Invest in Digital Marketing and Take Your Company to Greater Heights

As the old business adage goes, it takes money to make money.

You, the business owner wanting to succeed and profit in today’s competitive marketplace need to be implementing optimised and cohesive marketing strategies. If you fail to invest in digital marketing, you will be left behind, as your customers are increasingly turning to the Internet to inform their purchase decisions.

Digital marketing is the way of the future. If you want to expand your brand, boost sales, and grow your businesses exponentially, then you have to invest money into digital marketing to drive these goals. Both your prospects and existing customers are actively searching for different products and services online. They’re also reading reviews and comparing various products and services.

You need to strategise your marketing budget accordingly with the help of online marketing professionals, as well as the application of methodical analysis such as the BCG Growth-Share Matrix.

Applying the BCG Growth-Share Matrix Analysis to Marketing Initiatives

The BCG Growth-Share Matrix is a portfolio planning model that was created by Bruce D. Henderson for the Boston Consulting Group in 1970 to help companies analyse their business units or product lines. The BCG Growth-Share Matrix can help companies allocate resources, and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, portfolio analysis, and other disciplines. The BCG Growth-Share Matrix analysis can also be applied to marketing initiatives.

The BCG Growth-Share Matrix classifies a company’s business units into four categories—cash cows, dogs, question marks, and stars—based on combinations of market growth and market share relative to the largest competitor; hence the term “growth-share”.

Cash cows possess high market share in a slow-growing industry and are considered to be leaders in a mature market. Because cash cows have a return on assets that is greater than the market growth rate, they generate more cash than they consume. Like a real cow, such business units should be “milked” for profits and should be invested with as little cash as possible.

Dogs, in contrast, have low market share and a low growth rate, and as a result, neither generate nor consume large amounts of cash. While dogs typically “break even” and generate barely enough cash to maintain the business unit’s market share, they’re considered to be cash traps because of capital that is tied up in a business that has little potential.

Question marks are businesses that operate in high market growth, but have low market share. Their high growth rate ensures that they consume large amounts of cash, but their low market share ensures that they do not generate much cash. This results in considerable net cash consumption. Question marks have the potential to gain market share and become stars, and eventually, cash cows when market growth slows.

On the other hand, if the question mark does not fulfill its potential, then it will eventually degenerate into a dog after years of cash consumption, particularly after the market growth declines. Hence, question marks need to be analysed carefully to determine if they are worth the investment required to grow their market share.

Less problematic are stars, which are business units that possess high market share in a fast-growing industry. While they generate large amounts of cash due to their strong relative market share, they also consume large amounts of cash because of their high growth rate. If a star can maintain its large market share, it will eventually become a cash cow when the market growth rate starts to slow down or after the star reached a level of maturity by gaining efficiency and cost advantage.

As noted earlier, the BCG Growth-Share Matrix analysis can be applied to marketing initiatives. The online marketing campaigns of successful businesses occupy most of the cash cow and the star quadrants because of the high market share (brand expansion, reach and conversions) that have resulted from these optimised, revenue-generating online marketing campaigns.

Typically, the first step is concerned with evolving online marketing campaigns from the question mark phase to the star phase, and finally, to the cash cow phase. Businesses that started early with their online marketing most likely started their campaigns in the question marks quadrant. These businesses have tested and selected the best online marketing campaigns, and in turn, have optimised these campaigns with their online marketing agency for maximum effectiveness until they became stars.

To paraphrase the words of the legendary advertising executive David Ogilvy: “Never stop testing and your [online marketing] will never stop improving”.

While stars generate huge revenues due to their high market share, they also tend to require huge budgets due to their high platform and market growth rate. Stars that eventually reach maturity will become cash cows.

Cash cows are the most effective marketing campaigns and resulting revenues from this quadrant should be coursed out to fund questions marks until they become stars. Also, a greater portion of the marketing budget should be invested in stars to increase their market share until they reach maturity and become cash cows. This process needs to be repeated in order to be always ahead of the curve in digital marketing.

In the infographic, you will see the cash flow and transformation cycle in action. After going through the experience curve, and gaining cost efficiency and cost advantage, these businesses have online marketing campaigns that have matured and have evolved into cash cows. This leads to high overall revenues for the business, which in turn allows them to develop more stars.

We’ll help you identify the ideal marketing budget for your organisation in order to drive your marketing objectives and business goals. By establishing an optimal marketing budget, your business will become more competitive and profitable in an increasingly cutthroat marketplace.

We’ll also help you test and select the best online marketing campaigns, and optimise them to ensure maximum effectiveness to further your brand expansion initiatives.

We’ll drive your growth, boost your profits, expand your brand online, and increase your leads and sales.

Contact our professional digital marketing agency today, and get a FREE consultation on how to strategically increase your marketing budget.

Call us now or send us a message so we can schedule your free consultation and bring your business to new heights.

Establish an Optimal Marketing Budget to Drive Growth and Beat the Competition

Developing a dynamic and cohesive marketing strategy has become essential for businesses that want to profit in today’s competitive marketplace. While some business owners believe that they don’t need to implement strong digital marketing strategies to be successful, their customers are increasingly turning to the Internet to inform their purchase decisions.

Several trends are shaping the direction of digital marketing in 2014 and beyond; aside from increasing mobile adoption (which is fueling the growth of m-commerce), an increasing number of consumers are becoming multi-platform users. Multi-platform users are consumers who use both mobile and desktop devices to consume digital media.

Meanwhile, the growth and influence of social media websites—such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn—have transformed strategic social media marketing, turning it into a vital and lucrative aspect of digital marketing. Consequentially, many of the largest companies are evolving enterprise class social media marketing platforms and infrastructure to help them consolidate their social media marketing campaigns.

Different B2B, B2C, and mixed B2B and B2C companies understand that if they want to expand their brands, increase their sales, and grow their businesses quickly, they need to invest money into their digital marketing efforts. Both your prospects and existing customers have moved online, where they’re actively searching for different products and services, and are reading the recommendations of friends and other consumers. Businesses that aren’t visible in the online world will lose out to savvier businesses that have increased the focus and intensity of their digital marketing efforts.

Your Competitors are Increasing their Overall Marketing Budgets

The latest reports indicate that more marketers are increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2014 than maintaining or decreasing their overall marketing budgets. According to the fifth annual Marketing Budgets Report, which was published by Econsultancy and sponsored by Responsys, 60% of client-side respondents say their companies are increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2014—which is significantly higher compared to 54% in 2013 and 45% in 2012.

The same report stated that 34% of client-side respondents say their companies are maintaining the same overall marketing budgets for 2014, while only 6% of client-side respondents say their companies are decreasing their overall marketing budgets for 2014.

Forty-four percent of supply-side respondents say their clients are increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2014—up from 39% in 2013 and 30% in 2012. As for digital marketing budgets, the number of companies increasing their spending has been remarkably consistent since 2009, and is 71% this year. Digital budgets have largely been insulated from spending cuts as more companies focus on their digital channels to drive business growth, as well as leads and sales conversions.

Meanwhile, only 20% of companies are planning to increase their traditional (offline) marketing budgets in 2014, with 55% of companies planning to keep their traditional (offline) marketing budgets the same over the next year.

As for the average increase in overall marketing budgets, the fifth annual Marketing Budgets Report stated that companies will be increasing their overall marketing budgets by an average of 26% in 2014. Meanwhile, approximately three in every four companies (73%) stated that they will be increasing their budgets by up to 30% this year.

Budget Allocation across Digital Marketing Channels

When it comes to budget allocation, the lion’s share of budget increases will go to content marketing, followed by SEO and mobile marketing for acquisition in 2014. According to the fifth annual Marketing Budgets Report, 74% of client-side responding companies stated they will be increasing their content marketing budgets in 2014, 63% stated they will be increasing their search engine optimisation budgets in 2014, and 63% stated they will be increasing their mobile marketing budgets in 2014.

On the other hand, the digital channels marketers will most likely be decreasing their expenditure in 2014 are paid search and online display advertising for acquisition/engagement. Meanwhile, the majority of supply-side respondents stated that their clients are planning to increase their budgets in content marketing (80%), mobile marketing for acquisition (67%), and mobile marketing for engagement/retention (61%) in 2014.

According to Gartner's Digital Marketing Spending Survey, overall expenditure for digital advertising will grow in 2014 as brands, ad agencies, and publishers invest in diversified channels in order to deliver more relevant advertising to target audiences. The use of programmatic media, which allows marketers to target their desired audience and automate bidding rules for ads based on the business value they deliver, is a major impetus for this growth.

Content Marketing Expenditure is on the Rise for B2C and B2B Marketers

High-quality content will become increasingly vital to the success of businesses in 2014, as consumers use search engines to look for products and services, and find the answers to their queries. Leads on the lookout for particular products and services use the Internet as their first port of call; they check out business websites and social media profiles, and sign up for newsletters to get more valuable information.

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s “B2C Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” report, 90% of B2C marketers are using content marketing this year, compared with 86% last year. Furthermore, 60% of B2C marketers are planning to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months. Of this percentage, 15% are planning to significantly increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months.

As for B2B marketers, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s “B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” report, 93% of B2B marketers are using content marketing in 2014, compared with 91% last year. 58% of B2B marketers are planning to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months, while more B2B marketers are planning to increase their content marketing budgets in 2014, compared with last year (54%).

The Content Marketing Institute’s report also stated that all B2B marketers are planning to increase their content marketing spending at similar rates—even marketers who rate themselves as “least effective”. Meanwhile, more small companies (with 10-99 employees) than large companies (with 1,000 or more employees) are planning to increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months (60% versus 52%).

Marketers are Focusing on Acquisition Rather than Engagement/Retention Marketing 

According to the fifth annual Marketing Budgets Report, 34% of client-side respondents said they were investing more in acquisition marketing rather than engagement/retention marketing in 2014. This percentage is slightly higher than in 2013, when 31% of client-side respondents said they were investing more in acquisition rather than engagement/retention marketing. This modest boost in acquisition marketing can be partially attributed to the more positive economic climate and the corresponding increase in marketing budgets.

Only 18% of client-side respondents said they were investing more in engagement/retention marketing rather than acquisition marketing in 2014. This was a slight drop from 2013, when 24% of client-side respondents said they were investing more in engagement/retention marketing rather than acquisition marketing.

Adjust your Marketing Budget Accordingly to Industry Growth to Fuel your own Growth

Businesses that want to expand their brands, increase their sales, and grow their businesses quickly will need to calibrate their marketing budgets accordingly to meet these goals. The majority of your competitors are increasing their overall marketing budgets, especially in digital channels like content marketing, search engine optimisation, mobile marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing.

Unfortunately, doing exactly what your competitors are doing won’t be enough. If you want to surpass your competitors, you’ll need to hire a professional digital marketing agency with a proven track record of success and years of experience. In other words, you should hire us!

We’ll help you identify the ideal marketing budget for your organisation in order to drive your marketing objectives and business goals. By establishing an optimal marketing budget, your business will become more competitive and profitable in an increasingly cutthroat marketplace. We’ll also develop a dynamic marketing strategy for your business that will drive growth, boost your profits, expand your brand online, and increase your leads and sales conversions.

Contact our professional digital marketing agency, and get first-rate consultation and digital marketing services from the experts.

Call us now, or send us an email to sign up with us today and take your business to new heights!

Free Pro Consultation Worth £1000 with Competition Analysis Reports, and an Online Marketing Services Blueprint

While some business owners believe that they don’t need to implement strong digital marketing strategies to be successful (with some maintaining and even growing their revenues without a coherent digital marketing strategy), their customers are increasingly turning to the Internet to help themselves with their buying decisions. Furthermore, with the increase in mobile adoption, more and more consumers are using their mobile devices to help them with their buying decisions.

If you want to profit in today’s marketplace, you need to develop and implement strong multi-device and cross-channel digital marketing strategies to effectively reach their potential and existing customers.

How Much Budget Should You Allocate to Your Marketing?

As a general rule of thumb, new businesses are advised to invest at least 10% of their gross annual income into a strategic marketing action plan that covers appropriate online, print, and networking initiatives. However, Entrepreneur magazine advises businesses that want to advance their objectives and sales to invest more time and money into their strategic marketing action plan—as much as 20-30% of their anticipated annual gross revenues, particularly if they are introducing new products or services.

These figures, of course, aren’t set in stone. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses with revenues of less than £3 million should allocate between 7-8% of their revenues to marketing. This allocated budget should be split between brand development costs and the costs of promoting the business.

The Small Business Administration states that a small business’s allocated marketing budget should also take into account the business’s industry, the size of the business, and its growth stage. How the marketing budget is spent is equally important, and the budget should be used to outline the costs of the business’s marketing goals within a certain time period.

Your Competitors are Increasing their Marketing Budget in 2014

As the economy continues to recover, more and more marketers are stating that they’ll be increasing their marketing budgets this year to fuel business growth. According to the fifth annual Marketing Budgets Report, which was published by Econsultancy and sponsored by Responsys, 60% of client-side respondents say their companies are increasing their overall marketing budgets for 2014—which is significantly higher compared to 54% in 2013 and 45% in 2012.

Forty- four percent of supply-side respondents say their clients are increasing their overall marketing budgets this year—up from 39% in 2013 and 30% in 2012. As for digital marketing budgets, the number of companies increasing their spending has been remarkably consistent since 2009, and is 71% this year. Digital budgets have largely been insulated from spending cuts as more companies focus on their digital channels to drive business growth, as well as leads and sales conversions.

Meanwhile, only 20% of companies are planning to increase their traditional (offline) marketing budgets over the next year, with 55% of companies planning to keep their traditional (offline) marketing budgets the same over the next year.

Your Competitors are Focusing on Acquisition Marketing

The fifth annual Marketing Budgets Report also stated that more companies say they will be focusing their investments on marketing for new customers (acquisition marketing) over keeping their existing ones (engagement/retention) in 2014. 34% of respondents say they are focusing on acquisition marketing (up from 31% in 2013), while retention/engagement is down from 24% in 2013 to 18% this year.

The modest boost in acquisition marketing can be partially attributed to the more positive economic climate and the corresponding increase in marketing budgets.

Marketing Spend in 2014: Email Marketing, Social Media, & Search (SEO/PPC) Lead the Way

The latest StrongView survey, which was conducted with SENSORPRO, examines business leaders and their planned marketing budgets for 2014. According to the survey, 52% of respondents plan to increase their spend on email marketing, 46% on social media, and 41% on search (SEO/PPC) this year.

In contrast, some traditional advertising channels are seeing a significant decrease in spend.  According to the StrongView survey, 32% of respondents plan to decrease their print advertising spend, while 21% of respondents plan to decrease their direct mail spend.

A prevailing challenge for marketers this year is accessing and leveraging the enormous amount of data being generated by a growing number of marketing channels. 40% of respondents cited accessing and leveraging customer data as the biggest email marketing challenge, while 32% of respondents say they’re struggling to develop more relevant engagements.

How Professional Consultation Can Drive Your Marketing Objectives & Business Goals

While developing a dynamic marketing strategy is important for businesses that want to drive growth, boost their profits, and increase their leads and sales conversions, setting aside the optimal marketing budget to drive these objectives can be a tricky process. This is a problem frequently encountered not just by small and medium businesses, but by large enterprises as well.

Fortunately, we can help business owners like you identify the ideal marketing budget for your organisation in order to drive your marketing objectives and business goals. For a limited time, we’re providing FREE PROFESSIONAL CONSULTATIONS WORTH £1000 to business owners who want to establish optimal marketing budgets and become more competitive and profitable in an increasingly cutthroat marketplace.

Our free professional consultation worth £1000 includes a comprehensive research and analysis report, and an in-depth online marketing services blueprint, so that you’ll better understand your current online presence, what your competitors are doing, and what actions need to be taken in order to drive your marketing and business goals.

We typically charge £1000 per consultation because of the extensive research and analysis—not to mention expertise—that is required. Indeed, no other company will offer such comprehensive and superior consultation for free. If you want to compete in the online marketing world, you’ll need serious intelligence and the advice of an experienced, knowledgeable consultant.

We’ll make the effort to research and analyse your target market, your brand, your marketing goals, your past marketing campaigns, your competitors, and your industry to help us devise a sound online marketing strategy for you. Armed with this knowledge, we’ll then proceed with implementation, and every step in the process and every milestone will be aligned with your marketing goals.

Our online marketing services blueprint will outline the services that you need to meet your marketing objectives and business goals, with the corresponding timetable and well-justified marketing budget.

Don’t miss this chance to obtain valuable intelligence and first-rate consultation from the experts. Call us now or send us a message so we can schedule your free consultation.