FIVE WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR MARKETING BUDGET FOR IMPROVED ROI
Originally published in Authority Magazine.
With the growing complexity of marketing channels and the need for businesses to constantly adapt their strategies, managing marketing budgets effectively has become more critical than ever to ensure the highest possible return on investment. In this interview series, we are talking with marketing experts, industry professionals, and thought leaders who have significant experience in budget management and optimization to share their “5 Ways To Manage Your Marketing Budget For Improved ROI.” As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Brittany Woitas.
Fueled by a passion for creating elevated brands that transform businesses, Brittany’s expertise and respected education are instrumental in leading Kōvly Studio, a brand and marketing firm. Leveraging experience working with organizations ranging from large, Fortune 100 companies to small, family-owned businesses, Brittany founded Kōvly Studio to elevate business success by strategically connecting organizations to their most profitable target market.
Data-driven, strategic, and focused, Brittany supports business leaders by directly connecting brand and marketing efforts to business goals.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your personal backstory with us?
Absolutely! Growing up on a family farm in Minnesota, I experienced the grit, knowledge, and resilience necessary for entrepreneurship firsthand. In the earlier stages of my career, I had the opportunity to work for both Fortune 100 companies and small, family-owned businesses. While I really valued the experiences I gained in those roles, I always knew that I wanted to start my own marketing agency to support mid-sized businesses in the hospitality and upscale retail spaces. And so, in 2015, Kōvly Studio was born! Over the years, my team has had the honor of supporting hundreds of organizations across the United States.
My education includes a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Minnesota, an MBA with an emphasis in integrated marketing communications from St. Catherine University, and a certificate in disruptive strategy from Harvard Business School
Can you share with us three strengths, skills, or characteristics that helped you to reach this place in your career? How can others actively build these areas within themselves?
Drive, focus, and kindness (always).
I believe that the most critical thing individuals need to uncover is their purpose; what really inspires them to get up each day and feel excited to dive into their work, whatever that may be. Our careers are a significant piece of our lives and finding a way to make a difference — whatever that looks like — fuels drive and focus.
And, at the end of the day, so much more can be accomplished when we remember to always be kind. It’s so simple, but so impactful.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main part of our interview. What factors do you consider when allocating your marketing budget across different channels and tactics?
Easy: Prioritize channels that can impact numerous stages of the marketing funnel.
The core components of the marketing funnel are awareness, attraction, engagement, acquisition, and retention. As you map out all the channels your team is considering, jot down which stages of the funnel each channel can impact. For example, a billboard typically falls within awareness, while a digital ad campaign — when built correctly — can impact each stage.
Once you’ve set your overall marketing budget, first allocate funds to channels that can impact numerous stages, and then — if budget allows — add in some of the other channels that may only impact one or two stages.
In your opinion, what are some common mistakes that marketers make when managing their budgets? How can they be avoided?
Three of the biggest budget opportunities we see when developing strategic plans with new clients are:
Overspending on awareness channels: Don’t get me wrong, awareness channels like billboards, print ads, and sponsorships can be a strong component of an integrated marketing strategy, but organizations often allocate a large percentage of the budget to these channels that generally are focused on brand awareness and cannot be tied to actual business goals.
Underspending: A lot can be done even with a lean budget, but companies need to be realistic about what is needed to hit their business goals. For example, having a 20 million revenue goal but only budgeting $100,000 for marketing will likely set the marketing team up for failure. Generally speaking, organizations should allocate 6–15% of revenue goals toward marketing to ensure that their efforts can actually drive business goals and not fall flat.
Setting and forgetting: Finally, the marketing budget should be reviewed regularly. From auditing where spend is actually going to adjusting allocation based on channel performance, the budget should be consistently top of mind.
When allocating your budget, how do you balance short-term marketing goals with long-term brand building initiatives?
Great question. This is where we need to connect the budget to the overall strategy and campaign plan. Today more than ever, quality content is essential to getting results. After developing the overall budget, break down a month-by-month editorial plan that identifies how each channel can be used to both drive those quick wins while also building a strong, lasting connection with your ideal audience.
For start-ups and those with limited budgets, what tactics would you recommend to receive the highest return and the fastest initial growth?
First, invest in a strategic plan. Whether you feel comfortable building something out yourself or want to partner with a firm, having an overall brand and marketing strategy upfront is absolutely invaluable. Once you have that foundation, you can make a strong impact with a minimal budget because you’ll know who your most profitable customer is, how you can effectively communicate with them, and where you can connect with them.
How do you collaborate with other departments within your organization, such as sales or finance, to ensure alignment and maximize ROI from your marketing spend?
As a marketing agency, we develop close relationships with the leaders across divisions at the companies we work with. We need to know exactly what the business goals are and — ideally — have a way to integrate marketing efforts into a CRM or sales tracking system so that we can see exactly how efforts are impacting those goals.
If there isn’t collaboration between marketing, sales, and finance, it can be easy to focus solely on vanity metrics; the numbers that may make us feel good about our marketing efforts (i.e. social engagement, cost-per-click, etc.). It’s crucial that we take those metrics one step further to know how marketing is supporting leads, sales, profitability, etc.
What tips do you have to get buy-in from the CEO and others in the C-Suite when requesting additional budget for new projects or tactics?
Define key performance indicators — that actually matter — upfront. I’m not talking about the narrative like, “We expect a 400% increase in impressions.” Instead, focus on how your increased budget will support actual business goals. Leverage the data you have to showcase realistic projections. For example, “Our baseline $15,000 monthly digital ad spend drove 75% of website traffic and accounted for 50 new leads. If we increase that to $25,000 per month, we can expect 85 new leads.”
Can you please share five things marketing leaders should do to improve the ROI of their marketing efforts?
Start with strategy. Take the time to build out a comprehensive strategic plan that allows all channels and tactics to integrate and work together to support your goals.
Understand the impact potential of each marketing channel and prioritize the channels that can support more stages of the marketing funnel.
Continuously monitor marketing performance and build a plan that is nimble and can be adjusted throughout the year to lean into areas that are working well and dial back on tactics that aren’t hitting KPIs.
Tie the marketing budget directly to business goals and create a system that connects marketing analytics to sales results.
Identify metrics that can actually identify the success of each channel (because a 300% increase in impressions doesn’t actually guarantee that you’ll hit your sales goals).
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Whoa! The pressure. I think a lot about living a life that is purpose-driven; uncovering your authentic self and what fuels you. To me, if more people could feel purpose in their lives, it would trigger so many incredible things that would have an exponential impact on the world.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Read the original article on Authority Magazine.