In an age of instant results and DIY, many business owners assume they can do their own digital marketing, and attain desired sales results, without a budget. That does not work and never ends well.
It is always important for a business to have a digital marketing budget from onset.
A common rule of thumb is that B2B companies should spend between 2 and 5% of their revenue on marketing. For B2C companies, the proportion is often higher—between 5 and 10%. This is because B2C companies typically need to invest in more marketing channels to reach various customer segments.
However, Forbes advises that “if you want to maintain current revenue amounts, then 5% to 10% of sales allocated toward advertising may suffice”. An example would be, if you are making R100,000 a month, you must spend at least R10,000 for Sales and Marketing efforts.
This also can mean that, if you are expecting to earn R100,000 in the next month, you must at least spend R10,000 on Sales and Marketing.
A business, small or medium scale, can grow with a budget of 80% to 100% of this model of sales and marketing monthly budget based on revenue expected.
This budgeting model is not currently being used and is key to the closure of many Start-Ups in South Africa and Africa at large. To survive and grow in the various hash economic sectors, there is a need to have structured risk in business development.
In a HubSpot survey of 1,000 marketers, 47% of respondents reported that their budget would increase. Another 45% expect their budgets to stay about the same in the new year.
With an understanding of how to optimise sales and marketing you are able to reduce advertising costs per lead from R12 per lead to R3 without having to run the lead for long. These kinds of successes have been achieved by the Kupa Creative Group (Pty) Ltd, a South African based marketing business, for business with businesses in diverse industries in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, East Africa, Egypt, and West Africa since 2019.
Read full article “Optimise your Sales and Marketing Costs, but Dominate Digitally!” by Oscar Habeenzu, on Cabanga Magazine.
Oscar Habeenzu is a Digital Marketing Maestro, certified by Google, LinkedIn, WordPress and Cabanga Media Group, reinventing himself constantly with working experience of over fifteen years, where he has worked at junior and senior levels of Digital Marketing in four countries. He is a published author of “Building a Luxury Brand, Digitally”, “The Creator Economy of South Africa”.
