What are the best practices for creating a promotion budget and timeline?

Para definir correctamente los objetivos de promoción lo importante es entender ¿adónde queremos llegar? ¿qué resultado queremos lograr con la audiencia? ¿qué comportamiento esperamos de la audiencia con nuestra marca? Promocionar no solo es dar visibilidad a la marca o producto, es crear una relación sostenible que se traduzca en consumo. Por lo cual, para definir los objetivos hay que conocer quién es nuestro público objetivo, sus necesidades, gustos, preferencias, los medios que utilizan, cómo les gusta interactuar, el tipo de contenido que les interesa y sobre todo, qué promoción esperan de las marcas que consumen. No solo se trata de lograr cualquier cosa, es definir de forma estratégica adónde queremos llegar.

Choose the best possible promotion mix that suits your target audience and communication objectives to ensure sound ROI. Be creative as possible in your choice of promotion mix elements as long as the promo budget is limited.

Beyond SMART goals & channel research, refine your promotion budget & timeline with these best practices: Data & Benchmarks: Leverage past data & industry benchmarks to inform allocation & identify optimization areas. Phased Approach: Start with core activities & budget flexibility for testing new channels. Negotiate Deals: Negotiate for better rates with vendors & platforms to stretch your budget. Marketing Alignment: Integrate promotion efforts with your overall marketing strategy for a unified impact. Seasonal Integration: Consider seasonal trends & events to maximize campaign effectiveness. Other things important: Track & Optimize & utilize project management tools.

Promotion is more complicated and complex than ever before. "Opinion journalism" has a grip on conventional and socialized media and if you are promoting an event or talent, it is all uphill today. The general public is devoted to its sources of media and often not open to varying views or acknowledgements. Cover stories have minor impact with audiences and getting a word-of-mouth buzz going does have the clout it used to have. So, what do you do? Prepare to give it time and perhaps, more time still. The money side also has to be more but it should be productively strategized. Remember you are in the "news business" and with persistence the promotion and the payoff can be attained.

Cada plataforma tiene su audiencia y dinámica únicas, y la elección correcta es crucial para maximizar el alcance. Es vital alinear los canales con el público objetivo, contenido y presupuesto. Por ejemplo, un artículo técnico podría no resonar en plataformas orientadas a un público mayor. Además, cada medio tiene sus propias 'reglas' sobre formato y tono. Mientras que LinkedIn favorece un enfoque profesional, Twitter podría ser más informal. Es esencial no solo elegir el canal adecuado, sino también adaptarse y actualizarse según las tendencias cambiantes, dado que las plataformas evolucionan rápidamente. La elección y comprensión adecuada de un canal pueden determinar el éxito de una campaña.

When it comes to promotional channels, most people are afraid to shake things up. We are afraid of being exposed and judged. We allow the visibility blocks to set in and hold us back. I’ve been there, and it doesn’t feel good. There are different channels out there that are underused and underserved. For example, - Earned media is one of the best and underused promotional strategies. Newsrooms in every medium are looking for innovative and exciting stories. Most people are afraid to go after them. - Another way to promote and increase your brand awareness is to make sure your point of view is known and understood. It’s your responsibility to find those promotional channels that work for you and the people you serve.

As a B2B marketer, when allocating our marketing budgets, we optimize for pipeline or conversion rate. Based on prior results, we calculate performance and then allocate dollars from most effective to least effective. For example, if our highest performing source can handle 30% of our total budget, we place those dollars there first. Then we look for the next most effective source and allocate the maximum value possible there. We continue this exercise until our budget is maxed. This means we're prioritizing leads by impact - an approach that our sales counterparts are very thankful for!

In my experience, small amounts consistently over a longer period of time are better than a lot in a small time frame. You need to give the platforms time to learn and implement those learnings.

Even at times, we come come across clients who do not now what they want to achieve with a certain campaign and when you suggest something to them they disagree like a pro.

Actuando como un mapa, guía cada acción hacia el logro de los objetivos establecidos. Es fundamental alinear este calendario con los objetivos, canales de promoción y preferencias de la audiencia. Además, es crucial considerar factores estacionales y eventos actuales; el tiempo adecuado puede maximizar el impacto de una campaña. Por ejemplo, promocionar productos navideños tiene más sentido en noviembre que en julio. Sin embargo, es vital revisar y ajustar regularmente el cronograma, manteniendo la flexibilidad para adaptarse a imprevistos. La planificación meticulosa combinada con la adaptabilidad puede determinar el éxito de una campaña promocional.

Monetizing and optimizing promotion is the fun part. To do that, you need to identify your priorities first and study trends. You need to study and use data as a marker for optimization and make adjustments accordingly. Another aspect would be, to not being obsessed with data. One must have room for experimentation as well.

FIRST, if you are an existing business, you need to compile a trend analysis of your past five years of gross revenue, and advertising/marketing/promotional spending by month. (You may want to exclude 2020 and 2021 for Covid-based business deviations.) There are varying opinions on the percentage of gross revenue that should be reinvested in promoting your business/brand, but 2.5% - 5% is a reasonable starting point. Charting your monthly revenue against your related AMP (advertising marketing promotion), will provide a visual perspective of your business performance as it relates to annual variables like seasons, holidays, and influences that impact your specific industry.

In marketing, everything is done campaign by campaign. You don't just make one campaign for being the best brand in the world! Hahahah Even though there is a funnel and people in all stages, from awareness to advocacy, there is just certain amounts of goals that can be achieved on a campaign. So it depends on what you want to achieve. For example if you are a music artist and your goal is to increase streaming numbers you would make a different campaign than if you want to sell more merch and just by that the budget changes because every campaign allocates money depending on the channels, duration, intensity, etc. I mean, there's a difference in budget if the campaign is on video or image or audio or even text, etc.