How to budget & measure ROI

Setting a budget to support your business objectives is absolutely key. If you plan to achieve your objectives, you also need to plan the route to that goal and a big part of this is understanding what budget you need to set aside. Many business owners are unsure of what to spend on marketing activities and indeed what activities fall inside the realms of marketing.

The following activities all fall within a marketing budget:

1.    Website and search engine optimisation
2.    Branding
3.    Attending exhibitions
4.    Advertising
5.    PR
6.    Direct Marketing
7.    Marketing consultants and advisors
8.    Other events including discovery days
9.    Leaflets, flyers and any other supporting materials required

You may also wish to include staff training and assign some staff costs directly to the marketing fund if those individuals are responsible for assisting in the delivery and success of the marketing plan.

There are many types of marketing plans. We often write Franchise Recruitment Marketing Plans for Franchisors within the Franchise Industry. This is a very specific area that requires expert advice to get right. We are so often asked about what Franchisors should spend on their Franchise Recruitment Marketing Plan and we have developed the Coconut Creatives Budget Calculator to work this out.

This is based on several elements:

1.    The Franchise Fee
2.    The Av BCPL (Average Base Cost Per Lead)
3.    The number of Franchise Territories that ideally will be sold
4.    Potential Revenue achieved

We spend time working this out on the Coconut Creatives Franchisor Marketing Workshop where Franchisors can measure their current spend against what we recommend, as well as benchmarking their spend against other Franchisors in the room. Our Budget Matrix Calculator also helps Franchisors measure their Return on Investment.

At the end of the day, we believe that if you know what you need to spend to achieve your objectives, you have all the information necessary to make an informed decision on building and growing your business and Franchise Network.