It is very simple to get started with digital marketing. However, most business owners are unsure whether it is worthwhile to invest in digital marketing.
As long as you choose the right marketing platform, digital marketing can work for your business. For example, If you are a business owner selling B2B services, then you should prioritize LinkedIn over Instagram or Facebook. But, if you are a fashionista selling designer, then you should target your consumers on TikTok or Snapchat.
Do I Need a Big Budget for Digital Marketing?
Businesses should dedicate some portion of their marketing budget to digital efforts.
However, The budget for marketing depends on the marketing channels and the means you choose.
In the following section, I’ll give you a breakdown of how much it costs for each service in digital marketing.
1. Budget for Social Media Marketing
Businesses don’t have to invest much to share third-party content on social media unless they want to invest their time and money in content creation.
You can create content by yourself, but it would be better to hire a social media marketer or outsource it to an agency
If you are outsourcing this to an agency, it will cost you around $1500 to $2500 (Rs 45,000 to 55,000). They will help you with both curating and creating content.
Some agencies will also help you with social media advertising such as Facebook and LinkedIn ads. However, keep in mind that they will charge you extra because it includes extensive monitoring and optimization.
Many agencies claim to be the greatest, but how do you know which one is ideal for you?
Before you deal with a social media marketing agency, here are some things you should know about them.
- What kind of services does the agency provide?
- What is the agency’s social media strategy?
- How much experience do they have in this field?
- Do they have a good track record with past clients?
- What kind of results can they produce for you and your business?
- Are they able to manage all aspects of social media marketing such as customer service, content creation, lead generation, and analytics reporting on behalf of your company?
- Do they only specialize in certain areas of business?
I have written a separate post about the right questions to ask an agency before hiring them. Give it a read.
Read more: Questions to ask a marketing agency
If you have a tight marketing budget, you would be better off hiring a virtual assistant from Fiverr or Upwork.
When it comes to hiring a social media marketer for your business, you need to make sure that they have the relevant skills.
The best way to do this is to ensure that they have relevant experience in marketing or public relations. It would also be a big help if you were to find someone who understands your business and the industry you’re in.
2. Budget for Search Engine Optimization
SEO is designed for companies whose potential customers are looking for their products or services on search engines like Google and Bing.
Most businesses believe that SEO is free. However, search engine optimization entails far more than simply adding titles and meta descriptions.
The majority of businesses must invest in content creation and optimization. You can hire writers on Fiverr or Upwork and optimize your content using an optimization tool such as Page Optimizer Pro.
To add on, depending on the niche you are in, you might have to also invest in Off-Page search engine optimization.
It involves reaching out to other websites to mention your website on their pages. These websites usually charge to place a link on one of their blogs.
If you are trying to recruit an SEO analyst, you should first consider what you are looking for in a person. You must locate someone who is analytical, detail-oriented and has prior SEO knowledge.
Before you do that, I recommend taking a basic SEO course or reading a few blogs to understand how it works. Then, make a list of all the duties that your business would like the SEO expert to complete.
All things considered, if you run a large company, it would be advisable to outsource this to a marketing agency as it may be difficult to keep track of all SEO activities.
The minimum cost of SEO services is $700(10,000 INR per month). It might go up to $ 5,000 (5 lakhs per month) depending on the SEO strategies you want to implement and the size of your business.
Read more on this topic: What is organic traffic in marketing ( is it different from direct traffic?)
3. Budget for paid marketing
Similar to SEO, Paid ads are meant for businesses that have consumers looking for their services.
The only difference here is that PPC is not time-consuming, you get to see results within a week. The budget for PPC advertising depends on the type of business you are in and the digital channels you want to run ads on.
For instance, PPC ads on LinkedIn are way more expensive than running ads on Google.
You might need someone to set up a Google ad account to run PPC ads. You can usually find some freelancers on Fiverr or Upwork who are willing to do this for you.
After setting up the account you have to focus on optimization, which can be a tedious task.
In order to find a PPC specialist for your business, you need to know what you need. You need to know how much time and money you want to spend on the campaign, who will be in charge of the campaign, and what your goals are.
If you are running a small business, then it’s likely that your company only needs a few hours of work a week from the PPC specialist. If this is the case, then it is probably best for you to hire someone on an hourly basis with no long-term commitments.
If you have a larger company and want more time from the specialist, then it may be worth contacting them on an ongoing basis. This way they can dedicate all their time to running your campaign and get more done in less time
It is better to outsource this to a Freelancer if you are running a small business. For large businesses, agencies would be the right fit.
I’ve found that most agencies tend to charge around 15% of ad spend. That means if you spend $2000 (1,81,360 INR) a month on ads, you can expect to pay around $400 (27,204 INR) for management.
4. Budget for content marketing
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that assists firms in creating and distributing informational, relevant, and engaging content in order to attract and keep customers. It also assists firms in developing trust with their prospects and leads. Content marketing contributes to the reputation of a brand by providing value to prospects. Ranking an informational blog on Google, promoting an eBook on LinkedIn, and Hosting a live webinar on a topic on Facebook are all good examples of content marketing.
The budget for content marketing varies :
1. To promote informational blog posts you just need a website that is SEO optimized. The budget for that will be around $200-$500 (15,000 to 20,000 INR)
2. To drive traffic from sites relevant to your niche, you need to invest in PR (Press release) or digital journalism which might cost around $3000 dollars (70,000 to 80,000 INR)
3. Email marketing is another type of content marketing where you try to get opt-ins. The budget will be around $600 to $800 (INR 40,000 to 60,000 INR)
4. To get high-quality eBooks, case studies, and whitepapers written for your business, you need around $2000 to $3000 (INR 1,00,000 to 1,30,000 INR)
Note: There may be some Fiverr gigs available where the price for PR and leads magnets (eBook, whitepaper, etc.) is reasonable. They are of poor quality. They only scratch the surface of the subject matter they write about. Remember that the traffic you receive from niche-related sites should be real, and the information on these lead magnets should be unique, specific, and original. These can only be obtained from industry professionals.
Reader more :
What is a good content strategy?
Types of Lead Generation in 2022: 8 Ways to Generate Leads
5. Budget for influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is when a company hires or works with an individual who has a large following on social media channels to promote their product. This can include celebrities, bloggers, and other people who have a large following on social media.
The influencers are usually compensated for their work in the form of money, free products, or both.
There are many reasons why companies hire influencers to promote their products. One reason is that they believe that the influencer’s followers will be more likely to purchase the product if they see it being used by someone else in their feed. Another reason is that companies may want to use an influencer because they may have more credibility than the company itself would have when promoting a product.
The budget for influencer marketing depends on how you decide to compensate them.
Offer free products
Offering free products for influencer marketing is a common practice among companies. It is a win-win situation for both the company and the influencer, as the company gets a new customer and the influencer gets free products.
On Instagram, it is not uncommon to see posts where influencers are reviewing or promoting products that they were given for free by companies.
Performance-based pricing
Performance-based pricing in influencer marketing is a pricing model where an advertiser pays for the performance of an advertisement, rather than paying upfront for exposure or impressions.
The idea behind performance-based pricing is to pay only when there are conversions, which means that advertisers can save money by not paying for ads that don’t perform well.
This pricing model also has some disadvantages, such as needing more time to measure conversion rates and increased risk if prices are too low. However, it still remains a popular option because it can be customized according to individual needs and preferences.
Affiliation
This model compensates influencers by paying them a share of the earnings generated by each sale. An affiliate model provides digital marketers with clearer attribution and performance tracking, which reduces the risk of low ROI because payment is based on the performance of influencers.
