We’re often asked by businesses, “how should we allocate our marketing budget”?

We can’t advise on how to spend your marketing budget, but we can advise how to spend your digital marketing budget.

Here’s the areas to focus your digital marketing budget on in 2014:

PPC

Last month, Op Ed Marketing generated over 50 leads for a B2B insurance company, at a cost of less than $1000.  That’s less than $20 per lead, where each closed sale is a monthly recurring revenue for our client.  As an experienced Google Partner, we have always said that PPC (also known as paid search or SEM) is a businesses’ quickest way to new leads, customers, and sales.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn ads, Google or Bing ads connect you to people who are actively searching for your product or service (not just shoving a random ad in their face).  And as a bonus, unless you’re running PPC in-house, you also save all the time it costs planning and executing marketing strategies as your PPC company is doing that for you.

SEO, Content, and Social Media

SEO is not dead, it is more alive than ever.  It’s always evolving.  SEO has transformed to the point where no SEO strategy is really complete unless complemented by content and social media (read more about what your SEO company should be doing to get you better rankings here).  The bottom line with SEO, is that if you rank #1 for a relevant search term to your business you’ll receive 53% of the clicks.  Oh, and those clicks are free.

Website Optimization

For every $92 businesses spend driving traffic to their websites, they only spend $1 converting it (Source: Econsultancy).  This is probably the stat we cite the most, because it’s so unbelievable (but true).  Online marketing is about finding a healthy balance between attracting, converting, and keeping customers.  Businesses need to invest more in website optimization, or testing various webpage elements to maximize the number of leads that your website generates.  Take a look at our blogs about optimizing landing pages for Google AdWords campaigns here.

Email Marketing

Email is still one of the most cost-effective marketing channels.  It’s a great way to drive traffic (such as a promo or sale), as well as keep your customers engaged (such as with a newsletter or blog).  Email is no longer one-size fits all, however, and businesses need to use segmentation, personalization, and be mobile-friendly with their email marketing strategies.

Mobile Marketing

Here’s a couple mobile marketing stats courtesy of Convince and Convert:

• 4 out of 5 consumers use smartphones to shop.
• This year (2014) mobile is predicted to overtake desktop Internet usage.
• 70% of mobile searches lead to online action within an hour.

Mobile has become so important that it’s not just about having your website, emails, or even marketing mobile-friendly, it’s about have your company mobile-friendly.

Blogger or Influence Marketing

As Danny Brown and Sam Fiorella have pointed out, influence marketing is something that is gaining in importance.  More and more companies are turning to bloggers and influencers who have the ear of their target audience and compensating them (rightfully so) for their “influence”.  Businesses need to embrace the influence model, because it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.  Check out tools such as InkyBee, InNetwork, and Appinions as part of your company’s influence marketing strategy.

Referral Marketing

The one thing that your business could be doing that your competitors are likely not: referral marketing.  According to Nielsen, 65% of new customers comes from referrals.  Referral marketing isn’t just about asking for referrals, it’s about creating a structured, measurable program that is constantly being tested and optimized.  For online referral marketing, check out tools such as FriendBuy, Ambassador, ReferralCandy, and Referral SaaSquatch.

So may 2014 be a prosperous one for you and your business.

As always, if you need assistance growing your business, please drop me a line anytime.