I’ll try and give it to you straight. You know the old saying right? Nothing worth having comes easy or cheap. Branding yourself and your business is no exception to this rule, in fact, in the saturated market of the web, building a sustainable brand requires your marketing firm to have a blend of creativity and tech savvy.
If you own company that sells more than 1 million a year you think you can market yourself for less than $5,000, you need to either realign your thinking or go make a $5,000 mistake. And then call us.
Let me give this to you in percentages, so this works for anyone from 1 grand to 100 million. Your marketing budget, depending on your industry, should be between 3% and 12% of GROSS sales. This is for ongoing advertising and marketing for an existing brand. That means a $1 million company should budget a minimum of $50,000 to build its brand, and then plan to spend $30,000 to $120,000 in ongoing marketing and advertising.
These costs are publicized by organizations like SCORE and the USSBA. They are benchmarks based on real statistics and actual business case studies. These benchmarks are used by venture capitalists and marketing profession around the world. Start with a pragmatic marketing plan budget, and you’re ready to move on…
Budget for the full scope. The Internet combines the strengths of print and text based advertising-text with graphics , sound and movies-while remove the time and space limitations of traditional media outlets. The Internet is interactive, making it a cost-effective, one-to-one marketing tool.
Online marketing offers many benefits, including:
- Cost Effective PromotionTo be successful, your Web site will need to include some or all of the following items.
- A social media branding blueprintSince most of the above items cost $1,000 to $3,000 or more each, you can quickly see that building a highly successful online brand and custom site is going to take a serious investment.