November brings a change of seasons and a forward-thinking outlook on the upcoming year. Have you planned your marketing budget for 2017? How does digital marketing fit into your plan? If digital marketing does not play a large role in your marketing budget for 2017, it probably should.
According to Forrester Research, by 2019, marketing management will spend more than $103 billion on digital. Digital spend will exceed cable and broadcast combined. Businesses are making shifts in the marketing budget right now. Allocation that used to go to radio, television, and print is moving to digital placements.
The digital marketing budget
Digital marketing has several components. The digital marketing budget includes search, display, social, and email. Search marketing includes search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click search campaigns. Search will retain the largest share of digital marketing mix in upcoming years. However, social media investment will grow faster than any other digital marketing channel. Social media investments will represent about 15% of total online spend next year, more than double as compared to 2014.
Additional considerations for marketing budget
In addition to spending growth, digital marketing efforts are undergoing tactical change. Video is very popular. In fact, 4 times as many consumers prefer digestible video content over text. Recent research showed that 69% of marketers plan to “increase” or “significantly increase” budgets for video creation and placement. Social media is ideal for attention-worthy video. Also, video is impactful in web design, display ads (via in-banner video), and email.
It is also important to note that there is no longer a separate mobile break out in most current marketing forecasts. Mobile is necessary across all tactics and it automatically assumed in each category of the digital marketing budget. All consumer touchpoints and marketing elements should be optimized for the mobile experience.
Budgets within the marketing budget
Total marketing budgets are around 7-12% of total revenue, based on various research reports. However, there is no one-plan-fits-all approach. Consumer-focused businesses generally spend a higher percentage on marketing as compared to B2B companies. Smaller businesses usually spend a higher percentage of revenue on marketing.
Now is the time to think strategically about your brand goals for the future. Do you need to build awareness? How are the competitors marketing to your customers? Budgeting for today’s digital and mobile consumer is necessary for growth and success.
