Creating new marketing budgets is on the horizon as we kickstart the new year. Though marketers have ‘been there and done that,’ it’s not a simple task.
First, you see teams pigeonhole themselves by narrowly focusing on the previous year’s plan. On other occasions, budgets seem to ignore the potential new goals and opportunities.
Poor budgets stem from a lack of clear strategy or understanding of the market and audience. This leads to allocating funds based on ‘assumptions’ rather than tracked data and market dynamics.
Plus, brand awareness and impressions are not concrete numbers. So, planning a B2B budget around such data can be tricky.
No wonder we often come across factors marketers have missed. A few mistakes marketers commit when building budgets.
- Poor data
- Neglecting the role of data analytics
- Miscommunication between departments
- Resource allocation without clear objectives
- Investing in new trends without evaluating their effectiveness
- Sticking too rigidly to traditional strategies without adapting to the evolving market landscape
The list can go on.
Budgeting doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need is proper planning, open-mindedness, and a few tactics we’ll be sharing in this post.
#1. Set Marketing Objectives
A B2B marketing budget can turn abstract ambitions into concrete targets, ensuring that every marketing effort is aligned with overarching business goals.
A specific, data-driven objective is a must.
For example, Boost lead generation by 20% in the first quarter of 2024.
Next, determine how you will achieve this goal.
If they have shown high conversion rates, you can allocate a larger portion of the budget for LinkedIn advertising and email marketing campaigns.
How to do this?
#2. Calculate Total Budget
Your budget can make or break your marketing efforts. Hence, it is best to approach it with a balance of ambition and pragmatism that helps align your financial capabilities and strategic goals.
Two budgeting methods to follow:
- Goal-oriented budgeting
Align financial resources with strategic objectives to ensure your spending directly supports your key business goals.
#3. Determine What Channels You Want to Use
Budget categorization involves dividing it into different channels, each addressing a specific aspect of your marketing strategy.
Here’s a quick break up of the cost for each strategy:
#4. Research Strategy Prices
Once you choose the right channels, consider researching prices that help allocate each budget.
Researching strategy prices for a B2B marketing budget requires considering different hiring options:
Evaluate each option's long-term value and return on investment (ROI) by calculating the estimated revenue or cost savings achieved through the chosen marketing strategy.
For example, check how much additional revenue the content marketing generated from increased website traffic and lead conversions. And then compare this expected ROI with the budget allocated to content marketing to determine its long-term value. Lastly, choose the strategy that aligns with the marketing goals and budget constraints.
Now, if your strategy requires a wide range of marketing services, go with an agency. But, for highly specialized tasks, a freelancer would help. And, if you need more control over the talent, hire on-site.
#5 Allocate Funds
Precision and insight are key when allocating your marketing budget. It helps make informed decisions on where to invest your resources for the best return.
What’s an ideal solution here?
Use predictive analytics for efficient fund allocation
Historical marketing data helps identify patterns in customer behavior and campaign performance to optimize your spending. Analyzing trends in customer behavior and market dynamics paves the way for predictive analytics to forecast potential outcomes.
This allows for anticipating changes in customer preferences or market conditions.
For example, industry events and product launches have shown increased engagement with content marketing materials, such as whitepapers and past webinars. This indicates that allocating more budget to content creation and promotion for future launches or events could maximize ROI.
On the other hand, if data shows that paid social media campaigns yield lower engagement during these events, reallocate funds to enhance whitepapers and webinar production.
#6. Review Historical Data
A Forbes report suggests that data-driven businesses are 23 times more likely to attract consumers, six times more likely to retain customers, and 19 times more likely to be successful.
Monitor campaign cost by exploring marketing channels to gather past data like
- Sales figures
- Website traffic
- Conversion rates
- Email campaign metrics (open rates, click-through, email ROI, etc.).
- Using past data for budgeting
Past figures help compare your performance data against the marketing objectives you had set.
Calculate the return on investment for each channel and campaign.
How to do that?
For example, a 15% increase in website traffic is good, but there's room for improvement if your industry average is 25%. - Identify trends and patterns
Look for the following trends in your data.- Performance of specific content like videos, whitepapers, webinars, website articles, etc.
- Check seasonal variations in your campaign performances throughout the year. For example, a finance-driven B2B SaaS company may witness increased engagement and inquiries around the accounting year-end. Such insight requires allocating a portion of the marketing budget to ad campaigns, specialized content, and outreach efforts during these months.
- Track the promotion's effectiveness by comparing it with the sales data. If a 'free trial' ad led to a high rate of conversions to paid subscriptions, allocate a larger portion of your budget to similar promotions in the future for enhanced ROI.
Look for patterns that historically drove most leads, conversions, and customer retention.
Ideally, you’ll create a marketing ROI dashboard by leveraging customer behavior insights to analyze such patterns.
#7. Use the 70-20-10 Principle
The 70-20-10 principle is a strategic framework that can change how you allocate your marketing budget regarding safety, innovation, and experimentation.
Let's explore.
This 10% is also about learning because you can gain valuable insights even if a tactic doesn’t yield immediate returns.
#8. Adopting an Omnichannel Approach
An omnichannel approach requires integrating tools to get insights from different sources in one place. Like, with Revlitix, you get many integration modules for effective budget planning.
Once you do that…
Allocate funds for channels where
- Lead-to-conversion is high
- Customers are most active and engaged
#9. Track Campaign Performance
If your industry demands dynamism, agile marketing is the way to go.
It requires constantly tracking your spending, goals, and revenue to ensure they are aligned with the business vision. This helps determine which strategies yield the best ROI to make informed decisions.
Here’s how you can start tracking.
- Use advanced analytics tools
Tools like Google Analytics for web traffic, CRM systems for lead tracking, and social media analytics to track engagement.
For example, a CRM tool analyzes customer data to discover that leads from webinars, followed by email marketing, convert best. This insight may lead to allocating more budget towards webinars and targeted email campaigns. - Ensure regular monitoring
Make it a habit of reviewing your campaign performance regularly. This doesn't just mean looking at the end of a campaign but monitoring it throughout its duration.
Our tool's Alert feature helps customize notifications for campaign KPIs.
You get real-time feedback on what's working and what's not to allocate your marketing budget for the highest possible ROI.
How Revlitix Can Help Set Up Your B2B Marketing Budget
Our AI and ML-powered platform, Revlitix, has advanced features to help you set up your B2B marketing budget.
Here are the key features that can help.
- Revlitix Reports
A crucial asset to navigate the intricate process of creating and adjusting a B2B marketing budget.
It provides the funnel breakdown to offer clarity, actionable insights, and a comprehensive view of marketing performance. - Revlitix Pipeline
Our Pipeline leverages AI and ML to analyze the historical data and, accordingly, forecast future performance. Now, you can compare actual/expected results and a predictive outlook to your marketing goals.
You get real-time feedback on what's working and what's not to allocate your marketing budget for the highest possible ROI.
It doesn't end here.
We've also got perspective analytics that suggests what you can do if predicted results are short of expectations.
How does this help in the budget?
For example, if the reports show a drop in conversions at a certain funnel stage (like SQL, as shown in the image), you can allocate more budget to that stage to boost conversion.
Conclusion
Setting a budget that adapts and performs is a cornerstone of a robust marketing framework.
As you embark on this strategic endeavor, remember that your chosen tools can make all the difference.
While Revlitix can be a powerful ally in this process, your expertise and insight are the true heroes in crafting a budget that delivers results.
Ready to take the next step? Dive deeper and challenge the status quo with Revlitix.
Sign up for a free trial or connect with team Revlitix for more details.
