Marketing Budget Tools

Marketing today is much more than advertising or performing promotional campaigns. Modern marketing budgets must cover many areas of planning, creation, pricing, and distribution of products and services. The importance of marketing budgets goes hand in hand with ROI (return on investment). A marketing budget gives marketing departments an understanding of how much money is spent, how it is spent, and the results of those marketing efforts. In addition, a well-developed marketing budget provides a sense of direction for marketing efforts helping marketing departments allocate resources effectively. An established budget also provides a basis to help assess results from marketing campaigns.

B2B marketing budget allocation is crucial because selling a business-to-business solution involves a different approach. For example, B2B marketing departments must allocate marketing spend to best reach the decision makers within the organizations they are targeting. A marketing budget should be a percentage of a company’s revenue. Different industries spend at different levels. Therefore, marketing budgets may vary. For B2B companies, marketing spend is typically lower than for B2C companies. The lower percentage of marketing spend for B2B companies supports the need for B2B marketing departments to carefully allocate and monitor where their marketing spend is going through expert analytics. Proof Analytics is a top-rated marketing resource management tool designed to help B2B Saas companies maximize their marketing efforts.

Once a marketing budget is established, it's time to decide where to allocate spending. Marketing budget allocation by channel is crucial because there are many marketing channels today. Most companies engage in multi-channel marketing, making budget allocation by channel even more vital. Setting up a marketing budget allocation by channel helps establish a better comparison between different marketing channels so marketing managers can see where they receive the best ROI.

You must set goals and know your target audience when setting up a marketing budget by channel. Analyzing past performance can help determine where to spend, and researching competitors can give insight and help avoid pitfalls. Implementing marketing resource management tools is the best way to keep track of your marketing budget allocation by channel. In addition, an MRM tool can help you obtain and understand data-driven results from campaigns compared to marketing spend for that particular channel. Diving into current marketing trends for your industry is another effective way to help determine where to allocate your marketing spend by channel. For example, B2B marketing efforts focus on social media, mobile campaigns, and search engine optimization SEO. Most B2B and B2C marketing focus on online, mobile marketing instead of offline marketing.

Budgeting allocation is a common struggle for marketing departments. Marketing managers must understand where to spend the available funds for their marketing strategy to work. Many factors affect the level of success a marketing plan produces. Several of those factors involve which campaigns to launch and on what platforms. Marketing budget allocation significantly affects how marketing departments strategically spend their budgets.

A marketing budget allocation example shows what is included when allocating spend. Areas such as software tools, marketing staff, vendors and consultants, content creation, SEO, digital advertising costs, events, and training must be included in the budget and allocated correctly. Developing a marketing budget allocation model starts with setting marketing goals, knowing the budget, and then outlining the marketing.

When setting marketing budget percentages by category, it is imperative to designate spending to the platforms and channels where your audience engages. Another vital component of a marketing budget today involves diversifying marketing strategies with a multi-channel approach. Synchronizing marketing departments and sales teams helps companies maximize efforts in both areas. Marketing resource management tools such as Proof Analytics on the Salesforce™ integrate data and empower marketing departments with vital sales team information.

A marketing budget provides a framework that includes all the money a company spends on marketing-related projects. Typically a marketing budget is set quarterly or annually. Marketing budgets may consist of expenses such as paid advertising, any digital marketing, marketing department staff, sponsored web content, registered blog domains, and any marketing automation software. Marketing budgets vary by business industry and company size. An average marketing budget example is a 30% spend allocation to paid ads, 30% to social media,  and 40% to event marketing.

Some marketing budgets are not inclusive of all marketing efforts. For example, a budget may allocate funds specifically for digital marketing. A digital marketing budget example includes using funds exclusively for digital marketing versus live events or print marketing. Digital marketing is broad, so these funds must cover website development, digital ads, search engine optimization, content creation, and other aspects of digital marketing. A digital marketing budget plan example may be 40% paid, 30% organic search and 30% social media.

Many marketing budget examples are used when evaluating a company’s marketing needs. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the goals and target market when determining which marketing budget model to use for marketing budget allocation.

Marketing budget categories include brand marketing, digital marketing, events promotions, partnership marketing, and many more. Also, within some categories like digital marketing, there are subcategories. Digital marketing subcategories include paid digital marketing ads, social media marketing, organic search marketing through search engine optimization, and more. A marketing expenses budget will keep track of all marketing expenses within each category. Due to the many categories and subcategories involved with multi-channel marketing efforts today, it is crucial to have a way to keep track of all expenses and analyze the results from each category. Establishing an accurate ROI for each category will help marketing departments maximize their budgets and allocate money in the best way possible.

Marketing resource management tools such as Proof Analytics on Salesforce™ empower marketing teams with intelligent information and data analysis. Marketing is much more than a simple campaign launch. There are many moving parts involved in successful marketing. Marketing departments need a comprehensive view of each marketing channel, campaign, and budget allocation. Implementing the best MRM tools, such as Proof Analytics helps marketing teams succeed in today’s competitive market.

Market budget planning software can automatically update multiple categories saving a significant amount of time for marketing departments. Eliminating the need to update every category then run manual analytics manually. Marketing budget planning software helps marketing departments budget and plan for marketing campaigns effectively. Working as a collaborative tool that creates transparency for marketing teams, a web-based marketing tool improves communication and efficiency. In addition, a marketing budget software solution can help sales teams and marketing departments access vital information needed to perform their jobs effectively.

Since many sales teams use Salesforce CRM, it is beneficial to have a Salesforce native marketing resource management MRM planning tool. Proof Analytics has the only MRM native on Salesforce and is available in the Salesforce app exchange. With Proof Analytics, companies have simple, affordable, scalable data analytics in the form of a self-service MRM tool. It is a solution that gives marketers the tools for full-scale campaign planning, budgeting, digital asset management, collaboration, compliance, and approvals on one platform. In addition, it is a powerful marketing budget planning tool and much more. Proof Analytics empowers marketing teams to maximize budgets and continually improve marketing efforts through innovative, intelligent tools.