Are you absolutely sure that your marketing budget could not be managed better? Are you happy with the profits your marketing generates or do you often desperately chase cash?

OK, numbers might not be the most favourite area of marketing, but if you are in charge of your company, or you simply care enough for the company you work for, finance should be of major interest to you.

We all have to measure our finances, using an approved accounting system. We may hate it, but it is a requirement by law.

However, there is much more than just finance we need to measure. You should set up marketing measurement and monitoring of the at least some of, but not limited to, the following key success metrics. These need to in turn be discussed and reviewed at all of the management meetings:

• Number of leads for the month
• Value of leads for the month
• Sales made for the month
• Number of new sales
• Value of new sales
• Number of outstanding opportunities
• Value of outstanding opportunities
• Referrals gained
• Testimonials received
• Number of sales calls per rep
• Number of sales calls made
• Marketing expenditure for the month
• Customer complaints

You should have a general idea of how many leads you need to generate from individual marketing campaigns, where to get them and how much money you can spend to get these leads next year. However, when setting up a marketing budget, it is crucial that we allocate it to the most profitable customer groups – and that’s what this post is all about.

Look back at your marketing strategy and divide this total number of leads between individual customer groups and ways to approach them. Then assign a monthly budget to the individual customer groups, based on the total value the individual marketing campaigns are meant to generate.

If you want to learn more on how to set your marketing budget, you might want to click here now.

You have everything well thought out, you have a brilliant idea that will turn into 1000000000000’s in profit, you’ll retire by 38 and you’ll spend the rest of your life at the Bahamas…  Nice!

BUT, hey, stop for a moment, have you done your homework and made sure all these dreams are at least half real? Have you done a proper research, have you identified potential clients’ needs and wants, do you know what you are actually going to sell and how will you explain the value to people?

There’s a hell more to it, and it actually can be a great fun – just have a look at this article on how to launch your product SUCCESSFULLY. Guaranteed.

Do you know how much you spent on marketing last year? Was it time and money well spent? Are you 100% sure that if you apply the same methodology for the following year, your business with soar?

They say it’s the biggest madness to believe that, while doing the same thing again and again, the results will be better. That’s why you should try different things all the time until you get it really right and you achieve growth and success you dream about.

So how should you go about your marketing budget for the next year and what could be a good idea to try out?

Do you want to see a simple formula which would tell you how much you should spend on marketing? Every business owner will understand this and, what is more, it will also give you some tips on how to use marketing budget wisely, so that it generates leads that turn into sales. Effectively. Read the full article here.

I mean it, don’t even think about hiring a marketing consultant unless you actually are prepared to do the following.

• Clearly define what you hope to achieve from marketing
• Understand how your clients will benefit
• Set some revenue goals for marketing and sales
• Set a realistic budget – about 5-10% of revenue is reasonable
• Look at how good you are at turning leads from marketing into sales.

Until you do this simple exercise, unless the expert marketing consultant or sales specialist you hire will COST you money – not MAKE you money.

So go on be honest and if you want some help in determining that – we have a free business health check that will;

1. Focus your mind on your goals
2. Discuss how realistic they are
3. Take action

Good luck and may better planning help you acheive even more than luck.

Peter