In the Italian business scenario, SMEs represent an huge part of economic reality.
Inside the definition of SMEs there is a moltitude of business situations. Some with flexible mechanisms, others with more complex structures: companies which reach 2 million euros (even less) a year and enterprises with higher turnover, which reach 50 million a year.
The figure of Digital Marketing Consultant is necessary today to support companies to be competitive in a very fast-evolving digital environment.
The budget available for digital marketing is always lower than necessary. For this reason, being able to spend as well as possible the proper budget is a primary demand.
What is the budget of an SME for digital marketing?
- Same budget as previous year: considering satisfactory results of past year, the same amount of money is used again in the new year.
- Fixed revenue budget: according to the company goals and the level of visibility in the market, a fixed part of the turnover is adressed to digital marketing.
- Budget established by the entrepreneur: the amount of investment is gradually defined, according to the needs of the entrepreneur.
- Budget decided by priority: planning actions, doing a careful analysis of estimates and what is necessary for the company, finally setting the priorities which deserve investment.
How to invest this budget?
As I mentioned before, the routes are diversified according to the historicity and the needs of the company. However, we can identify some guidelines.
- Investing following specific goals. Coordinating all the departments of the company, goals are planned together. The budget is run over according to the importance of the goals to reach.
- Spending better, knowing what to ask. With the help of external professional objective and tools are defined. Having clear ideas on what to ask improves the results of the business.
- Deciding step by step, stay flexible. Rigid planning is not a friend of these times. Concentrating at the beginning of the year the whole budget in a single market can reveal wrong becasue of the changes of global economy. Deciding portions of the budget to be invested during the course of the year is an effective solution; if you are not sure about the direction to take, you can consider medium-term investments.
- Knowing where to invest, calculating. Identify the set of KPIs, consider not only the number of leads or sales volume, but also how much it costs to generate each lead and each sale. Also measure which acquisition channels costs less and which have great return on the investment.
- Investing by trends. Acting according to "what they say functions" instead of "what works for us" can entail risks: every company has a history of its own. New fashions often represent opportunities, but must be approached and undertaken always following the characteristics, resources and objectives of the company. To divert time and energy from other activities.
Often starting from the customer experience helps to decide which strategies are efficient for their business, sometimes it could be helpful to experiment with new innovations that are useful to corporate marketing policies.
E-Business Consulting, a Digital Marketing agency since 2003, it offers the appropriate support to operate in the digital field by designing digital strategies with focus on active experimentation and Omnichannel. Contact us now for a free quote
