One of the most shared infographics we did was speaking to SaaS Marketing Budgets and exactly what percent of total revenue some companies were spending to maintain and acquire market share. By setting your marketing budget to an overall percentage of revenue, it provides your marketing team to incrementally increase demand as your sales team requires it. Flat budgets produce flat results… unless you find savings somewhere in the mix.
This infographic from MDG Advertising, 5 Big Marketing Budget Mistakes to Avoid, illustrates five areas where errors in judgment lead to inefficient spends as well as how to prioritize your time, energy and budget when implementing marketing strategies.
The Marketing Budget Mistakes:
- Beginning with Bad Data – Companies believe that 32% of their data is inaccurate, on average. This unreliable data, which ranges from imprecise analytics dashboards to major gaps in customer databases, connects directly to bad budget choices.
- Failing to Coordinate with Sales – 50% of salespeople are not satisfied with their firm’s marketing efforts. Every marketing budget should be developed in conjunction with other departments, especially sales. Moreover, each spend should be directly connected to an expected business outcome.
- Underinvesting in Proven Workhorses – 52% of marketers say email is one of the most effective channels they use but marketers often push budget to other strategies despite email's effectiveness. It’s important to continue to increase investment in what’s already working.
- Underestimating the Speed of Change – In 2017, digital is projected to account for 38% of total U.S. ad spend, and a number of fresh technologies are emerging that can sustain the rapid rise that digital has provided in the coming years.
- Evaluating Too Little, Too Infrequently – 70% of companies don’t test marketing campaigns with consumers regularly. Marketers need to rapidly test and iterate between marketing mediums, channels, and strategies using an agile marketing strategy.
I’m now the COO for an urban incubator here in Indy, the Grindery. And the one item that I can’t seem to drive home enough is the importance of data. We live in a world with more data, analytics, and the ability to really apply that information to make SMARTER decisions. Yet, I have conversations that begin with, “.. I feel like..” or “…what it seems like to me…” . I ask, what kind of sample have you have you taken? What does that data indicate?
This is a very cool infographic, and thank you for your wisdom. Now, I’m off to a webinar on some email saas