Whether you are a large corporate chain or you just started your very own neighborhood watering hole, properly marketing your business is paramount to achieving success - especially in this increasingly oversaturated market. However, many businesses are inconsistent with their marketing efforts, which can lead to their marketing strategy not having as much success as they would have hoped. A major step in creating a consistent marketing plan for your business is to develop a budget for your promotions. Here are a few steps that you can take to ensure you are optimizing your marketing budget and ensuring consistency among your advertisements.
1. What are your marketing goals?
Before deciding how much you hope to allocate to your promotions, you first need to have a clear understanding of what your marketing goals are. It’s important to have goals that are specific and measurable to gauge the success of your eventual marketing strategy. Ask yourself questions about your goals in order to have the clearest understanding of them. Here are a few questions you could ask yourself in order to make your sure your goals are specific and measurable:
- What increase in revenue per month would I need in order to judge this marketing strategy as a success?
- How many phone calls should I expect to receive as a result of my promotional strategy?
- What increase in gaming revenue would be considered a good target?
These example questions will help you measure the success of your marketing strategy and goals. They will lead you to specific numbers you would like to reach, while allowing you to know for sure whether the marketing plan was a success.
2. Develop Your Marketing Strategy
Once you have confirmed what your marketing goals are while ensuring they are specific and measurable, your next step is to create a holistic marketing strategy. Choose which channels would be the best fit for your specific brand and will help you best promote to your target audience. It’s important to really stick to your marketing strategy as defined by your marketing budget in order to not overspend or underspend.
Keep historical data in mind when creating your marketing strategy. By comparing revenue from a month in 2023 (before implementing your marketing plan) to the same month in 2024 (after implementing your marketing plan), you will be able to measure the true effectiveness of your marketing plan. It’s also important to give your marketing strategy time to have the impact you are hoping for. There’s an old saying that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and the same rings true in terms of your marketing strategy. Do not be discouraged if your strategy does not lead to immediate results, often it will take some time to reach and stay with your target audience.
3. Create a Marketing Budget
Once you have formulated a marketing strategy by incorporating your marketing goals, your next step is to create a marketing budget. A marketing budget involves allocating your funds to various promotions, advertisements, co-op graphics, and whichever channels you choose to market your business on. Your marketing budget directly supports your marketing strategy. Accel recommends consistency in allocating funds to various channels. For example, if you are spending $1,000 on Instagram ads in November and it’s making a positive impact on revenue, you should continue to spend $1,000 on Instagram ads in December. This will create consistency within your brand and promotional schedule.
Remember, a marketing strategy can directly lead to increased interaction with your business. However, without a well-thought out marketing budget, the marketing strategy will not be as effective as you may hope.
Check out Accel’s other resources on how you can market your small businesses here: https://www.accelentertainment.com/blog
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