Should you keep your Marketing Budget?

The financial year has arrived and for many business’ it started a little lack lustre. With varying opinions on the state of the economy, one undeniable truth is that marketing budgets in business (irrespective of size) are being cut.

It’s an interesting observation that business’ only tend to market when things aren’t going well, they don’t have enough business or they forget all about marketing when business growth sets in.  Irrespective of which end of the spectrum you sit at, every single business fits into one of these categories.

With the new financial year upon us, many SME’s and marketing managers are left wondering what to actually do with their marketing budget. It is important to note that companies who have experienced strong growth and even stronger sales, have continued to marketing during the last financial year.  These companies may not have had the same level of budget as previous years, or even the same level of staff assisting with marketing incentives, however one thing is evident, continued sustained marketing activities HAS generated business.

Here is an interesting quote from Peter Drucker, an expert on business theory, “The purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two, and only two, basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.”

And if that wasn’t enough evidence on marketing here is another perspective from Larry Weber author of ‘Marketing to the Social Web’, “…As you have noticed people don’t want to be sold. What people do want is news and information about the things they care about’.  Marketing is a way of communicating to people the news and information they need, to actually start caring about your product or service.

Continuing to market helps your business achieve three things:
1. Keeps your branding strong and remembered by your audience,
2. It keeps you in constant contact with your audience about your product or service, and
3. It continues to aid your company’s growth through sustained, ongoing effort.

So now what will you do with your marketing budget? If your marketing budget has been cut, retrace any previous campaigns that were effective, see what did and didn’t work and what content can be regenerated.  Alternatively, if your marketing budget has remained the same but your sales targets have increased, consider what mediums you have in place that will assist with that sales or that will lead to a deeper engagement with your target audience.

If you are still not sure where to start then Stella Design can help you develop a communication strategy that fits into your marketing efforts to achieve the designed sales.

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