Business Insights

How do you prepare the marketing budget for your business? Most organisations calculate – or estimate – the percentage of funds they want to dedicate to marketing, then ‘build out’ their marketing plan within this figure. On the face of it, this approach makes business sense. After all: you don’t want to spend more than you can afford. But in doing so, how can you be confident you’re achieving maximum bang for your buck? You can’t. Successful marketing budgeting is about knowing what you want to achieve, and building a budget that satisfies both your expectations and your accountant. Here’s what you need to know when developing yours.

  It’s fair to say that salespeople and marketing departments don’t always see eye to eye. Sales blame marketing for delivering low volume or low-quality leads. In turn, marketing criticise sales for not converting enough of their well thought out strategy into a return on investment.

Spending £50,000 each year on Yellow Pages ads. Filling skips with unread brochures. Chasing the top spot on Google no matter the cost. Too many businesses burn good money on mind-boggling marketing activity with no proven ROI. Others abandon successful campaigns because they’ve grown bored of them. Our part-time marketing directors have seen countless ways companies waste cash and handicap their own efforts. Find our pick of the worst below – take note!

“B2B advertising doesn’t work.” It’s a statement we hear from business owners too often here at The Marketing Centre. And it’s simply not true. B2B advertising does work - but only when businesses know what they want to achieve before planning and running their advertising campaigns.

As a business-owner, it makes little sense to spend time and money employing a full-time marketing manager when, for broadly the same sum, your business could benefit from an industry-leading marketing director. The benefits of working with a part-time marketing director are extensive. Through The Marketing Centre, growing businesses can bring tried-and-tested marketing experts in-house, in a flexible, cost-effective arrangement built around them. We’ve placed part-time marketing directors in hundreds of businesses across the UK, and the results speak for themselves.