Six Things to Add to Your Marketing Budget in 2021

If we’ve learned anything from 2020, it’s the need for a proactive strategy. It’s no longer business as usual as organizations are struggling to regain lost ground. Your marketing budget may be a great place to start when making adjustments. Allocating funds to strategies you’ve overlooked in the past may be your key to success in 2021.

Here are six items you should consider adding to your budget. As a bonus, we also share three activities you should consider taking out.

Business branding

Investment in branding has potentially limitless ROI. With a recognized name, your business can outdo the competition in many areas. You can charge more because customers have come to trust your brand name. A brand is also more likely to survive periods of uncertainty in a business.

If you haven’t done it yet, consider allocating some funds to your business’ branding effort. This will traditionally include hiring a branding agency, designing captivating visuals, and positioning your name in strategic locations. Your branding may also involve creating written and video content for your business.

Content marketing

If you own a website but not a blog, you’re wasting valuable cyber real estate. Blogs are free for every website domain, but they have so much potential. You can publish content that educates your visitors and motivates them to buy. Your blog content can also generate search traffic if optimized properly.

Before you launch a content marketing campaign, you should decide who your audience is and what your content will do for them. When creating content, it’s also critical to know that content marketing doesn’t always return investment immediately. According to the Content Marketing Institute, it could take content up to 6 months to yield results. But then, it’s worth the wait.

Facebook ads

The global adoption of Facebook isn’t news. Most people have a Facebook account, and they spend hours on the platform in any given week. If you don’t already have a Facebook ad campaign, 2021 is the best time to launch one.

You should also consider other media, like Instagram and YouTube. Depending on your audience, these may give you better results. For example, if you own a photography business or bakery, Instagram allows you to showcase your offerings in sufficient detail. Use ads to drive customers to your page and get them hooked.

Physical marketing materials

Never underestimate the importance of physical assets, like signage and mobile command centers. If your business has an offline presence, these will come in handy. Old-fashioned signage can still create awareness and direct customers to your office.

They also have the additional benefit of boosting your business’ brand. Captivating graphics and vibrant images say a lot about your business. Using them on your physical marketing materials can resonate with the right audience and give you an unexpected customer. You can get physical marketing materials from Craftsmen Ind.

Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the most consistent lead generating strategies we have today. According to Oberlo, every dollar you spend on email marketing has the potential to generate a $42 return. Considering that email marketing is relatively inexpensive, to begin with, the opportunity is too good to ignore.

To launch an effective email marketing campaign, you’ll need a compelling copy. Luckily, you can find lots of talented copywriters on platforms like Upwork. Next, you’ll need to grow your email list. If you already have regular visitors, the chances are that they are itching to subscribe to your newsletter and hear from you. Armed with these two tools, all you need is software like Moosend or HubSpot.

Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs may be the most ingenious marketing strategies we’ve seen in a while. At almost no cost to you, you can ‘recruit’ marketers to promote your offers and bring in customers. You only have to pay them after the sale goes through. Affiliate marketing is a win-win for all parties involved. Thanks to platforms like Gumroad, you can get started for a minimal fee.

If you haven’t already, create an affiliate marketing program. They are easy to set up, and there’s no shortage of willing affiliates. Social media influencers and authority blogs will leap at the opportunity to earn a little extra money.

Things to remove

If you’re like most businesses, you don’t have a bottomless bank account. Creating room for these tactics will undoubtedly create a deficit. That’s why it’s also important to review your budget and starve strategies that may be ineffective. Here are three things that may be taking more from your marketing budget than they are contributing.

Discounts

Even though discounting isn’t necessarily in your marketing budget, its effects are potent enough that it deserves some consideration. Frequent discounts can hurt your brand name. After a while, your customers will begin to expect deals on every item. Some may even avoid buying until the item goes on sale, which can hurt your cash flow.

There’s also the lifetime value of every customer you have. Over time, a customer will spend a certain amount in your store. Discounting your products will reduce that amount, ultimately taking away from your bottom line. Limit discounting, and you can increase your profit.

Software you don’t use

There’s software for everything you could imagine, from automating your LinkedIn responses to tweeting excerpts from blog posts. Most of these tools only offer the best features on paid plans. But then, if you’re barely on LinkedIn, do you really need to say hi to every new connection?

Search ads

There’s no doubt that search ads can be effective. They appear according to search queries, and they give you the top spot in SERPs. However, search ads can be expensive and take time to pay off. Unfortunately, you’re paying for clicks that have no ROI whatsoever all the while. It’s even worse if you’re competing with larger businesses that have cash for advertisement. They can afford to outbid you, absorb the loss of unprofitable clicks, and still advertise for longer. It may be better to invest your funds in sure strategies like content and email marketing.