Every business owner knows that marketing can go over budget very rapidly. Ads alone can cost anywhere from five dollars to over ten million dollars. Then one includes the cost of a complete marketing team, the photo shoots, video shoots, and CRMs – and your marketing budget can go from $0-$100,000,000 in a very short time.
Business Success Consulting Group CEO Adi Klevit discussed this issue with the founder and CEO of InstantlyRelevant.com, Thomas Helfrich. They also talked about inbound marketing strategies and ways to systematize marketing efforts so that a company stays on budget.
This article shares the information they discussed regarding staying on budget, but there is much more data in the podcast episode itself. Be sure to listen to the entire interview!
Ten Principles That Will Improve Your Marketing Processes and Keep Your Team On Budget
As you work to improve marketing processes, your team can easily be driven over budget by adding “should dos” and “let’s tries.” Here are ten principles you can follow to improve your marketing processes and keep your team on budget:
1. Ensure you have a clearly defined goal.
It’s easy to get nebulous with marketing. You may think, “Well, I need to market my company, so as long as there is some marketing outreach, it’ll all work out.” Often, generalized goals will not get you the ROI you truly want.
Instead, define your goal clearly and refine your marketing process so that you can take the most focused path to that objective.
2. Don’t follow a particular marketing process because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
Another trap that business owners and marketers fall into is following a specific process or procedure because you’ve always done marketing that way. Look at each step of the system and ensure there is a reason that action must occur. Additionally, consider what steps may be missing. If your plan isn’t providing the results you want, then additional steps are likely needed to bridge the gap between what is happening now and your ideal scenario.
3. Follow processes with a proven result.
While we encourage business owners to refine their marketing systems, it’s also essential to follow those processes that really work. If you have a particular process that always brings in customers, follow that process over and over. While there are always shiny new things that can be done in marketing, it’s vital to keep doing what has worked for your business rather than following a trend.
4. Make sure there are clear measurables to tell you if the process is working.
Tracking marketing metrics is vital as you build and refine processes. There is no way to know if the system you are following is working without measurables. So, make sure to have those metrics in place.
5. Ensure your entire marketing team has access to systems, understands metrics, and knows the goal they are working toward.
Marketing teams can consist of all employees, employees and contractors, contractors only, or an outside agency. In all of these scenarios, it is vital to inform the entire team of the metrics and goals your business needs to reach to ensure they are all on the same page. Additionally, they all need access to the successful processes and procedures your company has developed to have a basis from which to operate.
6. Don’t try to repeat best practices found in another company as your entire marketing strategy.
Often, smaller companies will try to repeat a larger company’s best marketing practices- which may spell disaster for their marketing budget. Large companies with millions to spend on ads can afford to employ different marketing strategies than a smaller company. Even as you grow as a business, be sure to keep your scrappy marketing strategies that work, while adding in the big ticket items like ads.
7. Use proven processes that build on past efforts.
One method that Thomas recommends for maximizing a marketing budget is to build on past efforts. This may mean fostering current customers, utilizing word of mouth and testimonials, and leveraging your network to expand.
You can control your marketing budget more effectively by building on past marketing efforts and utilizing connections instead of ads.
8. Build processes that bring about community.
You will discover processes that provide value and connection as you develop your network. These may include offering and delivering webinars, taking customers out to coffee, attending networking events, or chatting on social media. Document the processes that foster the most significant connection and help you to build community.
9. Ask for community help (you can also build a process around this)
If you have happy customers, build a process around getting testimonials and referrals. They may be willing to do a written, audio, or video testimonial you can utilize in your marketing.
Some of Thomas’s favorite questions are:
“What did you expect from us that you got?”
“What did we do that you didn’t expect?”
“If you had not used our service, what would you have missed?”
Additionally, these same customers are excellent referral sources. If you have fostered a genuine connection with them, you can ask them for referrals or an introduction to people who might also enjoy your service/product.
Thomas shared an example of how his life insurance provider often takes him out to lunch and asks him for referrals. However, there was a rapport built before they got to this point. They connected personally, then Thomas felt comfortable telling his friends about this particular insurance agent.
Building a referral process that makes you comfortable with asking for referrals is vital to networking, marketing, and expanding your business.
10. Don’t depend on one single method for bringing in leads.
The best way to bring in leads is to have a variety of working processes. This way, if one method stops working (perhaps due to a global pandemic or recession?) your others will continue to prop up your business as you find new marketing processes.
So, don’t just publish articles on LinkedIn and assume that will bring in all of your B2B clients. Instead, publish articles, interact with commenters, comment on other articles, offer freebies like webinars, take people out for coffee, offer a cheaper or free hour of consultation, showcase images of your work on Google, set up signs, etc.
It can be a challenge to keep your marketing on budget. However, with proven processes, your team can make it happen.
If you need help documenting your marketing processes, get in touch with Business Success Consulting Group. We are your business systems experts.
