Introduction
If you’ve run a small business, you know how hard cash seems to move in and out of your accounts. You hardly find any extra cash at the end of the day. This makes it very difficult to even consider investing in any marketing activities. This, in turn, makes marketing one of the least priorities in your business.
Often, marketing investments will be knee-jerk reactions. They are only implemented when a probable opportunity with quick returns seems to present itself. This is when you see a small business scrambling resources to quickly develop flyers, posters, banners etc. for their “big opportunity”. Often enough, this ends up not delivering on the intended results and the investment goes to waste.
Instead, funding your marketing activities should be a continuous process with a sustainable model. This is because, for marketing to work, you need proper planning and enough time to be effective. Hence, funding your marketing activities should be a core part of your daily business activities if you are looking to grow beyond your current position.
Solution
An effective way of funding your marketing activities sustainably is including a marketing fee in each product or service you offer. You can add a certain percentage i.e. 5% to each product and service. The amount saved should be set aside for marketing only. Rely on free platforms to get you going until you have accumulated enough cash to run a marketing activity for a sustained period.
A question you may be asking is how do you know that you have accumulated enough cash for an effective marketing campaign? The answer to this is that we have assumed that you already have a plan. Whether you’ve discussed amidst your team or have talked to a marketing agency and have developed a budget, that’s really up to you. I recommend that you first identify what you need to achieve, discuss it among yourselves and finally talk to a marketing agency like Bigartta Group to help you firm up your plan.
In summary, to sustainably fund your marketing as a small business, you need to:
1. Have a marketing plan with a budget
2. Include a small marketing fee in each product and service i.e. 5%
3. Set aside the amount until you attain the intended marketing budget
4. Engage a reliable marketing firm that understands small business
