Limited Budget? Why Your Marketing Strategy Should Be the First Spend

Most business owners we know are strategic and thoughtful. They decide their next moves through data, analysis and planning. They build budgets and forecast ROI before making new investments.

And yet, when it comes to marketing – so many business leaders think that you can walk in and wing it.

We have had potential clients ask us, ‘our marketing budget is limited – can’t we just cut the strategy piece and get right to the marketing?’

Our answer is always a polite, but firm, no. Because marketing without a strategy is risky. It’s like driving your car blindfolded – you might be in motion, but you have very little idea of where you’re actually headed.

When a client comes to us asking to cut the strategy, we aim to have an informative conversation so that they understand why strategy is an essential piece of the puzzle. This is what we tell them.

Marketing without a strategy? Here’s why that’s a bad idea

Your marketing strategy lays the foundation for consistent growth. It helps you define important elements like who you’re speaking to, what you want to say and why they need to hear this message.

While you can start marketing without this plan, we would never recommend it. It usually leads to failed campaigns, wasted time and lost resources. Here are a few of the common problems we see when businesses decide to wing it for their marketing.

You have no idea who your audience is

One of the first steps in any marketing strategy is taking the time to clearly define your audience. We use tools such as surveys, website analytics and staff interactions to build buyer personas. These personas help us to decide who to market to, where to find them and how they like to be spoken to.

Without a strategy, you won’t have a clear idea who your target audience is. Without a target audience, you won’t know which marketing channels and platforms are most effective or which messaging is most likely to resonate.

Your content is confusing and sporadic 

Ask any business owner to talk about their business and you can have a fruitful conversation. But ask them to create content for their business? Many will run and hide.

A big barrier to content creation is working without a marketing plan on your side. You are not sure what to say, because you haven’t spent the time deciding which messages are most effective for your audience.

Rather than of focusing on consistent, powerful messaging – you say whatever comes to mind whenever you find the time to create it. This often leads to sporadic content creation which is disconnected from your overarching brand.

Building marketing campaigns takes too long

One reason people like to skip the planning stage is they think it will take too long. We can promise you it takes far longer to build campaigns without a plan than it does to plan them in advance.

Whether you delegate the work to your staff or take it on yourself, it still means time away from other tasks. As we mentioned earlier, without a clear audience or content strategy in place – it can easily become time completely wasted on a campaign that doesn’t resonate at all.

A solid marketing strategy paves the path for success

Believe us when we say, we truly understand how important budgets are in business. We have even written guides on building a marketing budget and typical marketing expenses to help SMEs navigate their budgets.

The reason we want you to invest in a marketing strategy is because it helps with your budget. It means that every dollar spent is planned and purposeful, which in the long run – can save you money.

Your marketing strategy is also the place where you turn your business goals into marketing goals and objectives. This means that your marketing is working to support your business plans.

Strategy made simple with Ebony & Salt

With decades of experience in marketing, communications and enterprise branding – we understand the difference a solid strategy can make to your marketing outcomes.

Ebony & Salt is a boutique agency that aims to simplify marketing for SMEs. We plan and execute marketing strategies from start to finish – including budgets, implementation and tracking results. Sound good? Contact us for an introductory chat.