Your Top 10 Marketing Budget Questions Answered Just in Time for 2013

It's the million dollar question: what should I spend my marketing budget on?

We get it all the time, and we get it.

There's a lot going on ' SEO, PPC, Mobile, Tablets, Facebook, Pinterest, Blogging, Email, Apps, Responsive Web Design, etc. ' and a lot of businesses find it hard to keep up with all the online marketing trends.

To help, we've put together the top ten marketing budget FAQs we've heard from prospects and customers as they plan for 2013:

10.  Should I bother budgeting for Email Marketing?

Yes.  Email still has one of the highest ROI of any marketing channel.  Email open rates increased by 15% in Q3 of 2012 compared to same period in 2011, which means email isn't going away any time soon.  Email is effective for communicating to your prospects and customers whether it's a newsletter, the latest blog post or article, industry news, or a sale or promo from your company.  So yes, do bother to budget for email marketing.

9.  There's Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and so many more ' what Social Media should I be betting on?

Your Social Media strategy should be approached just like any other marketing strategy: it needs to align with your business goals.  Don't waste time and money on Social Media if you don't know why you're doing it.  Do you want to use Social Media to share content and drive traffic to your site?  If so, try Twitter.  Looking to become a thought leader and industry expert?  If that's the case, LinkedIn might be the answer.  Want to use Social Media as an extension of your customer service or to promote contests and campaigns?  Facebook could be the fit.  Again, it all depends what your goals are and where your audience is.

8. How much should it cost to get my website redesigned?

There's no stock answer for this, unfortunately, it all depends on the website you're looking for.  Is your website highly customized?  Do you have an ecommerce component?  Is your site between 10-20 pages or more like 100-200 pages?  The cost all depends.  What we will say is that web design shouldn't be too expensive for a standard website.  25% of all new websites use a WordPress theme, and we always encourage clients to consider WP as an affordable option.  Wordpress requires less work, it has thousands of useful plugins, and it's easy for business owners to add content and make updates as opposed to relying on any third party.  And if you do get your site redesigned, make sure you're dealing with a designer who knows how to design for usability and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

7. Should I have a mobile-friendly website designed?

You definitely want a website that is mobile friendly.  But instead of building a mobile site, we'd recommend implementing a responsive web design.  Responsive web design basically means that your site will 'respond' to whatever the visitor is using to view your site: desktop, laptop, phone, tablet, or phablet (yes, I said phablet).

6. Should I be blogging or pay someone else to do it?

Yes, blogging is paramount.  According to Hubspot, small businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors, 102% more Twitter followers, and 126% higher lead growth than non-blogging businesses.  Google's algorithm also rewards sites that provide 'fresh' content on a consistent basis so it's also beneficial from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective.  As to whether you should be blogging or paying someone else, both have their pros and cons.  Blogging yourself takes up a lot of time, but no one knows your business better than you do.  Hiring someone else costs money, and they won't know your business as well, but there's a lot of great writers out there who would be more than happy to help you.

5. What should I be doing to rank better on Google?

See answers to numbers 6,7,9, and 10.  To rank better with search engines you want to be creating great content that's going to get shared and linked to, but you also want a website that offers a great user experience for your visitors ' no matter what device they're using.  There's a lot more to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), including on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and linkbuilding, so don't be reluctant to hire an SEO company.  After all, ranking high for keywords related to your business' product or service can add up to a lot of leads, and a lot of new customers.

4. Do Google Ads work?

Yes.  According to their last Economic Report, Google found that businesses receive on average $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google AdWords.  Not a bad ROI.  Having managed PPC accounts for businesses ranging from SMBs to large corporations, we can confirm that this is more or less accurate.  Google Ads work because they're not a type of disruptive marketing, it's about making sure people actively looking for your product or service find your business (and not your competitor's).  However, running successful Google campaigns includes a lot of keyword and competitor research, the design of web or landing pages that 'convert', and ongoing campaign management and optimization.  Unless you have the time, experience, and expertise we'd recommend hiring a Pay Per Click (PPC) professional (full disclosure: we're a Google AdWords Certified Partner).

3. What can I invest in to get my website generating more leads?

Your website should be your best salesperson.  Just like a salesperson, it needs to have KPIs: a form completion, email sign-up, blog retweet, whitepaper download, or a purchase.  Once you have your metrics, you can start to improve them by testing, testing, testing.  A/B or multivariate testing are great ways to see what visitors respond to better in the effort to generate more leads.  Whether it's experimenting with different navigation, images, headlines, colours, buttons, form fields, promos, or prices, without ongoing testing you won't know if you're website could be performing better and bringing in more business.

2. What can I be doing with my marketing that my competition isn't?

A lot of businesses focus their marketing efforts on attracting new customers (who likely don't have any experience with your brand).  But there is something to be said about putting more emphasis on your existing customers to help grow your business.  Here's something to think about: 55% of consumers recommend a company based on its customer service, and not its 'leading edge', 'world-class', or 'robust' products or services.  So focus on wowing your customers with not only great service, but customer service that people will actually talk about, tweet about, and shout about to their own network of family, friends, fans, and followers.  Create a measurable referral marketing program that rewards customers, employees, and brand advocates who help promote your business.

1. How should I spend my 2013 marketing budget?

Back to the million dollar question.

Online marketing is all about balance because it's an integrated undertaking.  There's no point spending a lot on SEO if your website scares new visitors away, there's no point spending a lot on a new website if it doesn't convert visitors into customers, and there's no point spending anything on marketing at all if your customer service is sub-par and killing your brand.

So here's what we recommend: align each one of your online marketing initiatives with one, two, or all three of the following strategies and budget accordingly:

1. ATTRACT more visitors to your site with tactics such as SEO, Paid Search (PPC), Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media.

2. CONVERT visitors to your site with responsive web design, web or landing pages designed to convert,  A/B and multivariate testing, and great content.

3. KEEP and grow your customer base with Email Marketing, Social Media, Referral Marketing, and knock your socks off customer service.

Now here's to a prosperous 2013!

This article is an original contribution by Robert Clarke.

Find out how you can become a part of Business 2 Community.