Here are ten things every business – especially technology businesses -should be doing to plan and budget for 2016.

1. A Guide to
Your
2016
Marketing
Budget
We are now entering the
marketing planning and
budgeting season. 2015 was the
year that Content Marketing
finally matured as a major player
in the marketing industry. Find
out what you need to know to
be ready in 2016.

2. new dawn media
LEAD GENERATION IS IT
Marketing departments need to set themselves
up for success in 2016 by conducting an effective
marketing and budgeting planning process in Q3,
and not wait until Q4. Where does one start? The
major Social Media platforms - LinkedIn,
Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter - are becoming
more multifaceted, providing new hyper-local
targeting and better analytics… but it is not where
you should start.
“As a former
Marketing Director
(client side) myself,
I am fully aware
that planning and
budgeting are a
huge part of a
marketing planning
challenge every
year.”
- Chief Content
Marketing Officer,
New Dawn Media
Last year I predicted that authority
in content, partnerships, and
intimate events would be leaders
in the Content Marketing realm.
This year new trends are
emerging, and should be factored
into the 2016 budgets and
programs. People and financial
resources for Content Marketing
management are becoming more
demanding, as organizations finally
see social media marketing
succeed and realize they need to
produce content for those
channels that bring in an ROI. All
of these things require Marketing
Directors to consider their
marketing budgets in another way
for 2016.
INTRODUCTION
Content marketing has matured in
the marketing industry this year
and has now become the largest
player in the field. As a marketing
expert I am fully aware that
planning and budgeting are a huge
part of a Marketing Directors and
Marketing Executives’ challenge
every year. I am often asked: "How
should we approach marketing
planning and budgeting for 2016
and how much should we spend
the budget?"
Content marketing has matured
in the marketing industry this
year and has now become the
largest player in the field.

3. There are so many things to consider between paid, owned, earned
and shared media and how those things are bringing in leads
immediately and in the future pipelines of your business. When
considering a balance that works for your business, knowing how
these four things work together is critical.
Performing a complete audit and gap analysis defines where you can
change your positioning among the competition and provides a
discussion to be had with your product development department on
what new products and services the marketing department can
capitalize on for the new year in marketing opportunities, as well as,
revenue opportunities.
You want to see where they have been marketing, what appears to be
working for them and learn from them and counter-attack their moves.
Here are ten
things every
business –
especially
technology
businesses -
should be
doing to plan
and budget
for 2016.
1Audit the Competition
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4. Audit the Competition
1
It is important to note how these percentages represent the total marketing investment, not
just advertising or media spend. Your research should include things like marketing staff,
customer relationship management, investments paid to agencies and other outside
suppliers, advertising costs, media spend, etc. Companies seeking to grow market share
will likely be on the high side of these averages vs. firms planning for modest growth, which
may be on the lower side. Additionally, the competitive nature of a certain marketplace will
influence where a particular firm falls among these average figures. Most companies who
hire a marketing agency for the first time and have tried Content Marketing unsuccessfully
usually have not done proper market research and a competitive analysis, gap analysis or
media consumption research of their target market. Which means any marketing efforts
that have been done usually have been shooting blind and therefore, has wasted valuable
resources as a result. Prevent failure with thorough research, so your plan is informed.
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5. According to Forrester Research, B2B marketing budgets have increased from
2013 to 2015 to the 7-9% range. B2C budgets from 2013 to 2015 are hovering
around the 9% mark. Based on these results, we see that B2B marketing spending
has increased over the past couple years, whereas B2C marketing spending has
actually dropped a bit. Conclusions from the 2014 report reveal that 29% of total
marketing budgets were allocated to online/digital channels. Search engine
marketing or Content Marketing continued to capture the largest share of online
spend at 47% or about 14% of a company’s total marketing budget. Online display
advertising (banner ads, re-marketing & re-targeting) captured the next biggest
share of the online spend at about 34% of total online spend and about 10% of the
total marketing budget. Social media investments were estimated at 6% of total
online spend and a bit less than 2% of the total marketing budget.
Guess what?
For 2016, the average firm will allocate 30% of their marketing budget to online
marketing, and is expected to grow to 35% by 2019. Once again, Content
Marketing (SEO) will capture the largest share of online spend with online display
(banner ads, online video, etc.) taking the second largest share. Social media
investments will continue to grow as an overall share of online spend, but will
only represent about 15% of the total online spend, most likely due to the social
media investment being part of the content marketing investment.
Forrester and other analytics firms can give you valuable
information about your market. However, hiring an
independent analyst can be a cost effective alternative.
A July 2015 report from Qvidian found that 78 percent of B2B professionals
worldwide say content is very important to the effectiveness of the sales process.
Incorporate Market Research
2

6. Review Your Past
3
The previous marketing year programs should go under review. This allows you
to visibly see where the company has spent marketing dollars, where these funds
have performed, and where they have failed to perform.
Google rewards content publishers
who create authoritative,
meaningful, and valuable content.
How your company looks at SEO will be something
you need to adapt to in 2016. Long-tail searches
have the potential to result in more high-quality traffic
and sales for companies down the road, giving you
more focus on the customers who want to find you
and ensuring you can reach the customers you want
to target. It is not an illogical concept.
Companies need to understand they need to put
themselves out there in order to be found. If you are
not publishing content daily, then no one will see you
on organic search results. That’s SEO, and that is
the number one tactic necessary to ensure your
search results for target customers you want.
Why
make the
same
mistakes
twice?

7. Armed with your knowledge of what the competition is doing alongside
your previous campaigns, you can now meet with the product/services
teams, and the CFO, to establish the company goals. If you have an
analytics person that can provide data riddled stacks of stats, all-the
better. They should be detailed, specific and revenue oriented (number
of prospects in the pipeline, lead valuation of each prospect, number of
prospects changing vendors from market research, current and
projected market growth, impact of new prospects entering the
marketing, competitive gain of the projected market) and more.
4Establish Company Goals
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8. Define the Marketing Budget
5
Many companies are behind on providing a good
customer experience in their Content Marketing
initiatives. They sometimes forget the sales funnel
does not end at the sale! Be sure to include any
marketing initiatives for customer marketing and for
the up-sale, referrals and advocacy opportunities.
Outstanding customer experience is now a
requirement of your Content Marketing efforts, but
more importantly should have an allotment in your
budget.
Social media credibility has a huge
impact on company success and this can
be displayed through customer journey
roadmaps.
Marketing departments require ongoing
investments in sales automation, social media
resources, research, Content Marketing, earned
and paid media that bring in immediate clicks, web
traffic and more.
A very delicate marketing mix based on several
factors already discussed in the previous chapters
should define your marketing budget. No matter
what, keep in mind your budget should be defined
by how you can best reveal that you are there to
tend to your customers needs through content
from your experts.
Outstanding
customer
experience is
now a
requirement of
your Content
Marketing
efforts.

9. Cost Reductions & New Technologies
6
What can you automate to create efficiency? What can you
outsource to reduce costs, and increase conversion/engagement?
Is enhanced collaboration with sales going to improve conversions?
What content was not used by sales or never viewed by
customers/prospects? Can it be repurposed? Do you have enough
Sales Enablement content or awareness marketing? Do you need to
train the sales force on how to access and leverage your best
content, and utilize it in their social media channels?
2016 will see the
emergence of Multi-
location Content
Marketing.
This means training for sales staff,
company wide, in Content
Marketing tactics.
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10. 1. This may be the aspect of the sales
funnel that is your weakest.
Building relationships in social
media and in personal emails when
corporate drip campaigns are
happening at the same time is
something you want coordinated
delicately. Calling a prospect
because they downloaded your
eBook is not necessarily your most
qualified lead is an example of that.
2.
Marketing and sales
integration is now a
2016 focus and there are
many technologies that
can help with training
and automation.
For those that have a large sales
team, this pain point can be
remedied with a proper Multi-
location Content Marketing
Strategy.
Review Sales Staff Success
7
3. This is a bit of a continuation of number five, but
merits its own chapter. I can’t stress how important
it is to review the ability of your sales team to ensure
they are not performing old school sales tactics like
cold calling or nurturing the same old lead for
months on end. Nurturing is what Content Marketing
does, so the sales staff can focus on relationship
building. There are many sales people that do not
believe, understand or hold proper training in how a
modern qualified lead develops today. The sales
goals and past years' performances need to be
considered for marketing budget planning
considerations.
2016 will be
the year of
Content
Marketing Sales
Training.
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11. One of the biggest tricks of the digital marketing
industry is to join forces with others to form
powerful partnerships. By doing this you will be
able to reach a larger audience and with clever
partnership choices you could access thousands
of like-minded individuals who could become part
of your company’s fan base.
Many companies do not rely on Channel Partners
for revenue generation. This means they may be
missing out on at least one third of the company
revenue through referral based marketing alone.
Yet, many of these programs are not funded well
or do not have an experienced marketing person
to provide content that is needed for partner co-
branded opportunities. Consider the partner
marketing needed for marketing distribution.
Partners
8
Content Distribution Strategy
Partner programs
are part of your:
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12. As a content marketing expert I
would love online marketing to be
solely successful in organic search
alone, but boosting content
distribution through paid channels is
undeniably successful. That is why
we partner with PPC agencies. With
proper amplification strategies a
PPC campaign is much more
successful than when using PCC
alone. In fact, PPC campaigns need
Content Marketing to be effective.
Of course, once we have figured
out the right mix, it is only a matter
of time when Google disrupts our
efforts again by adding a new
algorithm. Remember, your clients
are looking for value, and they
intentionally consume content to
find it — not advertisements alone.
And the rise of ad-blocking features
is increasing the importance of
organic content even more.
9The Power of the Mix
Content Marketing should be your
first step to build a following
organically, by sharing your expert
knowledge with your audience, and
positioning yourself as an industry
leader. That way, you’ll build your
own audience of brand advocates
who help move your content (and
company) progressively.

13. The Content Marketing Institute found that the most advanced content marketers
have strategic amplification programs as part of Content Marketing efforts, with a
growing focus on paid social media ads, promoted posts, native content, and
content discovery tools. You can see the B2B and B2C breakdown below:
The Power of the Mix
9
In the
entertainment
industry, when
marketing
content itself, as
in TV and films,
this is exactly
how books and
films are
successfully
sold.

14. Getting Budget Approval
10
Compare your budget to other companies of
a similar revenue size, and a similar marketing
evolution. Then show the CFO what you have
come up with. Reveal how the marketing
strategy increases the overall company
bottom line. Getting the CFO on your side
first, before going to the COO and CEO, will
help you a great deal. Once you have backing
from the financial department, you can then
sell the rest of the executive team on what is
involved in creating and executing this
marketing strategy and plan. What will it take
to succeed (budget, people, capabilities,
resources, technology) and what the
company needs to approve and do to
support your marketing plan.
By presenting the real
revenue opportunity you are
in a better position to secure
the required resources to a
successful 2016.
We are more than happy to help companies with
their 2016 marketing planning and process. An
outside perspective can be very useful to inside
marketing teams. Your biggest challenge will be
addressing the historical issues from the previous
year with the CFO. History does not always
reflect the future. The market is always changing,
whether it is your industry or in the marketing
landscape, so it is important to reflect that
change in your numbers. Make the planning and
budgeting process your chance to shine. More
so than last year, marketing technologies and
automation are proving effective at bringing
together more efficient marketing tactics to
achieve better results. Again, if you can prove
your competition and the industry at large are
increasing their Content Marketing budgets and
the company will fall behind if you simply use last
years numbers you, have a logical argument.
Bringing together the data from credible sources
and your own audit should help you determine
your 2016-marketing budget practically.

15. Having quality content and making sure it is speaking to the pain points of your
clients and in the right way, in the right context, made for the channel it will be
searched in, is all very important, but distribution beyond the regular social media
channels and your email list is also very important. You will need to find multiple
avenues. As mentioned above, partners is very important and advocacy from your
customer base is also key, but getting a Content Marketing company that knows of
other key link-back opportunities is also key. It’s hard to stay up-to-date on the
latest trends that are happening in Content Marketing if you have not already been
watching it. As Content marketing experts, it is what we live for.
BONUS: Distribution
For example, Facebook has
been trying to get into the news
game and now going for
publishing by releasing Instant
Articles
https://instantarticles.fb.com/.
This new ad platform on
Facebook encourages
marketers and publishers to run
articles and native ads directly
on the wall. Facebook says the
Instant Articles platform was
created “to give publishers
control over their stories, brand
experience, and to monetize
new opportunities.
For your 2016 marketing
plan and budget, it’s
crucial to find a marketing
agency that knows the
latest trends in Content
Marketing.

16. CREDITS
CREATED BY
DAWN WILLSON
As Chief Content Officer at New Dawn Media,
Dawn provides consulting, strategy and full
Content Marketing agency services through her
agency. She has been helping organizations
and partners grow their businesses through
Content Marketing since 2008.
She is the editor of Shine, New Dawn Media’s
blog for Content Marketing.
new dawn media

17. www.ndawnm.com
new dawn media

18. At New Dawn Media we know your
marketing efforts should result in leads and
sales. Learn more about how online/digital
marketing methods such as Content
Marketing, analytics, display advertising, web
design and content strategy can help you
achieve your sales goals today.
A Guide to
Your
2016
Marketing
Budget