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“We are active on Facebook”, I sometimes hear someone in an organization say when I ask what they do in terms of marketing. Marketing is so much broader than that! Of course I would be happy to start up and expand the marketing, but if you want to do more with marketing yourself, here are some tips:

Every adventure requires a first step

“What can we do with marketing, where should we start, how do we free up time for it, and how much marketing budget do we actually need?” are questions that can arise and in some cases already cause stagnation before further marketing activities have even started. You have to start somewhere with building your brand and just get started. But, without a compass you don’t know where you are going. The first step is to free up time and think carefully about crucial matters regarding marketing.

The core

In any case, consider why your organization exists, how you want to fulfill your mission, what you want to achieve with marketing, and what you are going to do to achieve results. What are the most important brand values ​​and what do you promise to the target group? Map the market and find out how you can be distinctive in that market. If that matches the wishes of your target group, then you have an important match that you can build on!

Let’s get started

Once the core is clear, you can think of actions that contribute to achieving your goals. Once you get started, it is important to measure and analyze the effect of these actions. With those results, you can optimize your marketing tactics.

Budget

There are several methods to allocate a realistic budget:

• Turnover percentage method. This is a fixed percentage of turnover; 5% is common for a marketing budget.
• Closing item method. What remains after deducting other costs?
• Parity method. What does the competitor spend?
• Target method. What budget is needed to achieve a certain objective?

The method you choose depends on a number of factors. Organizations with ambitious growth goals often benefit more from a target method, because it is focused on achieving specific goals. For short-term objectives, the closing item method can be suitable. For the long term, the target or turnover percentage methods are often more effective. Market leaders often have more room to follow their own strategy (and therefore budget), while newcomers may want to mirror the expenditure of established competitors in order to gain market share. And there are many more factors to mention; it really comes down to your unique situation and what fits best in it. Advice on budgets? Feel free to contact me.