Every successful business must manage its finances prudently. Otherwise, they risk losing money and incurring massive debts

Marketing is a fundamental aspect of the business. You need to allocate sufficient funds for marketing. Many entrepreneurs are puzzled by it and they sometimes ask, what is involved in setting and tracking a marketing budget?

What is a marketing budget?

It is a financial document that sums up all the expenses that would be made on the promotion of your products/services to prospects and clients within a month, quarter, or year. Here are a couple of business budget templates to guide you.

https://smartsmssolutions.com/blog/118-sms-marketing/small-business/1466-business-budget-templates

Steps to creating and tracking a marketing budget.

• Set marketing goals - Your marketing goals should be clear to you and your team. Any project without clear goals might just be a futile endeavour. Marketing can be used to increase sales, raise brand awareness, improve brand reputation, acquire new customers, retain existing customers, or expand your market reach. Your objective could be one or a combination of these. Communicate your goal to your team and seek out their opinion.

• Research - Business promotion should not be a trial-by-error game. Thorough research should be done before choosing marketing campaigns. The research should focus on the proposed market/clientele and your competitor’s marketing strategy. Such research should not be based only on online information but also on field reports from your team. Research could also involve recruiting experienced marketing experts for your team.

• Consider other budgets - Marketing is just one aspect of running a business, you would also have to allocate funds for operational costs, remuneration of your staff, production, purchase of raw material, and debt servicing while still making profits. Your marketing budget should not be more than your operational costs or net profit, or else you might run at loss. Here are great tips on how to operate on a tight budget https://smartsmssolutions.com/blog/118-sms-marketing/small-business/1463-how-to-start-and-run-a-successful-business-on-a-tight-budget

• Execute the plan - After making the necessary preparations, the next step is to put your plan into action. Executing the plan in phases would help you to track your spending and progress efficiently. Prepare your progress report for each phase. Hold meetings with your team to share the progress report with them, and also ask for their feedback.

• Document spending - You can easily lose track of spending if you do not document it. Transactions should be documented as soon as they occur. If you prefer electronic documentation, it is safer to duplicate your transaction record on different devices. Here is a guide on creating a spreadsheet document for your budget. https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/business-budget.html

• Evaluate and audit - You need to determine the state of affairs of your marketing campaigns. Try to determine if they are meeting your goals and expectations. Be flexible with your plans, especially if it is not meeting up with your goals. Also evaluate the reaction of your competitors to your new marketing campaigns, if they attempt to imitate your campaigns try to innovate new ideas so yours’ can remain unique. You should also calculate the return on investment (ROI) on your campaigns.

Keeping your marketing expenses in check is not as difficult as you have thought, provided you follow the steps listed in this article. Finally, always keep an eye on trending digital interventions for your business.

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