Creating an accurate marketing budget

Creating an accurate marketing budget is really a matter of knowing how much money you will be allotted and then determining where that money will do the most good.Of course accurate estimates are needed to prevent any situation where the budget might be exceeded.Marketing budgets can be very diverse.The amount of money that you have in your marketing budget is not the most significant factor in determining the length of your reach when it comes to presenting your product to customers.It is how that budget is implemented and where the money is spent that makes all the difference.

Marketers are looking to allocate their marketing budget into areas where it will have the most impact.According to BtoB's "2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans" survey, 60.1% of marketers said that they plan to increase their overall marketing budgets next year predominantly to include online, events and direct marketing strategies.From this survey it can be deduced that areas such as online marketing are getting a lot more attention than they used to and therefore allocating a portion of the marketing budget to this method of marketing may be worth your while.

In fact, new marketing strategies, such as those being implemented online, are some of the more tricky ones to budget for simply because many companies do not know much about this way of marketing to customers yet.Certainly new methods are constantly being developed and keeping up with the marketing trends and changes can be a challenge.

Creating an accurate marketing budget means that you are constantly making adjustments as you proceed through a year to make sure that by the fiscal year end that you have not exceeded your budget.Accurate budget making involves knowing where every dollar spent on marketing has gone, and not overlooking the dollar here or hundred there where you have gone over budget.Overages add up quickly and it is far easier to cut back a little to compensate than it is to have to eliminate projects or plans entirely because of a lack of funding.

Creating an accurate marketing budget also includes planning to incorporate changes that the company is deciding to make so that they can achieve the goal of gaining a stronger hold on their market.Rather than putting your marketing dollar into a popular means of marketing that may not be best for your company, researchers have found that companies are focusing their marketing dollar on achieving the objectives of increasing customer acquisition, brand awareness and customer retention as well as accomplishing other more brand specific objectives.

It is also interesting to note that creating an accurate marketing budget may include the decision to increase the marketing budget.As companies grow and they find success in selling and making money off of a product, more and more funds are typically allocated to the marketing budget.In fact, most companies increase their spending on marketing related expenses at least 5% to 9% annually.Some even increase their marketing budget as much as 20% to 25% annually.

Creating an accurate marketing budget is certainly also a matter of learning from past budgeting mistakes and attempting to improve methods.Marketing success is not always a matter of having a large budget.Building on small successes will allow for budget growth that is directly in proportion to sales and profit growth.After all, you have to make money before you spend it.Creating your marketing budget definitely deserves a lot of time and serious thought.Recording estimates and taking care to include hidden or unexpected costs (i.e. taxes, fees, and time delays) will help to ensure that you will hit your marketing budget mark.Now all that you need to worry about are the marketing strategies themselves!