Managing a marketing budget takes experience. Understanding and identifying any loopholes in your strategy comes with time and growth. The first thing that springs to mind when formalizing a marketing strategy is affordability. It is natural to ask the question: Is this affordable?
Ultimately, when formalizing a dental marketing strategy, it first must be solid and comprehensive, and yes, a well-defined plan requires a significant budget. What is equally important is managing a marketing budget by spending your marketing funds wisely.
Here are some tips to help you manage a marketing budget.
What Are Your Marketing Goals?
Naturally, when you build a strategy, the most fundamental goals you want to achieve are part of your strategy. The use of SMART is a popular method that can help.
- S – Smart
- M – Measurable
- A – Attainable
- R – Realistic
- T – Timely
Using SMART helps you set realistic goals that meet your budget requirements but are also the most achievable. With clear goals, you won’t know how much money you need to spend in order to meet them.
Factor In Any External Costs
Don’t forget to focus on expenditures as well as part of your budget. This includes operational costs, staff expenses, overheads amongst other things.
If you want to know how to prepare a marketing budget, start by establishing your external costs. You need to know how much everything costs your company to know how much you can allocate for marketing. The idea of this is understanding how much you will be spending whilst still making a profit.
Budget Based On Business Goals
As part of every marketing guide or advice from a marketing company, your marketing budget must also stem from your business goals. There must be an end goal that you’re looking at, such as increasing sales and leads and improving brand awareness through google ads. Here are some helpful questions that can help you:
- What Are Your Quarterly Business Objectives?
- What Are Your Long-Term Objectives?
- How Will Your Objectives Impact Internal Revenue?
- What Is Your Projected ROI?
Set objectives that are measurable and achievable. When answering these questions, use projected metrics that you can work towards.
When Is Your Growth Period?
With every marketing strategy, there needs to be a vision for growth. This will influence your marketing budget and how much money you’re willing to spend in the future. Growth also requires further expenses, but this can only be visioned if your revenue has also increased. Projecting a growth period can help you towards the target you want to achieve.
A robust marketing strategy goes a long way in successfully marketing your dental services. Many practices spend too much time focusing on customer service (which is also important) but what is also important is marketing your services to the required audiences. For example, if you’re marketing teeth whitening, you want to ensure your strategy caters to those who want their teeth whitened. Analyse their needs and communicate with them through your strategy,
If you need assistance with managing a marketing budget for your strategy, contact us at Smile and Grow today and we’d be happy to help.
