How Businesses should plan their Content Marketing Budget

According to Econsultancy’s 2013 Marketing Budgets Report, 71% of businesses planned to increase their digital marketing budgets. More than two-thirds of the respondents (70%) said their companies would be increasing the amount spent on content marketing.

Why is content such a big deal? Digital marketing is constantly changing thanks to the way people use technology, share information, and search for information online. Google’s algorithms (which are also continuously updated) mean that high-quality content has become more relevant than ever.

To determine how you’re going to maximize your content marketing budget, you need to plan how you’re going to spend it. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you start planning your content marketing expenditures.

What type of Content does your ideal customer consume?

If you’re marketing to business owners, it would be worthwhile allocating money to a professionally written white paper that can be downloaded from your website. Investigating the potential of LinkedIn (if you’re not already using it) would also benefit. If, on the other hand, you’re marketing to teenagers, consider more Generation X-friendly platforms such as Snap Chat, Twitter, and TikTok.

How are you going to measure results?

Spending money on professionally produced content (or creating the content yourself) is great, but how will you know if it’s effective? To justify your budget spend, make sure you have clear, measurable goals that can be transformed into a monetary value. Whether you need to prove your digital content efforts are working to a boss or yourself, you will need to figure out exactly what each new client acquisition will mean in cold, hard numbers to justify the expense.

Diversify your budget

Few content marketing strategies will be successful if they only focus on one type of media. Content refers to everything from articles, blogs, and newspapers to infographics, videos, and social media updates. Work with a digital marketing consultant to find out how you can get the most bang for your buck by re-purposing different types of content (for example, creating a video out of a PowerPoint presentation and uploading it to YouTube).

About the Author

Kalpana Murthy, President/CEO at WSI Plano, DBA Kriti Web Solutions, LLC. is a Digital Strategist, Consultant, Speaker/Trainer, & Software Engineer who is passionate about bringing affordable technology solutions to businesses to build online presence. Kalpana Murthy is a certified partner with Google, HubSpot, Sharp Spring, SEMRush and other digital solution providers.