If I Have a Limited Budget, What Should I Invest my Marketing Dollars In?

The function of modern marketing can be extremely complex and multi-faceted. With so many tools and platforms available, even relatively small businesses can have extremely sophisticated marketing operations. 

But this also leads many individuals wondering if they truly are making the most of the marketing dollars available to them.  After all, optimizing your ROI in marketing is crucial in gaining the upper hand over competitors, and the truth of the matter is that all of the different marketing technologies and channels of distribution have vastly different ROIs for each industry.

Strategies to Increase ROI

There are several ways in which you can optimize the ROI for all of your marketing activities, but the first step is to always assess where you are at currently. This means taking a deep dive into your current marketing activities and determining what is working and what isn’t. 

Fortunately, most marketing platforms have integrated data analytics for much of your actions, which can serve as a starting point for your analysis. With this knowledge in hand, you can concentrate your funds into proven tactics that are showing real results and ditch the ones that are not. 

Most businesses face huge financial constraints when it comes to marketing, which is why it is worth leveraging all of the free and inexpensive marketing opportunities you may have at your disposal. 

Social media is a huge one – and when marketing efforts are done right through this medium, they can be highly effective. This is why so many companies are ramping up the amount of funding devoted to social media.

Social Media % of Marketing Budget, 2017-2023 (Source: Medium)

It’s also worth looking at what other industry leaders are doing. If they have an effective tactic or are implementing a very effective technology, it may be worth stealing a page from their book. After all, they must be doing something right to have become a leader. 

Viral marketing, when successful, is sometimes thought of as the holy grail in marketing. It can garner massive audiences and exposure levels with very little investment. Consider one of the most effective viral marketing pieces ever – the 2014 ice bucket challenge for ALS fundraising. Nearly everyone knows what you are talking about when you mention it, and the result is that donations from 2013 to 2014 increased from $1.7 million to $11.4 million. 

However, viral marketing should be approached with caution; when it is done poorly, the results can be disastrous for your brand. 

While hiring a professional may seem counter-intuitive to saving money, in many cases they can deliver better results for less than any of the alternatives. This option is worth exploring no matter what your budget is. 

Verify the Effectiveness of your Strategies

As with any other type of operations, your marketing efforts should continue to be refined and adjusted to meet the changing needs of the market. You can’t simply “set it and forget it.” 

You must revisit your plan and budget regularly, collect current data on which strategies are working and which are not, and make adjustments to your marketing plan as necessary. This method is the only way to ensure that you are leveraging your marketing dollars in a way that makes the biggest impact on your bottom line.