Marketing - How Much Do You Spend?
Marketing - How Much Do You Spend?
Peter was saying he felt that 4-5% of your income should be spent on marketing for your business and the key word here is ‘business’. Running a Virtual Assistance practice is a business and as in all businesses, money does need to be invested into it, to keep it running, or to get it up and running in the first place.
Throughout the years of running my own VA business I’ve paid out thousands of dollars for Yellow Pages advertising, printing of flyers, some local newspaper advertising (although I don’t bother with that these days) online advertising such as Google Adwords and directory listings, my own website which includes hosting fees, and of course VA network fees. I do belong to a few networks and yes, I do pay fees. I also pay out for sponsorships for different events, like the annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention. Even your business cards are part of your marketing expense - and they should be constantly given out, not left in a drawer at home.
Of course, you should track your marketing efforts and give it a reasonable time to see how it goes. If you’re going to try the local newspaper you probably need to have ads in there weekly for at least 8 weeks to measure the response because the paper is thrown out weekly. Yellow Pages should give you an idea over a one year period as to whether it will work for you - but then again, you might need to reword it and try again the following year.
Google Adwords - you can constantly tweak your adverts and split-test to see which keywords and text ads are working. I recently created some new ones for my coaching course after attending a copywriting course (another marketing expense if you like?) and found that the new adverts are getting better attention and clickthroughs!
So, in using Peter’s guide of 5% of your income for marketing, if you are earning say $10K a year from your business, then it would be reasonable to expect to invest $500 (note I say ‘invest’ and not ’spend’), $1000 for $20K income and so on. In fact, I believe I’ve probably spent well over the 5% mentioned every year in my business but I do believe the returns have been well worth it too.
So, do your sums and get on with marketing your business!
Marketing How Much Do You Spend - To learn more about this author, visit Kathie Thomas's Website.
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I was at a BNI presentation some time ago and the guy speaking was a salesman for a window company. He raised the subject of a marketing budget and encouraged us to consider that even our BNI membership fees are part of that budget. This is something I’ve always felt with respect to industry association or network memberships too. The networks are active in providing exposure for the industry and are proactive in attracting the attention of clients for their members, amongst other things. And yet so often I see business owners complaining about the membership fees and that they can’t afford them, or don’t think they’re necessary.
Peter was saying he felt that 4-5% of your income should be spent on marketing for your business and the key word here is ‘business’. Running a Virtual Assistance practice is a business and as in all businesses, money does need to be invested into it, to keep it running, or to get it up and running in the first place.
Throughout the years of running my own VA business I’ve paid out thousands of dollars for Yellow Pages advertising, printing of flyers, some local newspaper advertising (although I don’t bother with that these days) online advertising such as Google Adwords and directory listings, my own website which includes hosting fees, and of course VA network fees. I do belong to a few networks and yes, I do pay fees. I also pay out for sponsorships for different events, like the annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention. Even your business cards are part of your marketing expense - and they should be constantly given out, not left in a drawer at home.
Of course, you should track your marketing efforts and give it a reasonable time to see how it goes. If you’re going to try the local newspaper you probably need to have ads in there weekly for at least 8 weeks to measure the response because the paper is thrown out weekly. Yellow Pages should give you an idea over a one year period as to whether it will work for you - but then again, you might need to reword it and try again the following year.
Google Adwords - you can constantly tweak your adverts and split-test to see which keywords and text ads are working. I recently created some new ones for my coaching course after attending a copywriting course (another marketing expense if you like?) and found that the new adverts are getting better attention and clickthroughs!
So, in using Peter’s guide of 5% of your income for marketing, if you are earning say $10K a year from your business, then it would be reasonable to expect to invest $500 (note I say ‘invest’ and not ’spend’), $1000 for $20K income and so on. In fact, I believe I’ve probably spent well over the 5% mentioned every year in my business but I do believe the returns have been well worth it too.
So, do your sums and get on with marketing your business!
Marketing How Much Do You Spend - To learn more about this author, visit Kathie Thomas's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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