We’ve already blogged with our tips to help you with your marketing budget approval.
In it we touched upon how important it is to ‘speak the language’ of the people from whom you are seeking approval – knowing your audience (customers) is always a critical element and contributory factor in success or failure.
If you can present your requirements in terms of the overall objectives of the business, you’ll be heading in the right direction. To further assist, you also need to base your budget in fact, using as much statistical and ‘real’ information as you are able.
There’s also a further step that you can take and that is to frame data in terms of the analytics that speak to those who will have the final, crucial decision in terms of sign off.
We suggest that, amongst other supporting KPIs and metrics, you pay particular attention to the below, when working to convince your boss (or whomever) that you need a larger budget or that you need to switch the focus of your activities (or even both!).
In many areas, we at Thrive believe in the power of three, so here are our top three tips!
- Those above are going to want you to show that rather than just asking for an annual increase based on a percentage or ‘finger in the air’ exercise, you have researched your channels and, ultimately, that you are going to deliver more bottom line £s than are invested. Illustrate your proposal in terms of ROI (return on investment). If this is something that you are unsure of, get in touch – we can help!
- Look at your budget in terms of how it is going to assist your company’s CPA - cost per acquisition. Cost per acquisition is a key metric – how much does it cost to get one new customer? How does that cost relate in terms of that customer’s average lifetime value? Your upper level management will want to know how much it is going to cost to grow the business without having to shell out excessively to get them on board in the first place. This is a key area in which marketers can contribute to the business. Illustrate how your marketing strategy for 2016 will be cost effective in attracting visitors and leads.
- If you can reduce CPA (above) that’s great – but you need to consider this in balance with our third metric for success – volume. There is no point in reducing the cost if you also reduce the volume! Use your strategy behind your budget to illustrate how your efforts will affect volume and why that volume will be as (or more) relevant than in the past.
For example, if your strategy and budget include a new channel you have identified, illustrate this in terms of the amount of volume it will create, the conversion to leads and the expected conversions – perhaps contrasting it to an existing channel already in use.
Finally, having completed all of the above, use them in conjunction with one another to present your case. You ought to have a proposal which illustrates, clearly, how you intend to use the strategy and accompanying budget to deliver more customers for less money.
Why not read our previous blog, 6 Tips For Getting Your Company's Marketing Budget Signed Off for advice getting sign off on that all-important marketing spend?
