6 Powerful Ways to Spend Your Marketing Budget

The best way to stick to a budget is to start one

“I need a larger marketing budget.”

“Are you kidding?”

That’s how most conversations in the workplace go. We all recognize that things don’t always go according to plan. The hard truth is, without careful monitoring and planning, wasted expenditure can occur. And the same holds true even for your marketing budget.

Getting Started

Well, the tough part is over and your budget has been approved for the next quarter. But now, another daunting task awaits you — how to actually spend that money?

Allocating your budget is not an easy task. Consider the resources and tools you and your team require to do their jobs well. Additionally, leave a little room for celebrating your team wins, both big and small.

Sounds great, but how do you accurately plan out that perfectly balanced budget?

Whether you have “use-it-or-lose-it” funds left over from the quarter, or are putting together a budget for the first time, here are 6 tips (along with their associated costs) on how to spend that money effectively.

(Disclaimer: The costs are broken down in terms of American and Canadian dollars (since I reside here). Additionally, these costs are an approximate of how much it would cost you to carry out each step, it may differ on a case-by-case basis)

1. Improve Your Landing Page

Estimated Cost: 150 USD or 200 CAD (per page)

Let’s talk about landing pages. Now, we should assume that there’s always room for improvement on our landing pages. Communication of important information is key for your landing pages, so make sure it is perfect. A good place to start is with pages that have a conversion rate of less than 20%. Try and rework the language to tune it into your target audience’s needs.

A good idea is to conduct keyword research and perform A/B tests if you are unsure which language works with your target audience. Additionally, do a little bit of social listening, as it will help keep you aware of the bigger picture. Try these methods and your landing page will work wonders in connecting with your target audience.

An example of a company with a great landing page would be Slack. Slack is a website or collaboration tool that replaces email to help you and your team to work together seamlessly.

Takeaway — My personal opinion is that Landing pages are extremely critical for any business. Why? Because they help you generate leads by evaluating them through a rigorous qualification process, further converting them into new customers. Marketers can capture leads at a higher rate by sending them to dedicated landing pages, rather than diverting traffic to their home page.

So, here are some of my reasons on why Slack’s landing page is exceptional:

• The lead capture form is consistently present as users scroll through the page.
• The call-to-action button is compelling since it’s short, direct, and uses the word “free.”
• One form field makes it highly likely that visitors will enter their details on the form.
• The images are bright, engaging, use brand colours, and are relevant to the corresponding sections.
• Use of social proof is likely to make visitors feel compelled to use Slack.

2. Optimize Your Website’s Homepage

Estimated Cost: 150 USD or 200 CAD (per page)

There are various softwares available online to help you with this task. You can try installing heat map tracking software, like Hotjar or Crazy Egg, onto your homepage. This software will give you a better sense of what people are clicking on and how far they are scrolling on the page.

Using these tools effectively will help you determine if your target audience is finding the content you want them to see the most. You will also identify any flaws on your homepage, which should further ignite the need to restructure your webpages in order to be more visible.

Airbnb as a brand has definitely seen better days, but its homepage design has never been better. Minimalism is now recognized as a sign of a modern homepage. Airbnb’s website communicates its purpose quickly and provides a seamless mobile experience as well.

Takeaway — In just a sentence, Airbnb draws you in and gets you ready to start exploring stays at different travel destinations. Breathtaking visuals also evoke a spirit of exploration such that any user with a pinch of wanderlust will definitely enjoy the aesthetics attached to the site.

3. Revisit Poorly Performing Calls-to-Action (CTA)

Estimated cost: 50 USD or 70 CAD (per CTA)

The best way to conduct this is using your analytics software, where you sort your calls-to-action against the metrics click rate and conversion rate. Then, consider redesigning the ones with the lowest performance. Probably the best way to do this is by performing an A/B test, which will show you which design your audience really likes.

You have no idea how important a simple design change can be to attract more visitors. It could be something as small as selecting a different photo, or tweaking the text/word to strengthen the connection with your target audience. This test will determine the best ways to further prospects along in their buying journey.

Lyft does this exceptionally well, with their ads’ ability to draw in both new riders and drivers. It comes as no surprise that the ride-hailing app nearly tripled its number of active customers over a two-year period.

Takeaway — In the above CTA, Lyft capitalizes on the fact that everyone would like to get free money. Being established helps since people already know what they do, but this ad offers a bit more context. The “Install Now” call-to-action button coupled with the ad text is persuasive because it leads directly to where new customers can learn how to claim their free $50 ride credit.

4. Design an Infographic

Estimated cost: 150 USD or 200 CAD

Who doesn’t love a good infographic? Infographics are a powerful tool which generally use visual data, charts, and statistics to help people easily digest complex information. Appropriate usage of colour and proportion, can transform information into memorable, attention-grabbing, persuasive graphics. They are very tough to miss and generate massive impact.

A good example here can be when you run an in-depth analysis, such as determining customer demographics on Twitter. An infographic is your best bet to to provide an overview of your customer base. The results will be arranged in a neat fashion as well as be visually appealing.

To serve as a better illustration, check out this infographic about “The Almighty Dollar” by Good Magazine.

Takeaway — On the surface, it sounds like a dull topic. However, it provides extensive information on the various income levels among different religious groups in the US. The infographic does a fantastic job of visually presenting the data in a straightforward way, while also provoking conversation around a somewhat sensitive topic.

5. Plan & Run a Usability Test

Estimated cost: 350 USD or 475 CAD

Possibly the most effective step. A usability test gives you real feedback from potential customers. Similar to the results you get from a Net Promoter Score, you will get a sense of what customers like and don’t like about your web pages. The goal here is to discover areas of confusion and explore opportunities to improve the overall user experience.

You must be wondering that apart from yourself and your team, how do you actually find people for testing? Well, here are a few options you can use—

• Existing users. The best way to recruit existing users for usability testing is to promote it on your website or reach out via email marketing.
• Find people via UserTesting. This website is specifically designed to find people for usability testing. The best part? The site also delivers audio and video of users testing your website.
• Use Mechanical Turk. This is a cheaper version of UserTesting that lets you recruit a ton of people at a lower cost.
• Try Craigslist. This site is known for helping people get together.

Takeaway — Using the results from the usability test, figure out how to revise the content on your website to make it more user-friendly. For example, if you notice that your product pages aren’t effective, you can mark this as a section to be worked upon in the future. Don’t take the feedback received here for granted.

6. Celebrate Previous Wins

Estimated cost: 500 USD or 680 CAD

Finally, remember to allocate some funds to celebrate your colleagues and their wins for the previous quarter. This does not necessarily have to be a huge blowout party, but could be something small, like sending colleagues a care package, reminding your team that their hard work is appreciated.

You could also recognize their efforts on weekly huddles by talking about the great strides and achievements your team has made. A better idea is to come up with superlatives and present them at team meetings. Awards like “Funniest Marketer” or “Largest Movie Buff” boosts team morale.

Takeaway — This verbal recognition serves as an important reward for the winner, as it helps keep the team engaged and excited. By celebrating your team wins, you can help your colleagues gain meaning and motivation from their work, which eventually trickles down to the results they drive.

In a Nutshell

Yes, budgeting can be hard. It becomes especially harder when you need to find rational ways to spend it in ways that won’t set off alarm bells in your accounting department (Do you really need 1,000 Sharpies?). Well, that’s what inspired me to draft this article, so it could help you make wiser decisions while crafting your next marketing budget.

We could go on and on talking about marketing budgets for the next quarter. But, you have probably had enough of me throwing in “my two cents” on the subject matter.