3 tactics that can impact your marketing budget

What should you consider when putting together your marketing budget?

That depends on the marketing tools you plan to use.

Here are three marketing tactics and, should you choose to invest in them, important questions to consider for your marketing budget:

Infographics

You’ve surely seen infographics floating around the internet; as Fission defines, “An infographic is a powerful tool that combines statistics and data into beautiful, humorous, or easily digestible images that you can easily post to various platforms to ensure the information you want to instill in readers is getting across as intended.”

Research shows consumers respond well to infographics:

• Infographics are liked and shared on social media 3 times more than any other type of content. (HubSpot)
• High quality infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than text articles. (Kissmetrics)
• 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. (Kissmetrics)

If you decide to create and share infographics as part of your strategy, consider these points when finding room in your marketing budget.

1. Where will you get the data?

Because infographics are so data-heavy, it’s important you include relevant, timely, compelling details that will resonate with your target audience. Many infographics include research and statistics around a central theme, such as content marketing statistics, paid search trends or social media trends.

[RELATED: Take advantage of the power of video—regardless of resources orbudget]

If you decide to make data-heavy infographics, think about where you’ll get the details. Will you scour the internet for statistics to include (with a citation), or do you need to build in research costs as part of your marketing budget?

2. Who will design the infographic?

Do you already have the tools to do it yourself, or do you need to purchase a graphic design program? How much will it cost? Or, will you outsource infographic creation to a graphic designer? How much will they charge?

While many designers charge per hour, a solid one should be able to at least give you a range of the cost so you can make room for it in your marketing budget.

As you think about which option to go with, consider where you’ll find the graphics too. If you do it yourself, will you need to spend time finding images to include? Will there be a fee involved in purchasing them?

3. How will you distribute?

How will you encourage others to share your new graphic? In addition to sharing it on your blog and in your social media updates, do you want to run a social media ad promoting it? Or will you research other bloggers that write about similar topics and ask them if they’d be interested in sharing your new graphic?

Remember, your initial investment in creating an infographic isn’t worth it if you don’t share it effectively. Make sure you include publicity in the infographic section of your marketing budget.

Guest Blogging

In addition to establishing yourself as an expert, guest blogging (writing a post on another website as a guest) can be a fantastic way to increase your online visibility.

Many websites that accept guest blog submissions will include a link back to your website; the more links to your site from credible websites, the happier your SEO will be.

Here are four questions to consider as you add guest blogging to your marketing budget:

1. Will you research the contacts and requirements yourself?

If you’re going to conduct the research, remember it will take time to find credible opportunities. Then, you will need to look through the requirements and make sure you’re following all the directions.

If you don’t have time to do this, build the cost of hiring someone to do it for you into your marketing budget.

2. Who will write the posts?

Most guest blogging opportunities stipulate you need to provide original content, so you can’t rely on submitting a post you already published on your blog. You also want to make sure the articles you’re submitting are well-written and relevant to each different website’s audience to increase your chances of them picking up your post.

If you don’t have time to research and write the post yourself, factor in the cost of having someone on your team or a content marketing partner do it for you.

3. Who will contact the blog outlets?

Will you spend the time it takes to fill out the forms, contact the guest blogs and follow up with them regarding your post, or will you hire someone else to do it?

If you hire someone, how aggressive do you want them to be? Will they contact multiple guest blogs regarding opportunities every day, or just a few a month? That will impact how much you should set aside in your marketing budget.

4. Will you pay to publish?

Some guest blogging opportunities are paid, some aren’t. Are you willing to pay to have your guest blog published? If so, account for it in your marketing budget.

The amount you factor in should be directly related to how aggressively you’re pursuing the guest blogging opportunities.

Podcasting

Podcast listenership is on the rise.

• Podcast listeners are much more active on social (94 percent are active on at least one channel – versus 81 percent for the entire population).
• Podcast listeners are more likely to follow companies and brands on social media.
• 50 percent of all US homes are podcast fans.

Creating a podcast can be a fantastic way to establish yourself as an expert and reach a new audience that may be interested in your brand.

However, if you’re going to invest in this tactic, you need to account for it in your marketing budget. Here are five questions to ask yourself:

1. What equipment do you need?

The good news is that podcasting equipment isn’t extremely expensive. As Natalie’s podcast post shares:

There are many options to acquiring podcast equipment, the cheapest being to use your computer’s built in microphone—or you can buy a decent one for around $30. Next, you’ll need some kind of editing software. Again, you can get this for free by using Garage Band or Audacity, however for businesses, it’s worth paying a little more to use Adobe Audition.

2. Who will be the voice of your podcast?

Are you going to be the podcast host, will someone else host it on behalf of your business or will you co-host it with someone? If you bring someone else in to do the podcast with you, will you need to compensate them for their time? If so, it needs to come out of your marketing budget.

3. How long—and often—will your episodes be?

This question is especially relevant if you have a host or co-host whom you need to compensate for their time. If you do a one-hour monthly podcast, the cost will be a lot smaller than if you do a two-hour weekly podcast. As you plan your strategy and budget, keep this in mind.

4. How much planning and prep will they take?

What will the format of your podcasts look like? How much time will it take you to research topics you discuss? Will you interview guests? If so, how will you find them and how much time will it take to coordinate with them? How much time will you spend editing them after recording? Will you hire a producer and/or editor to handle these logistics?

5. How Will You Publicize Them?

Once your podcast episode is ready, how will you publicize it?

You’ll want to share links to the new episode in your social media updates, email newsletter and on your website in a blog post. If you have room in the marketing budget, consider running a social media or Google ad campaign around it as well.

Emily Sidley is the Senior Director of Publicity for Three Girls Media, a PR firm. A version of this article originally appeared on the Three Girls Media blog.

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