Budgeting for Digital Marketing: Hitting Your Q4 Goals

by admin | Oct 12, 2021 | SocialEyes

There is one final quarter left in 2021 and it’s an important one. This is your last opportunity to hit your goals for the year and end 2021 on a high note. Digital marketing is extremely important for hitting your goals and having a plan for your marketing budget is equally as important.

Here, we’ll show you how to create a digital marketing budget that allows you to achieve your Q4 goals and start the new year from a place of prosperity.

Step 1: What Worked in the Past?

Have you been setting quarterly goals for your business before now? If so, analyze what these goals were and if they were achieved. Consider how much you spent on digital marketing in previous quarters.

You might notice a significant ROI from social media marketing or from updating your branding. Perhaps you invested a big portion of your budget into email marketing, but those campaigns didn’t yield the results you wanted.

Examine what has worked and not worked for your business in the past.

Step 2: Identify Your Goals

Digital marketing can take your business to new heights. It can help you expand your reach, refine your brand, increase your authority in your industry, and attract your target client to your services.

So, for Q4 of 2021, what are your goals?

Here are some examples we’ve seen businesses set in the final quarter:

• Increase visitors to your website’s contact page by 33%
• Expand your online presence to a new social platform you haven’t tackled yet
• Double your click-thru-rate
• Maximize client retention through an effective email marketing campaign

Step 3: Set Your Budget

Now that you know what goals you want to achieve in Q4, it’s time to assess how much hitting them will cost you.

According to the BDC, B2B businesses should spend between 2-5% of their revenue on marketing efforts. For B2C businesses, that number jumps to 5-10%.

On average, small businesses that have less than $2 million in annual sales spend nearly $34,000 on digital marketing. Per quarter, that’s $8,500.

If you’ve never created a budget for online marketing before, use the guidelines above from the BDC to decide how much you want to allocate to these efforts quarterly.

Step 5: Create a Digital Marketing Plan

You have your Q4 goals for digital marketing and you know how much you want to spend. Where do you invest that funding to achieve those goals?

Some businesses choose to do digital marketing in-house. This typically requires hiring a full-time employee who specializes in digital marketing. Some business owners attempt to master this field themselves, only to find they no longer have the time to work on other aspects of their businesses.

The most cost-effective and goal-effective option is to hire an experienced digital marketing agency that understands your industry and your business.

We’ll Take Care of Your Digital Marketing So You Can Run Your Business

Here at SocialEyes Communications, we have years of experience helping service-based businesses and professionals grow their companies, increase sales, build reputations, and improve industry authority.

With our help, you will hit your Q4 goals, stay on budget, and experience a substantial ROI. Contact us today to learn more.

New Changes on Social Media Platforms

by admin | Oct 12, 2021 | SocialEyes

Social media is constantly evolving with new features and tools that make marketing your business more effective and efficient. We are committed to staying apprised of all social platform updates to ensure our clients get the most ROI from the time spent on them. Here, we’re sharing some platform updates that may affect your digital marketing efforts.

No More Swipe Ups on Instagram

Prior to recent updates, the Swipe Up function allowed users to access your website through an Instagram Story that used the Swipe Up tool. Users would swipe upwards on the screen during a Story and be taken directly to your website or online store.

Instagram has replaced this tool with stickers.

Instead of swiping up, users can simply tap the sticker on your Story which opens your store or site. You can customize how you want the sticker to look on your Story by size, font, colour, and placement.

Turn Instagram Stories into Reels

Instagram is competing with TikTok to capture user attention through short videos edited in-app. One way of doing so is through a feature they are currently testing internally called Montages.

Essentially, users can splice together clips from their Stories to form a reel, or montage, of the clips and add music.

This feature will be especially useful for business owners who want to create a montage of their product demos, a behind the scenes montage, or a day-in-the-life montage.

Facebook Introduces Reels

Facebook is also trying to compete with the video-sharing features of other platforms by launching Reels. It is currently only offered to US-based users but will eventually be available globally.

Like on Instagram, Facebook Reels will allow users to create short videos with annotations and music that can be shared.

Facebook Prevents Ads Targeting Teens by Interest

Facebook has recently ruled that businesses cannot target teen users by interest when creating ads. Businesses can only target by interest to users 18 years and older.

This rule will also be applied to Instagram which could affect businesses that cater to a younger demographic on both platforms.

Twitter Is Catching Up

Where is Twitter in the world of video marketing and useability? It seemed like Twitter was falling behind the curve until they announced plans for upcoming changes.

Videos posted on Twitter are notoriously low quality, an issue that has been reported for years. That is one change in the works- less pixelated videos to encourage more video posting and sharing.

Another issue users have had with the Platform is disappearing tweets. The algorithm refreshes the main page, causing some users to lose the tweet they were reading. Over the next couple of months, both of these issues will be resolved.

How Will Your Business’s Marketing Plan Adapt to These Changes?

To get the most out of your marketing budget, you need to be aware of all platform updates and how they could affect you.

We are experts at staying on top of all social media platform changes and ensuring our clients’ marketing plans update alongside them.

If you want help with this, our team is here. Reach out to us today to find out more.