7 Tips for Planning Your 2019 Digital Marketing Budget

We have helped a lot of clients to define their digital marketing budget and so we can tell you how challenging it is to decide on how much you should spend on your marketing.

In this article, we have listed a few tips for effortless budget, defining a process that will give you a helping hand in reaching your goals.

#1 Identify Your Marketing Goals for 2019

Now that 2019 is here, you must have already figured out the boom and bust of your previous marketing plans. It’s time to set out your digital marketing goals for 2019. Before you kick start and fill the fuel, it’s important that you know where you want to go. Otherwise, you will end up going nowhere and wasting your fuel. Ensure that your marketing goals are clearly defined and specific. Outset by defining long-term goals and later breach them in short-term ones. This will help you identify what amount of allowances and number of new leads you will need to bring in.

#2 Be Strategic

Does your website need a makeover? Should you start a blog? Or invest in paid ads?

Before you decide on all of this, you need to have a strategic marketing plan and to create it, you need to create a powerful goal. But before that, you need to determine sales team goals and your organization’s vision. Next, analyze the areas in your marketing strategies that coordinate with these goals. Lastly, put together all of these plans and set up a budget around it. We assure, if you take it in this order, the chances are you will definitely get it right.

#3 Determine Your Marketing Channels

Digital marketing is all about publicizing your products through different channel options. It is highly recommended that you make use of more than two channels to reach your audience.

Here are some of the most widely used marketing channels:

• Content Marketing: Creating a content that is informative, entertaining and valuable will get you a long way. Content plays an important role in getting leads and building your presence in the market. You will gain your customer’s trust and also, they will start seeing you as an industry expert.
• Social Media Marketing: With the increasing use of social media among users, it has become one of the excellent platforms for businesses to build their online presence. Some of the best social media platforms are Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Do you appear on the first pages of search engines? If not, you are missing out the most important element of your digital marketing. One needs to optimize their website in such a way that your brand appears on the top results when someone searches something specific within your industry. This way you will receive more attention and expand your business.
• Pay Per Click (PPC): Pay per click is a type of paid campaign where you are charged only when someone clicks on your ad. You can fully customize it and define your target audience, target location, ad text, banner ads, etc.
• Email Marketing: Communicate with your audience by sending them emails, and increase engagements. You can even capture new leads by creating an effective email marketing campaign.

Also read: What is SEO and How Does it Work?

#4 Keep it Simple

A lot of platforms have evolved in the market to handle everything. Right from blogging to social media to email marketing availability of these many numbers of options can be daunting. To keep things simple, select an all-in-one platform that covers up all your needs.

HubSpot is one such platform for your digital marketing. It helps you keep your team organized and growing. Rather than having separate tools for different jobs, having one comprehensive platform will cut-down your maintenance and the cost as well.

#5 Seize Your Data

Google analytics and HubSpot reports provide you with a lot of useful data about how the audience is engaging with your brand.

However, it is crucial to understand that which data will make a significant difference.

To begin with, start by grouping the data. The 3 main classifications of the data that will serve your digital marketing purpose are:

• Conversion Data– The actions that contribute to converting potential leads to customers.
• Awareness Data– The traffic and its sources.
• Consideration Data– This includes sales qualified lead and marketing qualified lead information. Also known as, SQL and MQL respectively.

Also read: How to Increase Your Website Performance? 

#6 Eliminate the Non-Essential

While it is important to build a strong marketing plan, you also need to make sure that you don’t keep on adding elements that may outreach your budget. Utilize only the data that you really need and cut-off the excess which you cannot directly tie to your strategic marketing plan.

#7 Expert Advice

We know that setting a budget is an intimidating task and that’s why we are here for.

If you are still not sure where to start with, taking help from a marketing agency might be of great help. An experienced marketing team will be advantageous as they have more hands-on working with multiple brands. Taking the help from such agency will also cut down your cost of hiring new resources.

You can define your budget and ask the experts to manage your digital marketing that fits within your planned finances. Besides this, they will help you achieve your goals as you are their client and will put you as their priority.

Bottom Line

Every business is different and thus, you cannot just use a marketing strategy of any other business for your own. You need to learn, educate yourself and study the current marketing trends. Later you can mix them up and create a new marketing strategy that will suit your business. Once your strategy is defined, you can then set up a budget and set out your 2019 marketing plan.

If you still haven’t planned your marketing plan/budget you still have time. Setting up a solid budget plan will put you in a great position this year.

It doesn’t matter, if you are still not clear about your strategies/ budget. We have complete experience and knowledge in this area and thus, we will help you prioritize your goals, figure out your marketing activities, and diagnose gaps in your existing strategy.

For any questions about preparing your budget for 2019, we are always happy to assist you. Contact us today and get in touch with one of our experts and get helpful budgeting tips.