I promise, and worth your time!

    6. Leverage Freebies

    For most people, a free marketing opportunity is social media. Getting online and creating content, interacting with content, and promoting your services is the best freebie there out there.

    Here’s my recommendation for which platform to use for your business – choose one and get really good at it before jumping to another:

    • Instagram: B2C creative businesses that have a process or product they can showcase.
    • LinkedIn: B2B professionals, showcasing thought leadership.
    • Facebook: B2B and B2C businesses. Setup a business page, but focus on building relationship in and promoting your business in relevant groups. Otherwise, you’re paying to play, and it’s not cheap.

    There’s an entire strategy behind how to create stellar content and promote it to the right people on social media. That’s not what we’re here to talk about. Just know that social media can be your best free marketing tool.

    If you’re a local business operating locally, especially as a brick and mortar, look for opportunities to:

    • Post on a community bulletin board
    • Host or sponsor events
    • Network with other businesses in the area
    • Place strategic and low-cost ads in relevant local places / publications
    • Tap into new, unusual, or unique markets in your area

    7. Don’t Be Afraid of The Hustle

    As a new business owner, you’re going to have to work for what you want.

    The internet revolution means that there are (probably) lots of other people out there doing what you do – but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it. 

    You’re going to be able to bring a whole new flavor and perspective to the business, and you should lean into what makes you different and better.

    But you’ve still got to want it, go after it, and hustle for it. (Not ‘hustle’ in the bad way, like stealing people’s money.) You’ll have to lean into the bad days, work through them, and figure out what’s not working when the clients and revenue aren’t coming in.

    You know how they say that an animal can sense your emotions – good or bad? Clients are the same way. If you’ve got a bad attitude about your business and you’re feeling righteous and annoyed that it’s not making you a millionaire overnight, they’re going to pick up on that.

    Trust the process, do the things, and don’t be afraid of the work it’s going to take to achieve your version of success.

    8. Gather Social Proof

    Along the way of building your business, there are going to be things that say, “I know what I’m talking about.”

    Generally, those will be testimonials. For creatives, that might be a portfolio of projects. In other situations, it might be contest entries/wins, or mentions in a publication, or guest spots on a podcast.

    Regardless of what social proof looks like for you and your business, you should be gathering it all the time!

    Social proof is going to help convert people from a maybe to a yes.

    Put that ish everywhere. Make a highlight on your Instagram. Put it on your website. Post a blog about it. Send out an email blast that includes it.

    Just make sure you’re always gathering it.

    AND FINALLY…

    DON’T GIVE UP

    Look, I kind of already touched on this in the hustle tip above, but being a business owner is HARD. 

    You’re going to have good days and bad days. Hell, you’re going to have good months and bad months! 

    Things are going to throw you off course. Clients are going to fire you. People aren’t going to like you.

    The trolls are everywhere.

    That doesn’t mean you should give up on your daydream. If you felt strongly enough about building this business to get started, there is a reason for that! Lean into it, trust the process, and enjoy the ride.

    There are going to be businesses that don’t work out, and every situation is unique. But don’t be the business that didn’t work out just because things got a little hard. Give it everything you’ve got and look for new tactics and opportunities so that you can know that you tried everything before throwing in the towel.

    If this blog was helpful for you as business owner, tell me about it in the comments! If there is something you want to know more about, feel free to book a complimentary Idea to Execution call.