Small business marketing budget for print: plan a full year

Start from a goal, not a percentage

You will find many rules of thumb for how much of revenue to spend on marketing. They are useful as a sanity check, but they do not tell you what your print should do. A better starting point is the result you need.

Ask three questions. How many new customers do you want this year? What is a new customer worth to you over a year, in gross profit rather than revenue? And what share of that value are you willing to spend to acquire one?

The numbers below are illustrative, so swap in your own quotes. A small cleaning company wants 60 new recurring clients this year. Each client is worth about $1,200 in gross profit over the year. The owner is willing to spend up to 20 percent of that, or $240, to win each client. The maximum acquisition budget is therefore 60 × $240, or $14,400, across all marketing. If print is expected to bring in about half of those clients, a print budget of around $7,200 is a defensible starting point.

The exact numbers will differ for you. The point is that a budget tied to a goal can be tested and adjusted, while a budget tied to a percentage cannot tell you whether it is working.

Split the budget into three buckets

Once you have a total, divide it by purpose. This protects essentials from being cut and stops experiments from swallowing the whole budget.

The shares are a starting point. A restaurant with frequent menu changes might need more in fixed essentials. A home services business that relies on mailings might put more into campaigns.

The test fund is the part most small businesses skip, and it is the part that improves results over time. Without it, you repeat last year's plan because you have no evidence for anything else.

Estimate the fixed essentials

Fixed essentials are items you will buy no matter what, so estimate them first. List each item, its yearly quantity and its likely cost.

For business cards, multiply the number of people who hand them out by the cards each uses per year. The guide to how many business cards to order gives usage estimates by role. For menus and price lists, count how often prices change and how many copies wear out. For shipping inserts and labels, multiply by expected orders.

Use real prices, not guesses. Product pages list current pricing, and the quote page can handle larger or custom jobs. The tools section has calculators that help with quantities and sizes.

Price campaigns from real quotes

For each planned campaign on your calendar, build a cost that includes everything, not just printing.

• Design time, whether yours or a freelancer's.
• Printing at the realistic quantity.
• Postage or distribution, such as mailing costs or paying someone to deliver door hangers.
• Shipping of the printed pieces to you.
• Any offer cost, such as the discount or free item you are giving away.

Offer cost is often forgotten. If a postcard offers a free item worth $5 and 40 people redeem it, that is $200 that belongs in the campaign budget.

When comparing suppliers, use the print quote checklist for comparable prices so every quote covers the same paper, finish, quantity and delivery.

Time the spending to protect cash flow

Print prices usually fall per piece as quantity rises, which tempts owners to buy a year of stock at once. That can be a false saving.

Large orders tie up cash, take up storage and become waste the moment a price, offer or phone number changes. A practical rule is to order up to three to six months of usage for items that rarely change, and one campaign at a time for anything with dated offers.

Also line up spending with revenue. If your busy season is spring, the print for it is paid in late winter, when cash may be tight. Put those payments on your cash flow plan early so the campaign is not cut at the last minute.

Track return every quarter

The US Small Business Administration recommends comparing marketing and sales costs with the revenue they generate to make sure you are getting a positive return on investment, and maintaining marketing plans at least annually. For print, that means tracking each piece individually.

Give every campaign its own code, QR link or question at checkout. At the end of each quarter, calculate a simple figure for each campaign: revenue attributed divided by total cost. Anything above one paid for itself on first purchases. Anything well above one deserves more budget. Anything far below one needs a new offer, a new format or a new audience.

Keep the review honest. A piece that looks good but cannot show results should be treated as brand spending and kept small, not expanded because you like it.

A worked annual plan

Here is how the cleaning company from earlier might spread its illustrative $7,200 print budget.

Fixed essentials take about $2,500: business cards for three staff, rack cards at partner businesses, magnets left with every client and a vehicle graphic refresh. Planned campaigns take about $3,800: a spring mailing to target neighborhoods, a fall mailing, and door hangers in the streets around existing clients after each job. The test fund of about $900 tries a referral card inserted with every invoice and a small mailing to a new area.

At the end of the second quarter, the owner sees that door hangers near existing clients produced more bookings per dollar than the spring mailing. The fall budget shifts toward door hangers. The referral card works too, so it moves into fixed essentials next year. That is how a budget improves: small shifts based on evidence.

Get the free Small Business Print Planner

A budget is easier to keep when it sits on a calendar, which is exactly what the Small Business Print Planner gives you. Use the calendar to spread spending across the year and the quote sheet to price each line accurately. Download it from the print planner page.

Annual print budget checklist

• Set a customer goal and an acceptable cost to win each customer.
• Calculate a total print budget from that goal.
• Split it into fixed essentials, planned campaigns and a test fund.
• Estimate fixed items from real quantities and current prices.
• Include design, postage, shipping and offer costs in every campaign.
• Order only three to six months of stable items at a time.
• Review revenue per dollar each quarter and move money toward what works.