How Much Should Your Marketing Budget Be for A Small Business in the GTA
One of the most common conflicts with small business owners in the GTA comes when they are supposed to allocate a budget for the marketing efforts in their company. There are no two ways to put it, marketing is one of the most important functions of any company. It’s how you expand your business and earn more revenue.
However, most of the GTA business owners are confused as to how to do it. As per a common rule of thumb by the BDC, a B2B company should invest anywhere between 2-5% of their annual revenue into their marketing efforts. As a Business owner in the GTA are you doing that?
Pre Budget-Planning
First things first, know your target audience. Who is it that you what to reach through your marketing effort? Set a clear picture of it. What is the age that you want to target? What are their demographics? What are their likes and dislikes? Remember, when targeting a local area, hyper personalization is the key to your success.
Secondly, Set a clear marketing goal in your mind. What exactly do you want as a result of your marketing efforts. Do you want more website traffic? More social media engagement? And more leads of course. At the end of the day everything that you do through your marketing efforts is to get more leads and more revenue.
Budget Allocation
A BDC survey of more than 1400 Canadian businesses, small businesses’ marketing cost average at around $30000 a year. While those with 29-50 employees spend nearly $60000 on marketing annually. However, this is subjective. As discussed earlier, let’s apply the common rule of thumb of 2-5% of the revenue.
Assuming you generate a gross revenue of 1.5-2 Million Canadian Dollars, you should be spending anywhere between $30000 – 50000 in your marketing efforts.
Gross Revenue | 1.5-2 Million | 2-10 Million | Over 10 Million |
Average Marketing Budget | $30,000 – $50,000 | $50,000 – $80,000 | Over $1,000,000 |
This rule of thumb also checks out in the BDC survey of 1400 Canadian businesses.
How to spend your marketing budget?
Now you have a clear idea how much you should be investing in your marketing efforts. You must set a clear plan of where you will spend that budget. In today’s digital landscape the majority of every small company’s marketing budget goes into online marketing. Here are a few online marketing channels and you as a business owner has to decide what weighs more importance for your business so you can allocate your budget into these channels smartly and strategically.
1. Website
Everyone is aware of how your website is your online storefront. It is where your target audience can reach out to you 24/7. Therefore, as a small business owner you need to make sure your online storefront is updated and attractive to pull in traffic.
2. Social Media
People of all age demographics use social media. Leveraging the power of social media can be your biggest advantage. However, make sure you know which social media channel is more beneficial for you and focus on that more than other channels.
3. Email Marketing
On average email marketing is known to pull in revenue of $36 for every $1 spent. That stat alone makes it impossible for any marketer to look beyond it.
4. LinkedIn Marketing
LinkedIn is the go-to platform when it comes to marketing of B2B companies. Your customers are actively looking for valuable information and business solutions on LinkedIn, make sure they find you there.
These are a few of the channels you can think about investing in. Remember, in the field of marketing nothing is concrete. The landscape changes regularly and so should your marketing efforts.
Brand Makeover: Transforming Your Online Presence for the Holidays
In a connected world, creating a strong online presence is of utmost importance. People go on the internet for information and solutions. Online branding provides companies with a global platform to reach out and engage with their target audience.
How does Online Branding help?
- Creates trust and credibility
- Allows you to reach a global audience
- Brand Consistency
- 24/7 Visibility
What is a brand makeover for holidays?
Brand makeover refers to a comprehensive overhaul of a brand’s visual identity. This includes changes in the logo, colours and overall design aesthetic of the brand. While keeping a consistent brand identity is important throughout the year, a brand makeover is very helpful during the holidays.
- Seasonal Relevance
A festive makeover helps your brand to stay on top of your audience’s mind when people are actively looking for and thinking about content related to holidays.
- Increased Engagement
A holiday related makeover increases the chances of engagement as it can easily capture the attention of your target audience.
- Emotional Connection
Holidays are a matter of emotion for everyone. They invoke the emotion of joy and warmth amongst people. Tapping into those feelings result in an emotional connection with the brand.
- Promoting seasonal offers and products
A seasonal makeover gives the company a chance to showcase limited edition or holiday related offers that they have to offer
- Differentiation from competitors
A holiday brand makeover allows your business to stand out from competitors by offering a unique and festive experience.
What can you do for a brand makeover during holidays?
Logo Redesign
A logo redesign can be the perfect way to start you brand makeover for holidays. Incorporate the holiday colours into your logo. Adding elements like snow, candy canes is also a great idea. However, make sure your logo is subtle for your audience to recognise your brand. You must find the perfect balance between maintaining a consistent brand identity for yourself and add the holiday essence to it.
Revamp your website
Your website is the most integral part of your brand and its identity, It is your companies’ virtual home, therefore its important to make sure your website is holiday ready as well. Make sure to add the holiday colours and elements to your website. You can also highlight some exclusive holiday deals or products that you might be offering. Apart from that, you can also an innovative CTA just for the holidays to attract leads, this can be a great way to increase your chances of converting.
Social media makeover
It is common knowledge how important social media is to create an online brand identity, any business that want to create one is already leveraging the power of social media and posting regularly. Adding the holiday essence to your social media posts is a great way for a social media makeover. You can create different campaigns incorporating holidays into them.
Festive Emails
Create a series of festive email campaigns with holiday-themed templates. Consider sending personalized holiday greetings, exclusive offers, or a year-end review of your company’s achievements. Apart from emails you can also send out customized holiday cards to your contacts.
Embrace the spirit of change, unleash your brand’s festive charm, and witness the magic of a transformed online presence this holiday season and beyond.
Is Marketing Automation Reserved for Corporates only?
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing is a continuous ongoing process that can be very demanding if every single step of the process is done manually. Modern technology allows you to streamline and automate some steps of this process to make it faster and better. Marketing Automation allows you to reach out to a wider range of audiences that if done manually, just wouldn’t be possible.
Marketing Automation for SMB’s
Marketing Automation is often associated only with big companies, although that may be the assumption the reality is far from it. Marketing Automation helps small businesses just as much, if not more than corporates!
It gives small businesses the ability to scale quicker, reaching out to as many people as possible and as efficiently as possible. Ultimately, leading to more leads and sales.
Although it may be intimidating for a small business to start with, it is definitely worth setting up, given that the result will lead to more business for them.
Benefits of Marketing Automation
- Increases efficiency
- Helps make marketing more personalized
- Increases scalability
Types of Marketing Automation
Email Marketing
According to Litmus, on average email marketing campaigns deliver an impressive ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. That is an incredible ROI of 3600%
Email Marketing automation enables you to send out customized emails to a large audience that if done manually would take a lot of time. It also lets you re-engage with customers that have already interacted with your business before
A few useful email marketing tools are –
- MailChimp
- Reply
- Hubspot
Social Media Marketing Automation
Social media marketing automation is the process of reducing the work done manually in managing social media accounts and engaging an automation software with it. You can automate post scheduling, get your social media analytics and even a basic level of customer service can also be automated on social media.
A few useful social media automation tools are –
- Hootsuite
- Buffer
- SocialBee
Marketing Analytics Automation
At any given point of time a company runs various marketing campaigns simultaneously. Tracking the performance of each and every campaign and how it is working for you can be difficult. You may have the data with you, but organizing and arranging that data into figures that are easy to understand is a tedious task. That is where Marketing Analytics Automation comes in. These tools help you collect and arrange your campaign in easy and understandable formats so you can know what’s working and what’s not for you.
A few Marketing Analytics Automation tools –
- Funnel.io
- Google Analytics 360
- Adobe Analytics
Lead Management Automation
Lead generation is always a priority task for any marketer. Leads are what give business to your company. Therefore, managing the leads that you have is equally important. The actual task here is to identify the quality of a lead and direct it to the appropriate place inside the sales funnel. Once the lead automation process is set, the lead nurturing process becomes a lot easier.
A few Lead Management Automation tools –
- Hubspot
- ClickUp
- Pipedrive
Investing in a good marketing automation system will not only make a marketers’ life easier, but also streamline the process in a way where you’d be able to make more impact and increase growth.
Digital Marketing Trends to Keep an Eye on in 2024
Digital Marketing has been a very fast paced field ever since it came to be. To keep yourself updated with everything around Digital Marketing and all its trends is difficult, Introduction of new technologies and tools like AI can be very tough to understand and grasp. However Digital Marketing is the most effective way of creating a brand identity and making sales in this fast-paced digital world.
With half of the world population being on the internet and everything changing in seconds, it is always good to look ahead of time and where this space is heading in the future.
2024 is going to be an exciting year for digital marketing, new trends emerging and changing the space rapidly, here are a few Digital Marketing trends you need to keep an eye for in 2024 for your brand.
Interactive Content
Interactive content is any content where its audience is needed to engage with it.
Here are a few benefits of interactive content:
- Knowing your audience better
When the audience needs to interact with your brand’s content you get to know them a little better. Surveys and quizzes especially help with this.
- Improves audience experience
Users have been consuming static content for a long time. However, the use of interactive content makes it much more engaging and exciting for them, therefore improving their experience.
- Social Sharing
Users prefer sharing content that they find amusing or exciting. With interactive content the likelihood of it being shared is also increased drastically.
Types of Interactive Content
- Interactive Video
- Interactive E books
- Quizzes
- Polls
- Interactive landing pages
AI in Digital Marketing
Artificial Intelligence is predicted to continue to revolutionize the digital marketing industry in 2024. AI has been taking a supportive role in usual marketing strategies and principles for companies. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Invideo AI can help brands create visual and video content through prompts.
Casual AI is another category of artificial intelligence that possesses human-like intelligence and can help in decision making processes. What type of content could work, to which audience. Questions like these can be answered with the help of Casual AI.
Chatbot
Chatbots are a digital marketing technique wherein a computer program interacts with your potential customers or audience. This could be over your website, app or even on platforms like Instagram. A website visitor is much more likely to convert when they interact with the brand in some way.
Here are a few advantages of Chatbot Marketing:
- Engaging with potential customers
- Acts as customer support
- Converting leads into sales
Voice Search Optimization
Voice search optimization is the process of appearing higher in voice search queries on search engines and voice assistant devices like Amazon Alexa. Voice search functionality works through the automatic speech recognition system (ASR) to transform voice signals into text.
Benefits of Voice Search Optimization:
- Increases voice search appearances
- Builds trust with target audiences
- Improves user experience
Although it’s difficult to predict everything that might be coming up in digital marketing, these will help you get ahead and start prepping for the coming year.
How to Use Video Marketing to Promote Your Business
Understanding the Power of Video Marketing
Video marketing is a powerful tool that businesses of all sizes can use to reach their target audience, engage with potential customers, and promote their products or services.
According to Cisco, video will account for 88% of all internet traffic by 2023. This means that if you’re not using video in your marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your audience.
Exploring the Growing Significance of Video Content in Digital Marketing
Video content is becoming increasingly popular and important in digital marketing. This is due to a number of factors, including:
- The rise of mobile devices:More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to consume content online. Video is a particularly popular format for mobile users, as it is easy to watch and consume on the go.
- The increasing popularity of social media:Social media platforms are a great way to share and distribute video content. Video posts tend to generate more engagement and views than other types of content on social media.
- The effectiveness of video marketing:Video is a highly effective way to communicate your message and engage with your audience. Studies have shown that videos are more likely to be remembered and shared than other types of content.
Creating Engaging and Relevant Video Content
The first step to using video marketing effectively is to create engaging and relevant video content that your target audience will want to watch.
To do this, it is important to:
- Identify your target audience and understand their needs and interests.
- Create content that is relevant to your target audience and addresses their pain points or needs.
- Choose the right video format and style for your content.
- Incorporate storytelling and compelling narratives to captivate viewers.
- Optimizing Video Content for Visibility and Reach
- Once you have created your video content, you need to optimize it for visibility and reach. This means ensuring that your videos are easy to find and watch on various platforms.
To optimize your video content, you should:
- Implement SEO techniques for your video content on various platforms.
- Leverage social media and video sharing platforms for maximum exposure.
- Utilize video analytics to assess performance and refine marketing strategies.
- Building a Video Marketing Strategy
To get the most out of video marketing, you need to develop a comprehensive video marketing strategy. This strategy should outline your goals, objectives, and target audience.
Your video marketing strategy should also include the following:
- A content calendar:This will help you plan and schedule your video content in advance.
- A brand voice and visual identity:This will help ensure that all your videos are consistent with your brand identity.
- CTAs and interactive elements: This will help you drive viewer engagement and encourage viewers to act.
- Integrating Video Content with Existing Marketing Campaigns and Channels
Video content can be integrated into your existing marketing campaigns and channels. For example, you can:
- Add videos to your website and landing pages.
- Share videos on social media.
- Use videos in your email marketing campaigns.
- Run video ads on various platforms.
- Establishing a Consistent Brand Voice and Visual Identity Across Videos
It is important to establish a consistent brand voice and visual identity across all of your videos. This will help to create a unified and recognizable brand experience for your viewers.
To establish a consistent brand voice and visual identity, you should:
- Use the same logo, colours, and fonts in all your videos.
- Create a consistent tone and style for your video content.
- Use the same voiceover talent or narrator in all your videos.
- Incorporating CTAs and Interactive Elements to Drive Viewer Engagement
- You should incorporate CTAs and interactive elements into your videos to drive viewer engagement and encourage viewers to act.
Some examples of CTAs and interactive elements you can use in your videos include:
- Subscribe buttons
- Links to your website or landing pages
- Polls and surveys
- Quizzes and contests
By following these tips, you can use video marketing to reach your target audience, engage with potential customers, and promote your products or services effectively.
Here are some additional tips for creating and using video marketing content:
- Keep your videos short and to the point. Most people have short attention spans, so it’s important to get your message across quickly and effectively.
- Use high-quality visuals and audio. Your videos should be visually appealing and easy to watch and understand.
- Promote your videos on your website, social media, and other online channels.
- Track your results and adjust your strategy as needed.
- By using video marketing effectively, you can boost your brand awareness, generate leads, and increase sales.