Marketing budgets of small businesses - A few questions

[iain@intumarketing]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of doing some market research as part of my business plan, and find myself questioning how much money different types of small business usually allow for as a marketing budget? I'm hoping a few of you may be able to help me out here, I'd be most grateful!

Ideally would be looking to know the following;

• What sort of business do you run?
• How big is the business? (staff employed)
• How much do you currently spend per year on marketing?
• What are your preferred methods of advertising? (i.e e-mail, social media etc.)

Many thanks in advance for any help offered, and I hope to repay the favour at some stage!


Kind regards,

Iain

 

[ethical PR]

Small businesses spend from nothing to millions on their marketing. Their marketing channels will depend on their target customers.

What sort of business are you looking to start up and what exactly are you trying to find out from your market research?

 

[iain@intumarketing]

Hi ethical PR,

Thanks for the reply.

Marketing agency, targeting small businesses and startups initially. However being aware of which specific industries would have a small budget to spend on marketing would be a really helpful insight on if the whole thing will work.

Obviously as you say, some spend millions and some spend nothing - but it's more to find out if for example, a tradesman such as an electrician who currently spends nothing would consider such a service useful, to find out what sort of money a setup such as a small shop with only a couple of employees would budget. That sort of thing.

Having a variety of budgets to look at, and comparing those to the costs of supplying their preffered marketing tactic would allow me to see straight away if the idea is workable, and which businesses would be the best to approach initially.

Hopefully this will help explain?

Iain

 

[ethical PR]

I think perhaps you are looking at this the wrong way around, the majority of start ups don't have marketing budgets that would allow marketing agencies to add value, and many small businesses don't use the right tactics/use more than one tactic.

Having a handful of people on here give you feedback won't provide you with any meaningful market research.

Far better to concentrate on how you can differentiate what you can offer small businesses from the hundreds of other marketing agencies out there.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

The word Agency make shivers run through my timbers either small companies trying to look big or just big companies either way very expensive and probably paying out more money for advice than cost of advertising each and every month, Lots of fancy looking reports full of bumf but little real work done just the odd hour here and there

Maybe i'm to old and distrustful

 

[ethical PR]

You are @Chris Ashdown

Any agency or freelance worth their salt should be able to help SME's ensure they invest in the right marketing channels, differentiate themselves from their competitors and develop creative campaigns, concepts and copy that engages their target market.

They shouldn't just provide strategies and plans, but also help with brand development, website briefs and development, copy for ads, online content and literature, social media and ad campaigns, generate media coverage, organise events and speaking opportunities....in other words to act as an extension of your business.

 

[webgeek]

Most small/micro businesses don't enlist marketing help until their sales are flat or tumbling, til they've tried it themselves and not brought in the top line revenue they hoped and are in serious need of help.

Small business owners don't sit and set a budget of x Pounds for marketing this month.

If someone comes along and says, I do PPC and I can turn 500 quid into 1000+ or 2000+ or 5000+ in sales, they will suddenly have 500 quid budget available.

In marketing, you have to know your numbers. What return can they expect for their money - this is a NEED based sale, not a want based sale. You must be able to quantify what they will likely get for x amount of monthly fee.

Then you should consider a sliding scale. A low, medium and high - priced plan option, depending on how much they're willing to splash out initially, until you prove yourself. Offer choices to suit, then prove it. From there, the budget will climb until you no longer provide suitable ROI (thanks to the law of diminishing marginal returns, or something like that).

FYI, Carbide Media Ltd had about 50% of clients at £250/month, 25% at £500/month and the rest at £1000 or £2000 per month. Just to give you some ideas on what an inbound marketing company in Scotland was able to charge for 6 or so years of operation. That's with anywhere from 10 to 52 active monthly clients running at any one point in time.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

So on average how many hours was given to anyone say on £250 spend a month and was that the total cost or the Agency cut

 

[webgeek]

That was the total cost (plus VAT).

Depended on what they needed done. On average somewhere around 10 to 30 hours, depending on who was doing what.

 

[TheBalloonPrintingCompany]

I would be intrigued to hear what a marketing pro could do for us, with a budget of about £500 per month, I am not looking for adwords / ppc.
Anyone interested feel free to email me [email protected]

 

[Tbozz]

Most small/micro businesses don't enlist marketing help until their sales are flat or tumbling, til they've tried it themselves and not brought in the top line revenue they hoped and are in serious need of help.

Small business owners don't sit and set a budget of x Pounds for marketing this month.

If someone comes along and says, I do PPC and I can turn 500 quid into 1000+ or 2000+ or 5000+ in sales, they will suddenly have 500 quid budget available.

In marketing, you have to know your numbers. What return can they expect for their money - this is a NEED based sale, not a want based sale. You must be able to quantify what they will likely get for x amount of monthly fee.

Then you should consider a sliding scale. A low, medium and high - priced plan option, depending on how much they're willing to splash out initially, until you prove yourself. Offer choices to suit, then prove it. From there, the budget will climb until you no longer provide suitable ROI (thanks to the law of diminishing marginal returns, or something like that).

FYI, Carbide Media Ltd had about 50% of clients at £250/month, 25% at £500/month and the rest at £1000 or £2000 per month. Just to give you some ideas on what an inbound marketing company in Scotland was able to charge for 6 or so years of operation. That's with anywhere from 10 to 52 active monthly clients running at any one point in time.

You have just "hit the nail on the head" nothing more to add
iain@intumarketing what is the expected return on investment?