By Melissa Racer

When you started your business, you may have thought you could save money by handling your own marketing. After all, your marketing ideas were unlimited and nobody knew your business better than you. Now you're too busy with day-to-day operations to give marketing the concentrated effort-and money-necessary to impact the bottom line. But you also know marketing is the key to sustaining and growing your business.

So how much money should you spend on marketing? And where should you spend it? Do you need a $5,000 advertising campaign? Or, is a $500 direct mail piece the right strategy? What about hundreds or thousands of dollars for a Web site? And how much should you invest in the people who can research, plan and implement these for you?

Surprisingly, setting a marketing budget isn't the first step of the marketing process. Instead, a budget is the product of a more strategic approach.

Step #1: Establish short-term and long-term marketing objectives.
The bottom line is to increase brand awareness and sales, but how? Do you want to drive Web traffic, inquiry calls, referrals, sales for a certain product? What have your historical sales been? Asking these and other questions will help you focus on exactly what you want to achieve through marketing.

Step #2: Identify your prospects and clients.
The best way to grow your business is to replicate your top clients. Sure, you'll sell to anyone who will buy, but if you analyze your best customers (or your ideal ones), you'll likely find some common threads. Are they direct consumers? Do they come from a certain geographic area, share family characteristics or have similar personal affiliations or hobbies? If your customers are businesses, are they of a certain size, location or industry?

Step # 3: Determine how to reach your prospects and clients.
Identify what marketing tactics and channels helped you reach your current (and former) best customers and prospects. Analyze unsuccessful tactics to determine what factors influenced the program. There are many marketing vehicles to consider:

• Advertising (e.g., print, TV, radio and/or online)
• Collateral (e.g., brochures, flyers, signage, etc.)
• Direct mail/e-mail
• Internet (e.g., Web site, blogs, search engine optimization, etc.)
• Media relations
• Networking
• Newsletters
• Promotions
• Referrals/word-of-mouth
• Sales presentations
• Special events
• Trade shows

Choose the right combination of tactics and channels for your business. Also, check out what your competitors and other businesses in your industry or market area are doing to attract new customers.

Step # 4: Set your marketing budget.
Start gathering costs for the different tactics you've identified. Advertising or a Web site might seem too expensive, but if that avenue reaches your target audiences or markets, it's worth the investment. And you'll find there are many cost-effective options designed for small businesses that deliver the same quality of services.

It's helpful to put your marketing expenditures in short-term and long-term calendars to spread out costs, as well as to integrate your efforts to be most effective. Set a return on investment goal for each program so you can evaluate its value in future marketing planning.

Step #5: Evaluate your marketing efforts.
To fully gauge your marketing's effectiveness, it's important to regularly review the program's implementation, costs and revenues. This will help you become even smarter with your marketing dollars. This analysis can determine any changes in tactics and/or timing for your future marketing efforts.

Step # 6: Consider professional assistance.
Consider using an experienced professional for marketing. It's not as expensive as you might think, and if done right, marketing can generate enough revenue to more than pay for itself. Incorporating this expenditure into your ongoing operating budget and embracing it as an investment in your company's future is similar to hiring an attorney or an accountant.

Melissa Racer is principal of Roaring Kitty Marketing, which specializes in full-service marketing for small businesses. You can reach her at (816) 729-6003 or .