It's 2020. That means it's no longer a question about whether or not you need digital marketing services. If you own a business, you need digital marketing.
So, the question really is: What should my digital marketing budget be? Budgets can be as low as $500 or as high as $50,000 per month. When it comes to determining a digital marketing budget, here are a few things to consider.
What is your current digital presence?
If you either don't have a website at all or have just built a website, you will need a higher digital marketing budget. Websites are the first step, but if you are relying on word of mouth or business cards to get people to your website, you aren't going to get much traffic.
If you are just starting out, you will need to place a lot of your budget into quality Ocean County SEO services. That will lay the foundation to get people to your site without having to pay for them.
On the other hand, if you do have a solid foundation, you can probably opt for a lower budget SEO plan, which will free up budget for other products.
What are you selling?
This seems simple enough, but you need to consider what you're selling when you are thinking about your marketing budget. This really deals with social media, video and display advertising.
If you're a service-based business like construction, you probably don't need to place too much of your budget in non-lead products. For example, if you're a roofing contractor in South Jersey, chances are, not too many people are going to decide they need a new roof when scrolling through their social feed or viewing a display ad in an ESPN article.
That's not to say these channels aren't important. You should have a presence everywhere, but when it comes to budget, you may want to keep those in-house rather than spending a lot of money on social when it isn't producing any tangible ROI.
How Many Leads Do You Need?
With digital marketing, you should be able to determine exactly how many leads are generated by your efforts. This means you can set your budget based on how many leads you need.
Most business owners think they need as many leads as possible rolling in every day. That isn't always the case though. You should consider your actual business capabilities first. For example, if you can only physically fulfill 10 orders a week, you probably don't want to get 50 leads per week.
These tips can help you determine what your digital marketing budget should be. Agencies are always going to try to get you to spend as much as possible. Not because they are trying to cheat you out of money, but because they can't understand your business as well as you do. Before you simply accept whatever budget you are given, consider the above and you will be better able to figure out what you need.