Page 289 - Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing

If you would like to add one hundred new clients next year, and
your past marketing expenditure of $5,000 yielded twelve clients,
your marketing budget for this next year is $41,000 (or roughly the
same $416 per new client you spent last year).

Don’t panic and don’t oversimplify what we are doing here. Your
cost to acquire a new client will come way down when you use the
strategies and tactics outlined in this book, but I’m attempting to
teach you a small business budget system that makes sense.

Here’s the main concept to grasp: track and aggressively man-
age your client acquisition cost as a budgeting tool. Again, there is no
“should be” cost to acquire a new client because there are too many
variables, but when you shine a light on your budget in this manner,
your marketing expenditures are held accountable for producing real,
measurable results.

Test, Track, and Adjust Your Budget
So let’s say that you have determined that your budget for market-

ing, based on your goals and the formula above, is $40,000. Take this
number and spread it out over an entire year of marketing activity.
It doesn’t mean that you will actually spend $40,000. You are going
to make a plan based on it, and then you will simply roll out certain
aspects of your marketing plan in small, measured tests and adjust
your budget according to results. What you will find very quickly
in this method is that you can cut your original budget dramatically
once your Duct Tape Marketing system starts producing your goals
for leads, clients, and revenue, and your client acquisition cost falls.

As you prepare your original budget, make sure to consider the
following key components presented throughout this book:

 Fixed annual expenses
 Consulting fees
 Graphic design costs

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