What do Kellogg’s, Amazon, and Airbnb have in common? When economic times were tough, these three companies increased their marketing spend.
- Kellogg’s – The Great Depression (1929-1939)
- Amazon – The Great Recession (2007-2009)
- Airbnb – The Pandemic (2020-2023)
They knew when times get tough, the tough get going. Most of our clients say consumer spending is down. And one of our more colorful Texas friends says his business is “out where the buses don’t run.” Here are some of the steps you can take to plan your marketing budget for the next year and years after that.
Review 2023
When you’re setting goals for the future, review the past, and it’s time to inventory 2023. By “inventory,” we mean review the year in terms of financial and brand-building outcomes.
Analytics are what you need to help you “see” your year in review. How did your digital marketing perform in terms of:
- Action – This is the measurement of digital actions taken by your potential customers. It includes every click, page visit, and every action…like subscribing to a newsletter or submitting email/contact information.
- How to improve it in 2024 – Action is driven by content. “Content-centric insights (aka content mapping) can move your audience from visitor to customer,” says the analytics management pros at Optimizely. You can gain increased visibility by “making informed decisions about content creation.”
- Engagements – These numbers are the internet visitors who followed, liked, shared, or commented on your content.
- How to improve it in 2024 – If your engagement is low, begin with revamping your current content and increasing the opportunities for visitors to click.
- Impressions – How many times has your content been displayed but not necessarily “hit” or visited?
- How to improve it in 2024 – Improve your content to encourage visitors to click.
- Page previews – A reader/visitor sees a link to your business and “hovers” above it. The page preview then displays, and that reader can decide if your preview is inviting enough to click on your link.
- How to improve it in 2024 – See “page views” below. As always, ensure your content maximizes its magnetism for click-ons and click-throughs.
- Page views – This is the number of times visitors clicked on your “About Us” or company profile page.
- How to improve it in 2024 – Get your business “out there” by engaging more with other websites, running ad campaigns, or developing an influencer marketing campaign.
- Reach – This is the number of visitors that have seen your internet content and clicked.
- How to improve it in 2024 – Encourage those clicks to click-through (conversions).
Identify Your Priorities (Hint: There’s Just One)
Now that you’ve gathered information about your 2023 marketing results, examine what worked and what didn’t work. One digital marketing manager said if you’ve never had your data analyzed and reported before now, “You’re already fighting against the current.” It’s December, but there’s still time!
Using year-over-year (YoY) measurement formulas will reveal KPIs (key performance indicators). If that level of analytic intensity is already threatening, identify a low-cost 2023 campaign that yielded profitable results. Putting a percentage of your digital marketing budget into similar efforts may be the way to go.
Your priority for 2024 is understanding how you can help customers get what they want.
To do this, base your decision-making on the customer journey:
- Customer has need/question.
- Customer begins searching internet for solutions.
- Customer evaluates/compares choices.
- Customer narrows choices to 1/2 companies.
- Customer makes a purchase.
- Customer reviews/shares experience.
Content Drives Digital Marketing
Digital marketing strategies involve developing and managing ongoing high-level content. If you don’t have a professional marketing manager, you should create a quarterly content calendar.
- Identify events or important dates.
- What are the customers’ needs? How can your content meet those needs?
- Develop your list of keywords that target the event and your customers’ needs.
- Set a timeline for content creation and publication.
Content should always have an objective and a strong CTA (call to action). Your content should:
- Build brand trust
- Hold audience interest
- Overcome objections
- Showcase advantages/benefits of your product/services and the positive outcomes
Professional Marketing Budget Development
Gartner says digital marketing budgets for 2024 may have to do more with less. Last year, the top 10 marketing investment channels were:
- Social
- Digital video
- Influencer
- Digital display
- SEO
- Retail media
- Content/messaging
- Digital audio
- Search
“Spaghetti marketing” is marketing your business without strategy. It’s not necessarily a bad idea; you employ several digital marketing methods to see which ones are more profitable. Unfortunately, you’re also throwing money in several directions. Often, it turns out to be more like handing a toddler a can of SpaghettiOs. It goes all over the place.
Let us help you develop a marketing budget for 2024 that can provide long-term value, even during uncertain economic times. We have valuable resources and the time to discover what your business needs – and what your customers want.
Here’s our CTA for you: Call 512-632-5662 today or contact Modern Marketing & Media online.
FAQs
Two of the frequently asked questions we receive about digital marketing budgets include:
A: About 9-10% of your total revenue should be allowed for your digital marketing budget. Software titan Salesforce takes it further. Marketing budget breakdowns are:
- B2B companies
- 18% Advertising
- 17% Technology
- 16% Account-based marketing
- 14% Content
- 14% People
- 14% Research
- 6% Other
- B2C companies
- 23% Advertising
- 21% Technology
- 18% Content
- 17% People
- 16% Research
- 6% Other
