Allocating Your Marketing Budget: Balancing Video and Content Marketing

Determining the allocation of a marketing budget is a critical task for any business aiming to maximise its reach and impact. In the realm of digital marketing two key components often stand out: video marketing and content marketing. Understanding how much to invest in each can be pivotal in crafting a successful marketing strategy.

Understanding Your Marketing Budget

Firstly, it’s crucial to grasp the overall size of your marketing budget, this typically depends on various factors, including the size of your business, your industry and your specific marketing goals. A commonly cited benchmark is allocating around 7-8% of your revenue to marketing but this can vary widely.

The Rise of Video Marketing

Video marketing has seen a meteoric rise in effectiveness and popularity, it’s a powerful tool for engagement, storytelling and conveying complex information in an easily digestible format. As a rule of thumb businesses might consider allocating around 20-30% of their marketing budget to video especially if they are targeting social media platforms where video content performs exceptionally well.

The Enduring Value of Content Marketing

Content marketing, encompassing blogs, articles, infographics and more, remains a cornerstone of digital marketing. It is key for SEO, building brand authority and maintaining customer engagement. While typically less expensive than video production, quality content marketing requires skilled writing, research, and strategy. Allocating around 25-35% of your marketing budget to content marketing is a good starting point, ensuring a steady flow of high-quality, relevant content.

Balancing the Two

The balance between video and content marketing will depend on your specific business needs and audience preferences. If your target audience consumes more video content, skewing your budget towards video might be wise. Conversely, if your audience values in-depth written content, prioritising content marketing would be more beneficial.

Flexibility and Monitoring

It's important to remain flexible and regularly monitor the performance of both video and content marketing efforts. This data-driven approach allows you to adjust your allocations as needed, ensuring the most efficient use of your budget.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how much you should spend on video and content marketing, a balanced and flexible approach guided by audience preferences and performance metrics, is key. The allocation should reflect your marketing objectives, the nature of your products or services and the behaviours of your target audience. Regular evaluation and adjustment of your strategy will help in optimising your marketing spend for the best possible outcomes.