Don’t Start Your EOFY Budget Without This Marketing Budget Checklist
It’s that time of year again! Time to start your EOFY budget.
This is a time for business owners and marketers to start planning our EOFY (end of the financial year) budget for the following year. This is a time to evaluate what has worked for us this year, what hasn’t worked and use that insight to steer the course for goals in the coming year.
With that information, we then make an action plan and develop a budget that aligns with those goals for the next financial year. However, this can also be a stressful time because, for any unused budget, we must quickly, and wisely decide how we will spend any remaining marketing budget before the end of the year.
But actually, if you look at it in a different light, this is the perfect time to analyze financial decisions and project costs. If you don’t use your money, you won’t get the same amount of budget in the new financial year, but if you spend frivolously on things that don’t improve the business, you risk losing the potential budget the next year.
Therefore, this is a great time to begin an analysis of your performance and try to finish the year strong.
The End of Fiscal Year Template for Checklist Budget You Can’t Live Without
As digital marketing business owners, we fully understand this dilemma. Not to mention the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns have caused us to throw all of our historical forecasts and benchmarks out the window because everything has changed.
But don’t you fret because we’ve put our heads together and have come up with an expert EOFY checklist for the marketing budget.
This marketing budget checklist includes everything marketers need to consider to execute a winning marketing strategy that is guaranteed to improve your financial year sales for the remainder of the year as well as the future.
- Look at your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Before you do anything else, review your primary marketing metrics. This will give you a clear indication of what has worked and what hasn’t while you are creating a marketing budget for the next year.
Not only will this drive your budgetary decisions for the remainder of the year, but it will also help you to re-think investments that haven’t paid off and reallocate your budget to marketing expenses that will have the biggest impact.
- Review your SEO analytics.
As it relates to SEO, it’s time to also review the incoming traffic to your website for the last six months or so. Which pages received the most visits? Where did visitors spend the majority of their time on your website? Where did the most clicks occur?
Most importantly, where did your traffic come from? And of all your traffic, which channel resulted in the most leads and converted revenue? While traffic and engagement are important, it’s ultimately converted total revenue that should drive your decisions about your EOFY budget.
- How has the market changed due to COVID-19?
A wise man once said, “The best way to predict the future is to study the past,” but remember that much has changed due to COVID-19 so be sure to practice caution.
While it’s critical that you perform steps 1 and 2 to review the year, it’s best not to make any assumptions for the next financial year based on historical forecasts beyond the last six months and to study how the market has changed in the last year. Do you notice any emerging trends?
- What are your goals for the new year?
Now that you’ve looked at your own performance, web traffic, and studied market changes, what are your goals for the next 12 months? Be realistic and factor in your own performance as well as how you can best respond to the current landscape.
- What are your competitors doing?
Another important thing to look at is how your competitors have fared. Are any of them making strides you haven’t been able to make? If so, it’s time to find out what they’re doing so you can leverage their insight for yourself.
Going back to step 3, one area of concern should be where your competitors are gaining market share. It’s important to study this as there may be a new target market for you to pursue. Are they paying more attention to a particular channel than you are? If so, it’s worth taking a second look.
- Create your EOFY marketing plan.
Now is the time to review all of the information you’ve aggregated with this checklist, analyze, create your goals, and allocate your budget accordingly.
The best thing you can do to stay on track is to create a month to month plan for how you will execute your strategy at a high level, and then fill in the details and tactics to help you achieve your goals through individual campaigns.
And remember, you’ll have to be agile and stop to analyze frequently so you can change course quickly if needed, just as you are now.
Getting Started With Your EOFY Budget
If you’re unsure of how to create a competitive advantage in a crowded market, it may be time to partner with a digital marketing agency, like Interrupt Media.
We can help you assess the competition and the market, devise an effective strategy, and adjust accordingly to improve performance and maintain agility in an unstable market.
Topics: B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing, Marketing Budgets, Revenue Pipeline Performance
