Introduction
Starting and growing a business to a stage where it will become an enviable business in the eyes of your competitor is no mean feat. From budgeting, sales, advertisement, lead generation to marketing, it can be a complicated process to start a business from scratch and grow it to a level where you want it to be. One of the areas you need to pay attention to as a business owner who plans to scale his or her business after startup is the area of marketing budget. Every step that one should take as a business person, funds should be budgeted for that step otherwise you may allocate your finances indiscriminately, and the bottom line may not be achieved.
There are so many advantages to setting a marketing budget. First, a marketing budget helps you to track all your finances in a systematic order. If you have a systematic marketing strategy, you need to develop or map out a marketing budget in order to be able to track your finances. Creating a marketing budget will also help you to determine the total amount that you spend on each phase of your marketing strategies. If you are overspending, the budget will notify you so that you can reduce your spending privileges. The biggest disadvantage of not having a marketing budget is that you may be overspending the resources that would have been allocated to pursue other business interests on just your marketing strategy alone.
Another advantage of having a marketing budget is that it will help you allocate your resources into the right places. When you determine the total amount that you spend to run your business, a marketing budget allows you to determine which strategy will work best and fit into your company’s objective or goals. Additionally, having a marketing budget can also help you set goals and business benchmarks. Whether your interest is to align your business objective with your IT strategy, or you simply want to stay on top of your game, you can set a marketing budget with ease.
Based on the budget that you have, you can realistically set expectations for the various marketing channels that you will deploy to market and promote your goods to your targeted audience. In light of the benefit of setting a marketing budget for your business, this article will focus on the top 3 tips that will enable you to manage your IT marketing budget, so that your business will become highly competitive in your target marketplace.
3 Tips To Manage Your IT Marketing Budget
#1. Establish your sales cycle
The first tip to keep in mind when managing your information technology marketing budget is to establish your business sales cycle. The moment you draw out your marketing budget breakdown, the next thing you want to do is to establish your business sales funnel; otherwise, you may be overspending your budget in areas that are not necessary. Your business sales funnel is very important in developing a marketing budget because it helps you determine the exact strategy where you should allocate your resources to. Your business sales funnel can be described as the processes that your customers or audience go through to become loyal customers.
Generally, a sales funnel is broadly divided into four stages, which include:
- Awareness category. This is the exact stage where your prospective customers or targeted leads become aware of your product or services and how your business can be of help to their pain points. It is at this stage that the customers will hear of your product or services and whether or not they are efficient enough to solve customers’ challenges.
- Consideration: the next stage of the sales cycle is what is called the consideration stage. This is a stage where your prospective customers will begin to consider whether or not to patronize your product or services. This is the exact point where your marketing team needs to emphasize the benefits of your product or services so that your targeted audience can be convinced enough to choose you as one of the viable options when looking to solve their pain points.
- Decision: the next stage of the sales cycle is called the decision stage. At this stage, a potential lead narrows down their choice of companies in order to choose the best one that will solve their pain points or problems. When a lead decides on a number of companies that are possible to solve their pain points, they will then move to the next stage which is known as the action stage.
- Action: The action stage is the stage where the lead will finally settle for your company and become a paying customer to your brand.
When you understand your business sales cycle, it becomes easy for you to manage your marketing budget efficiently and IT marketing services. You also are able to realise the exact spot or target market where your clients are located. You also are able to determine those errors and practices that may likely pull your potential lead out of your sales funnel.
#2. Know your outside costs
Another strategy to put in mind when managing your business IT budget is to know you’re outside costs. The moment you identify all your external costs, you will be able to prepare a marketing budget for your information technology activities. This tip or strategy is an eye-opener, particularly when you want to know the exact amount that each segment of your marketing cycle costs.
So what are the external costs that you should consider? In no particular order, the external costs that every IT related business should consider include the cost of employing staff, the costs of running your business, as well as the operational costs. As a business person, you should factor in this costs when developing your business plan; otherwise, the limited resources in your disposal may not go round to run your business in the way that it should be.
#3. Determine your business’s goals
The third tip is to determine your business’ goals. There is no guide or article that you will find on the internet that talks about the process of managing a business budget that won’t dwell so much on establishing a business goal. Knowing what you want to achieve and the time that you want to achieve it can help you set a realistic budget for your IT services or products.
Your business goal will help you determine where and how to source for leads and how to convert those leads into paying clients. When setting your business goal, it is important to focus on a wide range of areas like increasing your customer base, earning more sales, earning more subscribers, and increasing brand awareness.
Final Thoughts
Okay, that’s it. As you can see, establishing a marketing budget for your information technology company is a no-brainer if you want to properly allocate your limited resources in the right direction. The SEO Magnifier studies shows that, as you gain more experience navigating the business world you are going to meet some challenges that may take you are back however continue striving and you will be a Step closer to your dream business.