5 Ways to Optimize Digital Marketing Budgets

Digital marketing budgets will likely increase for all businesses as time goes by. If your business is solely relying on conventional marketing methods right now, it’s time to talk about taking some of that traditional marketing budget you have and shifting it into digital marketing.

According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 98% of marketing leaders believe that digital marketing is integral to their company’s success. Ninety percent of them were expecting to augment their digital marketing budgets by the end of 2020.

The amount you put into your marketing varies with the size, industry, and type of business you have. But there are a few techniques and tips that can help all business types optimize their spending.  Here are five great ways to optimize your digital marketing budgets:

 

1. Focus on What’s Best for You

Do you know where your leads and sales are coming from? You must know this if you want to create a successful online marketing campaign.

If you haven’t already, set up goals in Google Analytics. This measures the quantity and source of your sales or leads. Then, compare the sources of your goal completions. Are they coming from search engine optimization, PPC, or social media campaigns? Once you know this you can focus on the target audience that engages with your company.

Another tip is to use the Pareto Principle, also called the 80/20 rule. With this, you will get to know the sources that generate most of the sales so you can zero in and optimize your digital marketing budgets. Simply identify the top 20% of the traffic sources generating 80% of good results. Now, focus your budget on that.

 

2. Examine Trends and Competitors

Take some time to research what senior-level marketers in the industry are doing. This gives you an idea of how they are spending their budgets. A recent survey of CMOs and senior marketing executives shows that 66% of them expect that competition will intensify in the future. They also expect a rise in their digital marketing budgets.

Keep track of what your competitors are doing online. This will give you a better idea of where you have to make adjustments if you want to stay competitive. Are they doing PPC advertising? Do they have great Featured Snippets? Have they optimized their Google My Business listing? Learn what has been successful for your competitors and stay on-trend. There are tools that can tell you how much organic traffic they get and how much they are spending for their pay-per-click ads.

Once you’ve examined your competition, you can create a budget that will allow you to compete. Don’t forget to include costs like online marketing tools, software, employees, analytical tools, etc. Or, you can simply hire us as your virtual marketing department. We already have all the tools and experts in place.

 

3. Don’t Forget Cross-Channel Remarketing

Remarketing is easy to overlook. However, it is the one thing that will offer a good return on a minimum investment. It allows you to show advertisements that target customers who visited your site or have clicked on one of your ads, but did not convert. These web surfers (also called “prospects”) have already shown an interest in your products or services. So, targeting them with remarketing ensures that your ads will show up when they surf other platforms and websites.

Previously, remarketing did not follow visitors to other channels. But now, with the introduction of cross-channel remarketing, users can click on a Google ad and then come across follow-up ads on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.

Your business optimizes its digital marketing budgets by offering these prospects another chance to visit your website. As an added bonus, they will also subconsciously recognize your brand after a single contact. And just like a standard pay-per-click ad, you will only pay for ads that are clicked.

 

4. Test and Refine Continuously

Optimization is an ongoing process, particularly when it comes to digital marketing. There are so many tools available to test and measure. Sometimes you need to re-test, even after you decide on a certain channel to focus your marketing efforts.

Minor changes to a digital marketing campaign can yield wildly varied results. For instance, an email campaign can produce a good ROI. Then, a small switch in the email sequence could boost your ROI even more.

Most times, small changes in your marketing campaign won’t lead to an abnormally high spike in expenses. The idea is to make full use of your digital marketing dollars. Your marketing team has to keep updating all campaigns across various platforms, continually testing new strategies, concepts, and ideas. Once you have produced the maximum ROI, you have optimized your digital marketing budgets effectively.

5. Make Sure Marketing and Sales are Aligned

It is important to have the marketing and sales departments working together. Many times, when there are online marketing initiatives, there is hardly any contact with the sales team as purchases are made over the internet.

However, if the sales funnel includes a sales team, they have to be aligned with the marketing team. They need to know any online discounts or promotions that are running. This way, they can offer the same discount or promotion to an in-person sale.  It helps to close a sale that was advertised using a digital marketing budget.

 

Conclusion

Using these strategies will help optimize your budgets so you can get more out of what you are spending:

• Focus on what’s best for your company and apply the 80/20 rule.
• Keep an eye on marketing trends and competitor marketing.
• Use cross-channel remarketing to keep your business in front of prospects.
• Keep testing and adjusting the campaigns until max ROI is achieved.
• Make sure the marketing team and sales team are in synch.

Once you have decided on your digital marketing budget, consistency is the key. Your marketing content is representing your brand, products, services, and values.

Digital marketing is becoming more important every day. Don’t get left behind. We can help you optimize your digital marketing budget and make every dollar count.  Let’s talk about your goals in your free strategy session.