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Advertising and Marketing Dollars

To really answer your question, I guess I would need to know more about Human Arrow (the company).
How long has it been in business?? Have you developed a Business and Marketing Plan??
Do you have an Accountant??

Part of the Bus and Market Plan includes income and expenses. As you grow, the plan will help keep you on track and make sure the business is progressing as you intended.
Then you go to a spread sheet and say what of I increase my Advertising by % % (WHAT HAPPENS)??
What if I increase my Marketing by XX (WHAT HAPPENS)??

As you know SCORE can help.
Good luck again, LUCKIEST

I hate giving percentages because there are individual factors that have to be considered.

What I advise client to do is plan out what they hope to accomplish, who they want to reach, determine what is the best way to reach them and then build a budget based on their plan.

I don't want to sound flippant, but measuring the effectiveness of marketing and adverting can complicated. Judging the success or failure of any effort on the number of sales or clients that contact you is dangerous. People want immediate returns on their investments but that may not always be possible. Sometimes, there may be a strong competitor in the marketplace that has built trust and recognition - the cost of converting customers to your business may require a larger effort than if the competitor was not in the marketplace.

I have seen people open a new business and run a couple of ads, and get upset because they have not gotten the returns they wanted. But they have neglected to understand the landscape they are playing on. There is already another business offering the same product or service that has a strong presence.

Not to sound like a geek but it is the Star Wars thing: Defending the high ground requires a lot less energy than taking it. People like throwing out numbers and figures but this is really a complicated process when done correctly. Shortcuts get you short returns.

There is no short or quick answer to this. Do your homework, get a lay of the land, play up your strengths and defend your weaknesses. Plan out your marketing and advertising - the two are not the same, understand this. And come to accept that not every part of your marketing plan and adverting plan can be viewed in terms of Return On Investment (ROI). Some efforts will only be realized over time.

I know this may create more questions than answers but it is the best way to approach this. It is how the large companies try to do it or has been my experience in the last 20 years working in advertising.

There is great source available for this (and best of all it's FREE!!)

Any public library with a decent business section or a college or university library should have a copy of the Financial Studies of the Small Business published by Financial Research Associates. You'll find advertising to sales ratios for most businesses of various size breakdowns up to $2M in asset size.

Having a benchmark to compare to is very important when deciding your advertising and marketing budget.

Regards,

Joe Reuth
RetailBusinessOwner.com