Making sure your business gets the best return on your marketing investment is always a top priority. In 2020, that all became much more difficult due to the pandemic. Now that your business has navigated the waters of COVID-19, you can take what you learned and create the best marketing plan for your business for 2021.
Knowing the difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing, investing the right percentage on marketing, and taking advantage of digital marketing in these virtual times, will put you well on your way to getting a great ROI.
Let’s dive into making the best marketing plan for you in 2021!
Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing
First off, you need to know if you will use traditional marketing and/or digital marketing to make your business gain as many customers as possible.
Traditional marketing is how businesses marketed their services before the Internet, and is still very popular today. Traditional marketing tactics reach customers on print, television, direct mail, phone, billboards, and word-of-mouth.
Digital marketing is used…digitally! Social media content, social media ads, email marketing, blogs, online reputation management, and search engine optimization (SEO) are digital marketing tactics.
The question now is – which one do you use? Hubspot recommends you use both traditional and digital marketing to reach the most audiences possible. While it may seem obvious that digital marketing is becoming more and more important, many customers (particularly older or more rural audiences) still prefer traditional marketing.
How much should you invest in marketing?
Another question you may have: does this mean I split traditional and digital marketing budgets half-and-half? Maybe. On average, digital marketing is about half of an overall marketing budget. That is a very general statistic.
You need to weigh where you’re providing your services and who you are providing them to. If your business is hyperlocal and has a very specific audience in one location, you may not need a large digital marketing budget since your target is very specific and the cost to reach that specific audience should be lower on digital platforms. If your business caters to an older demographic, you may want to focus more of your marketing budget on traditional marketing.
On the other hand, if your business is over a larger region, targets a larger age range, or you want to reach younger populations, you should invest more of your budget into digital marketing.
Next question: How much should my business budget for its overall marketing budget? The U.S. Small Business Administration suggests that businesses should spend 7-8% of their gross revenue on marketing.
If you’re still needing help on how you should invest your marketing budget and how much you should spend, No Time For Social can help! Schedule a meeting with our CEO, Bill Combes HERE.
The Importance of Digital Marketing in 2021
While certain businesses would normally spend most of their marketing budget on traditional marketing, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we recommend at least 60% go to digital marketing this year.
In 2020, more people used social media than ever before. As we’re still living through the pandemic, plenty of people are limiting outings and travel. That means they’re at home, using their phones and laptops a LOT. Your business can supplement some of the lost impressions from traditional methods with digital channels like Google and Facebook. You can reach out to quite a large audience on social media for a small percentage of your budget.
In 2021, your business can expand with a larger digital marketing budget. Social media content, blogs, email marketing, and social media ads can do a lot for your business in an increasingly virtual environment.
Your 2021 Plan vs. Your Monthly Plans
While your monthly marketing plans are more specific – how much money is spent on each marketing effort, how many days a certain advertising campaign should run, etc., your year-long plan will help you moderate your spending, plan multi-step campaigns, plan ahead for releases, and accommodate for seasonal lapses in revenue.
Some months have more holidays than others. Some months may be better for your industry than others. One month, you may realize that your business underspent on a certain marketing tactic and should spend more on marketing in the future.
Bottom line: While your business should be creating specific monthly marketing plans, you should also make a year-long marketing plan.
Re-Evaluate and Make Changes If Needed
Another perk of monthly marketing budgets: you can easily evaluate what went well and what didn’t go well.
At the end of every month, your business should evaluate how effective the marketing efforts were. If a certain email marketing campaign didn’t bring in as much revenue as anticipated, you can make changes for the next month and focus more on social media marketing, for instance.
For a marketing effort that went extremely well, you can and should keep using it. For instance, if a commercial brought in more customers to your business, you know to keep similar commercials running on television as it went really well.
2020 was definitely difficult for many. As we keep living through the pandemic, your business can find what works and what doesn’t work for the best marketing plan in 2021.
In 2021’s inevitably virtual climate, No Time for Social understands the importance of making an excellent marketing plan for your business. We use digital marketing tactics to optimize content for our clients. Interested in learning more? Read more of our case studies and blogs or contact us for a free social media evaluation!
