I am researching a new advertising idea which will initially be aimed a small local businesses. The idea could work for many different types of businesses although it will most likely be best for high volume sales based businesses such as restaurants, gyms, certain independant shops etc. What I need to get an idea on is the size of the advertising budgets that these types of businesses might have, so if anyone out there has this knowledge I would be grateful for your response. The idea could well work for national advertisers but I want to test it out on small local businesses first before approaching national businesses.
There simply isnt an average budget for each of thse types of businesses. Their turnover will largely dictate what marketing budget they have and within that, how much can be spent on advertising. Why would you need to know their budget?
I need to just get a feel for their budgets as part of my research in order to establish whether the cost of my idea is likely to be within the budgets of small local businesses.
Possibly buts it difficult to say as its very much bespoke however realistically it would start between £2k-£4k per year but could be 10 times this figure.
I think you will have to concentrate more on the potential returns. If you want a company to spend £2k to £4k a year, they would need to be looking at a return of £20 to £40k in extra sales....
Excellent Post RS Bang on the money, do not sell it as a cost....tell em the benefits (ROI in this case)
thanks all, very useful comments. the benefits would be the number of extra customers / revenue, but to really quantify this I would need to know average sales figures for each client business, correct?
This post doesn't make any sence. I buy advertising space for business customers I know their budgets...I set them Most don't budget but they do if they learn how to make advertising work then they start to. I have customers who rely on advertising for new business growth. It's quick, cheap and doesn't take any time up. Most small businesses will tell you to "get lost"...because they either haven't the cash or they've done it badly before...and it hasn't worked out. Whatever you are doing sounds interesting...but I don't understand it... Can you elaborate? Or is it "top secret" ?
Hi thanks for your response. All I can say for now is that I am looking at a new form of outdoor/mobile advertising.....
We'll if you want someone to test it on, I will give you artwork and am quite happy to measure the responce rate free of charge. I can give you either 1) A product, 2) A service I know an opportunity when I see one...
Another important point is will it reach the various businesses target market and if it does withat TM read and react to the ads. In other words - just like the businesses - what is your USP? Why should I give you £200 let alone £2000? Of course you could put your money where your mouth is and do what web builder around here has done: they take longer to set it up and charge a lot more BUT you only pay if they provide the agreed number of leads by a certain time.
Many small businesses don't have an "advertising budget" - Indeed, you'd be surprised about how many do not have any financial forecasting budget As bookkeepers we see many small business owners that seem to "wing it" and will make uninformed decisions for advertising based on how much money they have in the bank at a certain time As a starting point we suggest that our clients look at how much they spent on advertising in the previous financial year, and then start to put a budget for the next financial year - the hardest part is to stop their "knee jerk" spending on advertising - trying something once, with no way of tracking the results except how many phone calls they get
I Agree... with @beancounter. SMEs are usually not well organised in this respect and decisions are often taken based on a gut-feel. Corporates are very different, but they are a much tougher market to crack, both in terms of time and of competition for their marketing spend.
Well you can advertise your small business online on facebook via facebook fan page for free. you can reach upto millions user by facebook.
Your budget should be plan according to the return on the investment,this thing is really helpful for you....
