Everyone needs a digital marketing strategy to keep up with the competition and the behavior of consumers in 2022. But, how much you should spend on digital marketing? The exact amount varies by location, industry, competition, etc., we’ll provide some benchmarks to get you started. How Much to Spend on Marketing Based on Expert Suggestions Marketing experts and agencies often recommend that small businesses spend anywhere from 10-12 percent of their gross revenue on marketing. And, according to a study, small businesses tend to follow this rule, spending around 8-9 percent. Why Is Marketing Important? When an agency calls or emails you, trying to sell you their services, it probably seems like they’re just trying to push another unnecessary cost on you. But, the truth is that marketing works, and if you’re not doing any form of digital marketing, you’re going to end up falling behind the competition. Marketing is similar as to pay a utility bill. Business wouldn’t be able to remain open if you refused to pay your electric bill, right? Similarly, it goes for digital marketing. So, to get in front of consumers, you need a strategy that puts you in their phones. You need to show up in mobile, local searches, and you need a responsive website that gives the consumer all the info they need. Your Minimum Marketing Budget We’ll talk about minimums. What’s the least amount your business should spend on marketing? We recommend spending at least $500 a month on a digital marketing plan. If you’re spending $500 each month, that should go toward building an online presence or improving your local search ranking. That budget will pay for things like directory clean up and presence management as well as review marketing and reputation management. You could spend less than $500, even on some of our plans, but those plans would only get you the basics. To survive in today’s digital world, you’re going to need a little more than that. And, while $500 spent toward digital marketing will get you a solid local search marketing foundation and help you show up in searches, it may not be enough. We know that consumers want to interact with businesses through an integrated marketing approach, and $500 a month really isn’t enough to build an integrated marketing strategy for your local business. Imagine what you could be doing by investing a further $500 in paid ads. Local search marketing will help you build a better online presence and reach local customers, but if you want to reach new markets, you need an online advertising strategy. Review Marketing Review marketing is all about managing your online reputation. You can think of the reviews that customers leave you as the new word of. Think of it this way. If a customer tells a friend about your business and that friend tells one of their friends, you’ll slowly get a good reputation in the physical world. But, if a customer leaves a Google review, that review will reach far more people online than you could’ve hoped to reach in real life. As Jeff Bezos said, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000.” Paid Advertising Paid advertising is a great way to reach consumers who wouldn’t have heard of your business. Your ads can show up in search results on Google or Bing, in local consumers’ Facebook or Instagram feeds and across the internet on other websites. And, online ads are a great way to put your business in front of more consumers while you’re trying to build your online presence or improve your local search ranking. Social Media Consumers find new businesses on social media, and even if they don’t find you through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter they will look for your social media page(s) when they research your business. You need to be active on social so that when a customer is researching your business, you show up and they know they can trust you. Conclusion We would recommend spending at least $500 a month on marketing. You could, but then you wouldn’t get the full benefits of an integrated marketing strategy that puts you in front of more consumers, wherever they’re searching.