BUDGETING

The Importance of Budgeting
Until recently, I served the Music industry as a record promoter and media publicist. After having begun my own music career as a recording artist and successfully self-marketing my first recording, I realized that there must, literally, be tons of musicians who could utilize my skills. And, I was correct...there were.

Unfortunately, I also quickly realized that very few of these "tons of artists" had absolutely any clue about business, and even less of a clue about promoting their music, outside the no-brainer effect of performing.

Though not nearly as bad, I still see the lack of proper budgeting as a significant problem among traditional business owners as well. There is a long-standing thought that, whether the economy is in good or bad condition, business owners should *always* actively market and promote their products.

However, most cease actively promoting their products or services during distressed economies. And, this is the absolute poorest way to "budget" your marketing and promotional dollars for your business.

So, let us utilize the example of any new product that you currently have that you feel will change the world for the better:

Targeting

Who are the main people who need your product or service most? Once you determine this, you then need to determine all the ways you can reach these people. For instance, your first line of marketing and promotion defence should be:

1. Publicity:

Many people confuse publicity with advertising, however, they are *not* the same. Publicity allows you to get your information out to the public via the media and, for the most part, without cost. However, the caveat emptor is that your information must be considered "newsworthy," as opposed to presenting itself as just another item for sale.

The best way to qualify your business, product or service as news, is to either "tie it in" (make a connection) to a current news item, or to present it as a problem-solver for some sector of society.

Additionally, media audiences, generally, give more interest to, and perceive "publicity" items as more important than "advertised" items. This is because there is the sense that the media in which it is presented is endorsing the product or service.

And, for the most part, this is correct because, most of the time, the media reviews the item prior to placing its proverbial stamp of approval on it via publication. Again, your only costs are time and production of promotional materials for the media.

Publicity is available from radio, television, print and online sources alike. Simply determine the number of sources within each of these media sectors that you can afford to send your promotional materials to, then itemize your budget accordingly.

2. Advertising:

Your second line of defense, is "advertising." Though you may be in a financial position to execute both publicity and advertising simultaneously, ideally (again, in the interest of "budgeting"), it is financially advantageous to apply your earnings from your publicity results to your advertising campaign.

This process is a perfect example of making your money work for itself, and eliminates the necessity of your utilizing personal funds for capital in your marketing and promotion.

And, once you are involved in the "advertising" portion of your media campaign, in the further interest of budgeting, first determine the size and degree of ad that you wish to present to your prospective clients or customers.

For example, let's use the print media, as your cost will be determined by the amount of space you require:

Considerations:

1. How much content will be enough to convince readers to buy your product?
   
   
2. After creating an ad, can you now reasonably reduce its content, in the interest of saving money, while delivering the same message, and more succinctly?
   
   
3. In determining a budget, should your ad be presented in the format of a simple classified line ad, or can you possibly achieve greater results with a Classified Display ad? This is an ad that includes a border, larger fonts, bold or underline features.
   
   
4. How long should you run the ad before determining its success or failure?
   
   
5. What elements will you use to determine its success or failure?