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Wednesday 6th July 2022

Three budget mistakes you’re making with your marketing

Picture this. You’re launching a new product or service and have the right marketing strategy in place for your website, branding and design, but when it comes to keeping the momentum going once it’s out in the world, you’ve run out of budget. What happens then? 

We see this happening all the time. The most common occurrence is that there is often an overspend in the initial stages of marketing then when it comes to amplifying those marketing methods, there are no funds to support it.

With new brands in particular, there is a mountain of work that needs to be completed to introduce a product into a new market, which requires a larger budget. At my growth marketing agency, Monumental, we are very familiar with this common mistake. 

We’ve worked with 85 start-ups over the years, across different sectors, and they all come to us to either achieve their acquisition goals, enter a new market or enter their next round of funding. 

We see some common mistakes time and time again, with business leaders thinking they need to inject all of their investment into the initial stages, leaving the process that follows with little-to-no capital whatsoever - all whilst still expecting amazing results. I’m afraid it simply doesn’t work like that

Here are the three marketing no-no’s we see the most often, together with an easy fix to ensure budgets are correctly utilised to generate results from day one. 

Mistake 1: Not involving a growth marketing agency early enough. 

Most companies will wait until all marketing setup is completed - i.e. branding and website - before engaging with a growth marketing partner. This creates a disjointed relationship, as the marketing agency will need to adjust very quickly to what has already been completed, meaning it could slow down the process.

By bringing them in sooner - maybe a few months after the start of the process - they can be involved with the process to help make things run smoother - for example, they can help support the website set-up, with their knowledge of SEO and the proper architecture for a business site. 

For branding, a growth marketing agency can help understand what channels need to be covered.

Whilst you might think you have knowledge of all the avenues needed to launch, we guarantee that there’s something you haven’t thought of. A growth marketing agency can help refine the exact brief to ensure the creative can easily be deployed across channels, rather than having to engage in redesigning assets once they are on board. 

This will waste not only money but precious time too. 

Mistake 2: Thinking a beautiful website will automatically equal sales 

Another common misconception with marketing is that designing and building a stunning website will automatically attract the right customers to your business. Whilst we would love to say that is correct, it’s very far from the truth. 

In fact, the website is just the beginning of the journey, helping to facilitate and create a landing page for your customers to go to once they’ve discovered your brand. There’s a lot more that goes into it than that. It’s worth gaining a better understanding of the ecosystem that makes up growth marketing and how different channels are implemented; what is their place and purpose within that overall journey? 

Having spoken to hundreds of start-ups, the misconception is that the investment in a website alone will generate growth, whereas it's a foundation for initiating and kickstarting that growth. This is a setup piece, and the focus needs amplifying later on - the spend is usually placed within the setup stage and clients have their hands tied when it comes to developing it further. 

Start small with your website, just to create your designated landing page, and then build up to a pricier one later down the line. 

Mistake 3: Striving for perfection. 

Here’s a trade secret: perfectionism is overrated.

Nothing is ever perfect in business, especially in those start-up stages. So, stop trying to achieve it. 

To help with the scale-up process, and to rid the idea of perfection, think of building a minimum viable product (MVP) that can be used to gather feedback from a bunch of early adopters. This will provide you with valuable insight into your goods or services that can help with future product development. 

By doing this, it will save you precious time and money as you can scale from this MVP, as opposed to having everything done and perfect before the launch. Not only that, but it will remove a lot of stress in these initial stages, as you’ll have an idea of what works and what doesn’t. 

The world is becoming more competitive and budgets need to stretch even further nowadays. There are certain ways to be smarter with your money to ensure that each marketing discipline has the best opportunity to thrive. Several elements need to be working together for the magic to happen: if one is not pulling its weight then it’s noticeable.

Put in the necessary steps now to avoid any disappointment further down the line! 

Jamie Love is the CEO of the growth marketing agency, Monumental.

Image by airdone on iStock