By Lexie Markarian, Director of Sales
If your business is on a calendar year, it’s that time again! You’re among the nearly 95 percent of companies already hammering out your marketing spend for 2025. But before you nail down the details, there’s something you should know.
Your marketing budget may be based on the wrong measurements.
The trouble starts because you’re thinking too generally, hoping to realize lofty performance objectives, or you’re thinking too specifically, in terms of giving some new marketing trend a try. In short, you’re either aspiring to an amorphous “goal” or getting bogged down in “tactics.” Those are the extreme ends of the marketing spend planning spectrum. The former typically descends from the boardroom (e.g., “Let’s increase revenue!”) or bubbles up from the trenches (as in, “Let’s produce a series of short-form videos for TikTok!”).
On their own, goals can be too lofty and tactics too specific.
Building a budget isn’t just about presenting numbers; it’s about conveying a compelling vision and crafting a realistic strategy for contributing to success and growth. Developing a concrete plan that directs tactics toward the realization of goals is where the smart allocation of marketing budget rests. Most of us know this. It’s fundamental Business 101 stuff, but strategy often gets eclipsed by audacious goal propositions or left behind in the excitement of testing out some trendy tactic du jour.
The place to start is still high level—understanding the goals of the business, leadership, and sales teams and the “why” behind them is essential. But operating in a vacuum—even a data-driven one—can be detrimental.
So, now you’re asking: “How do I come up with this strategic blueprint, especially amid endless calls to be creative but remain budget-conscious and ‘do more with less’?”
Figuring out the right way to get the job done.
Here’s one example. Clients in the B2C sector might ask us to help grow a product’s in-store presence, differentiate a product, or increase sales. Those, as you already understand, are goals. We could just point to a list of options like end-aisle displays, short-form videos on social media, or distributor promotions and ask the client to pick what they like, but those are all tactics—which may or may not be ideal, because they’re not based on what’s happening with their target market, competition, and industry.
The first thing we need to do is invest a little time and effort in getting the clearest possible picture of what’s happening with that client’s brand in a particular market. Is their product something new that deserves a big splash? Is it entering a crowded sector and therefore needs some really creative differentiation? Where along the purchasing chain should we be aiming influence? Distributors? Retail? Consumers?
Answering each of these questions shapes what we recommend, from different media and platforms to nuances in messaging and, of course, campaign budget. When we shot a series of short social videos for Venom Steel, for example, we knew our target audience for the brand’s protective work gear down to meticulous demographic and psychographic details. The videos themselves were really fun, but we had to know their ultimate purpose and who they were for before we began shooting and spending. That’s what made them as effective as they were creative. Plenty of audience research and budget analysis went into those videos before snapping on the gloves.
If we just decided to “make some cool videos” before understanding the audience, or if we promised to help make sales skyrocket before figuring out the best way to portray the product, the campaign would have likely been all style and no substance. The videos might still have won awards, but they probably wouldn’t have truly complemented the client’s sales goals or delivered a positive ROI.
Nail down your strategy, then start building.
Whenever your fiscal year starts, wherever you are on the decision-making chain, it’s the right time to start thinking through how to get the most out of your marketing spend. If you’re among leadership, I’m positive you’re being told to do more with less. If you’re in the ranks, you’re being challenged to get more creative, get more attention, and get more buyers in the pipeline—three valid directives. Before either side begins a wild drive toward goals or kicks off a frenzied brainstorm of tactics, think about meeting in the middle. Tap into a strategy that speaks to both ends of that spectrum and you’re going to stand a much better chance of getting the results, response, and ROI you want.
FWIW, we are really good at helping companies, nonprofits, associations, and organizations of every stripe market more strategically, so reach out if you want to have coffee and talk it through. I’ll buy.
Editor’s Note: A version of this post was originally published in March 2024 and has been updated.
