{"id":112663,"date":"2015-05-15T19:38:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T00:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/what-comes-1st-the-marketing-budget-or-the-strategy-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:53:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:53:47","slug":"what-comes-1st-the-marketing-budget-or-the-strategy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/what-comes-1st-the-marketing-budget-or-the-strategy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What comes 1st, the marketing budget or the strategy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What comes 1st<\/sup>, the marketing budget or the strategy?<\/p>\n

We have all seen the briefing that filters its way down from the board room. Next year\u2019s marketing budget is set, yet there seems to be no rationale, no KPI\u2019s, goals or outcomes that align with a strategy that will let the business hit these goals. Or possibly, we should be looking at this the other way around; there is no qualified strategy to let you set a realistic budget in the 1st<\/sup> place.<\/p>\n

Commonly, marketing heads are asked to think about setting budgets about two-thirds of the way through the fiscal year. People are asked to predict in advance what the year will have in store for the business based on the assumption that all the critical success factors, KPI\u2019s and goals were set up correctly, understood and religiously followed.. However, it goes without saying that if last year\u2019s data \/ BI was \u2018sketchy\u2019, then this year\u2019s predictions may often be a rough guess.<\/p>\n

So how do you go about justifying the right budget to make the strategy work (or vice versa)?<\/p>\n

Every business can gain qualitative data even if its quantitative data isn\u2019t understood or set up correctly, and this can help you fill the void between what you know and what you\u2019re assuming to be correct. Good qualitative insights can help you pair up what you know about the business and the clients that make the business work. On a more granular level it\u2019s about understanding why campaigns worked or could have been improved and what businesses perceive as success, even when the definitive proof is not in place.<\/p>\n

This is where strategy is a key component of success. Getting to know the buying process and regularly revisiting your client\u2019s sales funnel and the touch points towards conversion is an essential element of today\u2019s success stories, especially when the quantitative data isn\u2019t set up with comparable year-on-year data.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s changed over the past couple of years?<\/p>\n

What your audience did 2 years ago and how they use multiple devices and social platforms today may be very different.\u00a0 Our evolving digital landscape has changed and will continue to do so, as should the understanding of why specific campaigns are successful and others fail. It isn\u2019t all black and white; the value of attribution of channels change and budgets and strategy should follow suit. And this is where the stumbling block kicks in. If you didn\u2019t really dig deep into the quantitative research, or it wasn\u2019t set up or understood correctly (or simply ignored), then having a face-to-face conversation with your clients can be worth its weight in gold.<\/p>\n

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