E-Marketing Budgets - How big is BIG? - Medium-sized budgets can reach a LARGE audience
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Don't feel bad if you "only" have $20,000 to spend in a twelve-month period for an online campaign. And don't let anybody tell you this is not good enough for a fairly decent online campaign. This budget may not get you very far in the offline space, but it provides you with many options online. In addition to all of the options listed above, you can actually start focusing on branding and reach with a bit of a budget to play around with.
Branding and reach are best achieved with banner advertising, both on websites and in newsletters. If you're targeting women between 50 and 65, for example, you may think of sites like iVillage and Oprah.com, which are likely way above your banner-buying budget. Don't worry. There are many smaller sites that offer flat fees for run-of-site banner placement which reach the same constituency. This is true for most target markets. Sit down and do some surfing. Start with your favorite search engine and see what sites come up for your targeted keywords. Follow the list of links on "links" pages for even more topically-relevant sites and build a list. You'll likely find many affordable online advertising venues and a variety of different media tactics including banners, text ads and email sponsorships.
If you have a medium-sized budget of about $20,000 a year to $50,000 a year to spend online, then be sure to plot out your monthly advertising spend and media venues beforehand so that they coincide with any offline advertising you may be doing. It's also beneficial to time your advertising initiatives so that they coincide with special promotions and offers you have throughout the year.
For a retail site, this means that you'll bulk up your advertising around the holiday season and yearly events such as Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. For a mortgage lender, you'll want to bulk up your advertising around seasonal peak buying times. Special events such as the launch of a new site (or a newly redesigned site) should also be promoted with accompanying incentives such as "storewide discounts" or "free shipping" to gain new customers. Timing media placement with appropriate events and incentives helps maximize your budget. After all, why pay for clicks that don't convert to leads and sales?
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