Written by Spot MarketingDecember 10, 2021

Why is December the most important time of the year for a company?

It’s not for the reason you think – your last chance to maximize sales and close the year out strong, although that’s crucial as well.

It’s the most important time because it’s when you should be devoting as much time as possible to reviewing the results from the year and planning your marketing for the following year.

Too often businesses just coast on autopilot and keep the same plans as the previous year because they don’t make the time to really evaluate them and make changes.

What worked? What didn’t? What new options are available? Has the creative gotten stale? Are there new products or services that need to be highlighted? Are there expanded audiences you should be reaching?

All these questions need to be posed and answered. Only with comprehensive strategic planning and evaluation (not just at the end of the year but throughout), can you maximize your return on investment from your marketing efforts.

And since marketing and branding drives your business, it should be the priority all the time, not the afterthought that many make it. It’s easy to let day-to-day operational duties and issues preempt the time that could be spent on marketing. If that’s the case for you, perhaps it’s time to consider working with a firm that can help examine your past year’s efforts, help you objectively evaluate the results and messaging, and then present you with a fresh look – keeping what worked and presenting some options that will be a better and more effective use of your marketing dollars.

And speaking of marketing dollars – how do you decide what to spend? Is it an arbitrary number? Is it a percentage of your gross sales? Is it as little as possible without considering what effect a bigger budget could have on sales? Is it balanced with other efforts through social media and branding through added value and customer service efforts?

All of these components can be evaluated by an experienced agency like Nug, which can do a comprehensive review and present you with a coordinated, integrated marketing campaign that will amplify your message and amortize the cost for elements across multiple channels.

Contact us today so we can get to work making 2022 your best year ever!

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Written by Spot MarketingApril 28, 2016

The Friendly Truth to Setting a Marketing Budget

Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, marketing is necessary for business growth. Many small businesses are not sure they have enough money to budget for marketing or they overspend without tracking their return on investment. Setting a marketing budget that coincides with your business goals will help guide you to success.

The unfortunate truth for companies with fantastic products and no marketing is that products and services will not sell themselves. However, a successful marketing campaign will allow you to grow at a rate unimaginable. The old saying “you have to spend money to make money” stands true when it comes to marketing your product or services. While that may seem obvious, the more difficult objective can be finding out exactly how much to spend in order to make more money and meet your business goals.

There are many factors that should be taken into consideration when setting a marketing budget. The basic rule of thumb, which may be a sigh of relief, is that the general percentage should be only around 1%-6% of your median revenue. So, a million dollar company would spend $10,000-$60,000 as a starting point.

In order to spend your budget wisely, you must have a plan. Knowing the market of your products and a realistic timeline of business growth will help you extend your dollar. With a goal-based marketing budget, you can define your business goals and develop a plan to meet these goals without over/under-spending. If you would like to grow by a certain number of clients or customers, develop a plan on how you will reach that goal and how much advertising will lead you there.

If you feel as though you could use some help setting up a marketing plan that will help you reach your business goals, give us a call! We can be reached at 503-477-4355, or give us a visit online @www.spotcolormarketing.com

 

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