What a marketing budget is

A marketing budget simply sets out the amount of money (including vat) that you plan to spend on marketing activity during a set time period. Some businesses do this for the financial year, others on a quarterly or monthly basis; the choice is yours.

Your budget needs to show what your marketing goals and objectives goals are - and how much you intend to spend to achieve them. You may also want to break it down into the different activities you plan on using, such as referral marketing, website upgrade, marketing staff or consultants, social media advertising and email marketing.

Your budget should also show how many times you intend to carry out each activity and how much you expect each to cost.

What your marketing budget may need to include

Here's a list of some of the more common costs that you may need to budget for:

1. Production, including for example:
   • Design and artwork
   • Print and distribution costs
   • Photography (plus any fees for image licence usage)
   • Web development production costs
2. Any software costs (such as for CRM)
3. External staff costs, including for example:
   • Marketing consultant hourly rate
   • Telemarketers
   • Freelance copywriter hourly rate
4. Media costs - which might be, for example
   • Google Ads
   • Stamps and envelopes (for direct mail)
   • List rental
   • Local press or radio media costs
5. Cost effectiveness analysis
6. Internal staff costs/expenses
7. Website hosting
8. Market research/PR 

A comprehensive guide to creating a Marketing Budget