How to create an internal marketing budget

So many agencies don’t have a well thought-out, documented internal marketing budget of their own, yet if your agency was a client and your marketing strategy was the new brief one of the first things you’d want to know is “What’s your budget?”.

It’s a crucial piece of information and without it you’re just shooting in the dark.

But why don’t agencies take their own brand as seriously as they do a new client brief?

Could this lack of internal budget be one of the reasons why agencies struggle with their own marketing strategy perhaps? Something which is usually only picked up when new biz is quiet – which is probably too late by the way – and is put down just as quickly when the next client project lands!

So, next time you’re planning your own campaign, or marketing plan for the new financial year, prioritise having a well thought out and documented internal marketing budget.

Follow these seven steps and your next big campaign idea won’t crash and burn again.

Set clear marketing goals

Determine what you’re trying to achieve from your marketing spend – is it brand awareness, lead generation, profile building, or something else?

And with all good objective setting – make sure they’re SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).

Bonus point – show how your marketing goals link to your agency’s goals!

This way when the conversation turns to “What has our marketing spend delivered?” you can show how it’s contributed to the growth and success of your agency, rather than just a department that “does stuff”!

Understand your audience

If the goal of this campaign or plan is about getting your agency in front of your dream clients are you really clear on who they are? Do you know what messaging will capture their hearts and minds? What’s the problem they have but don’t want, and the results they want but don’t have?

What’s your point of difference from the other 10 squillion agencies out there all claiming to be the best at what you do?

Choose your marketing channels and content

How are you going to get in front of your dream client – let’s call her Jane? Where does she hang out?

What social channels does she engage with, what industry websites does she visit, which newsletters does she subscribe to, and what events does she like to go to?

What content would Jane engage with the most? Is she the type of person to read a detailed report with lots of facts and figures, or is a TikTok video more her vibe? Or maybe it’s a blend of formats depending on where Jane is in her buying journey?

Estimate and document your costs

A marketing budget is a forecast of how much you think you’ll spend. Once it’s approved you’ll have to stick to – so it’s important you estimate your costs accurately.

Are your marketing tactics similar to things you’ve done in the past and therefore have a pretty good idea of costs, or perhaps you need to source a few quotes from suppliers if it’s all completely new?

When documenting your budget it’s useful to group costs into similar categories such as:

Paid advertising

PR

Creative design and branding

Content

Events

Tech

Once you’ve documented your costs it’s important you communicate and align your budget with your internal teams and any resource you might need. If you’ve planned to produce a thought-paper on design excellence in June and Steve your subject expert will be away delivering a major client project at that time you’re making things very difficult for yourself!

Another bonus point – don’t forget to include internal design time as this can often be one of the biggest hurdles in the process and can grind things to a halt just as you’re about to launch that stand-out campaign.

By allocating internal time within your budget and clearly communicating this across the agency there should be no surprises when other team members are spending time on marketing activity and if necessary it allows for costs to be cross-charged to avoid those difficult “billable work comes first” conversations.

Get buy-in

Getting stakeholder buy-in is so important when it comes to demonstrating the value and importance of marketing. And it should be something that starts, well, at the start of your budget planning process and not at the end once you’re looking for final approval!

Identify your key stakeholders – the senior leadership team, your business development managers, maybe a few folks from client services? Consult with them, collaborate, explain your thinking and take them on the journey with you. In doing so they’ll understand what you’re trying to achieve and most importantly why you’re investing in the things you are. And having been part of the development process from the very beginning they’ll be your biggest marketing champions!

Execute and measure

Yippeee, you’ve got sign-off for that campaign, Steve’s done a cracking job on sharing his design excellence wisdom and that thought-paper is now front and centre on your industry’s number one website being downloaded by Jane and everyone like her that you would love to work with!

But before you get carried away planning the next big thing, make sure you take stock of how things are going with your current campaign.

When you laid out your objectives at the start of the budget planning process you should have agreed a set of metrics that you would gauge success on. Maybe you wanted 100 thought-paper downloads, or a 20% increase in traffic to a specific website landing page, or maybe a 30% increase in your newsletter subscribers. Whatever those metrics are make sure you’ve got your marketing tech setup to gather this crucial data for you.

Review and adjust

Finally, make sure your reviewing your marketing activity and budget on a monthly and quarterly basis. It’s not a once-only task; it’s an ongoing process that deserves continuous monitoring and adjustment to ensure you’re getting the results you need and can demonstrate the value and impact your marketing investment is having on your agency’s success.

Be your best case study

Follow these seven steps and properly allocate the time, resource, and money needed to your own agency marketing – both external and internal – and your best efforts won’t fall short!

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