Making Online Marketing Budgets

Making Online Marketing Budgets
Successful online campaigns can mean more sales and better brand building. However, the vast information online complicates how brands can access clients and a clear strategy for marketing should always be put in place before any money is spent on a campaign.

The target market should be clearly defined and the objectives for reaching out to them identified so that the most can be made from a campaign. Before brands can settle on what they think will work for them, it is important to consider the potential customers that should be targeted and where they are to be found.

When setting the goals of a campaign, it is important to have an online brand that is catchy and unforgettable, starting with how the website is laid out and the color choices used. Clients should not confuse your brand with others online.

1. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing tactics are efforts targeted at generating free traffic to a website now receive the most attention with money being set aside for SEO, link building, social media and creation of different types of content. By creating compelling content that can be shared online, such as videos, blog posts and info graphics, brands can engage their clients more and increase their business. Money should be allocated to inbound marketing, as is now the practice in the industry. The content marketing institute reports that B2C companies are now spending 28% of the marketing budgets on content marketing.

2. Pay Per Click Advertising

Organic traffic should form the main source of internet traffic, but should not eliminate pay per click advertising which is considered another resourceful way to improve brand awareness and the click through rate for a website. It is advisable for companies to start with as little as $10-20 per month with the purpose of measuring the ROI over the set period that the adverts run.

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing is another tool that provides online marketers with extensive reach, cost effectiveness and performance metrics for each campaign. Emails are a great way to share timely information, news, loyalty programs regularly without the need of the recipients to visit a website regularly.

4. Offline Tie-ins

Brands can place information about their links to their online platforms on different promotional materials that can serve as advertisements that direct the users to a website.

5. Miscellaneous Funds

Finally the allocation of slush funds in the budget can allow users to invest in other effective online marketing platforms as opportunities arise and hence should not be neglected.

By Dr. Ataollah Etemadi