How to Spend your Marketing Budget: 7 Expenses You Can Expect

When business owners think about their marketing budget, advertising is often the first spend that comes to mind. But it’s far from the only marketing expense that you should be budgeting for.

To help you avoid surprises – we have mapped out the seven most common expenses for marketing. These include the foundations, tools and resources that most SMEs rely on to run their marketing strategy.

Branding

The foundation of any good marketing strategy is a consistent brand. Whether your business is big or small, having a brand that customers know and respect is worth the spend.

At a minimum, your brand should include a logo, colours, fonts, image style and preferred tone of voice to be used across all marketing communications. We explain the eight elements of branding in our blog.

If your brand is not yet defined or could use a refresh, you should make room in your budget for this activity.

Website

Another foundation element is your website. We recommend a website for every SME because this is where your customers can get to know your business.

The cost to build or refresh a website can vary significantly. A two or three page website for a service business might be highly affordable, while a ten or twenty page site with a shop function is more expensive.

In good news, the cost of a website build or redevelopment is not usually annual – it can be done every few years.

Other than the building costs, you should make room for ongoing costs like domain and hosting services. These tend to be low, but again it depends on the size and style of your website.

Advertising

Advertising is an effective way to get your business in front of the right customers. Whether you’re looking at online or offline options, you need to make room in your budget for this spend.

Typical advertising options include social media, radio, industry magazines and search engine marketing (SEM). To help with budgeting, you can enquire about the costs to run an ad campaign on any of these platforms.

You can also consult a specialist for their budget advice. There’s usually a sweet spot between the minimum and maximum spend which offers better ROI.

Tools and systems

From CRM and email platforms to social media management, design and AI tools – it takes a village of tools to raise a marketing campaign.

Many of these tools on their own are low cost, but once you pay for 5+ each month – you can find yourself with a decent bill. If you’re managing this yourself, make sure to compare tools available so that you’re getting the best price for the functionality.

Working with a boutique marketing agency like Ebony & Salt can also help reduce this spend. We provide the systems and tools our clients need for effective marketing, which means they have less bills to worry about.

Print materials

Print materials may be less common these days, but that is what makes them easy to miss. Business cards, brochures and signage are typical print materials that are accounted for in a marketing budget.

Each year, take some time to consider if any print materials will be needed and add them to your marketing budget. For example, are you planning to hire more staff? You might need additional business cards. Have there been changes to your product line? Then you may need new brochures, if you’re still using printed versions. There are also some different options using digital cards that remove the need for a printed business card that might suit your business better, plus it’s more sustainable.

Staff

It doesn’t matter whether your staff are internal or external; they are a regular expense you should be budgeting for. Some of the common marketing experts you might wish to engage include:

• Marketing strategist

• Graphic designer

• Photographer/videographer

• Copywriter

• Social media specialist

• SEM specialist

Bur for an SEM business, you usually don’t require all of these skill sets all of the time. Partnering with a team like Ebony & Salt helps you access the staff you need, only when you need them. This is often more affordable than taking on a full-time staff member for each role. We shared more benefits of outsourced marketing on the blog.

Events

From attending a trade show to sponsoring a community event; getting out in the public eye is a great way to market your business. But, it does come with extra costs. Here are a few typical ones to consider for event marketing:

• Transport for staff

• Sponsorship payments

• Stands and banners

• Merchandise

• Printed collateral

Simplify your expenses with outsourced marketing

Marketing expenses can’t be avoided – but they can be simplified. Working with a trusted partner, like Ebony & Salt, helps you combine many expenses into one. Access to our marketing expertise, tools and systems, and network of skilled professionals are all included in your regular fees.

To learn more about what we do, visit the services page. When you’re ready to begin – contact us for an introductory chat.