Budgets & Billing Methods

Budgets & Billing Methods

Young Company serves serious clients whose annual marketing budgets have evolved over time. Most of our clients are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing to produce millions in sales. The ratio varies based on profit margins, competition, strength of the brand name, size of the sales force, and many other factors. We also have a great deal of experience working with venture capital funded startups. The information presented here is primarily intended for companies looking for guidance on how to develop a budget that will produce a healthy return on investment.

Young Company has successfully launched and managed integrated marketing campaigns for some of America’s most prestigious companies, including ARAMARK, Ameritec, Arrow Electronics, Avery International, Avnet, Candle Corporation, Cisco Systems, Dassault Systemes, Fluor Corporation, Hitachi, Hughes, IBM (5 divisions), Mitsubishi, Northrop Grumman, Samsung Electronics, TDK Semiconductors, Texas Instruments and TRW.

Minimum Engagement

Advertising budgets vary greatly based on the size of a client's market and the difficulty in reaching and converting prospects into customers. Our fees are scaled to the size of the budget and scope of work to be performed. Our minimum engagement is $15,000 agency income over a period of no more than three months. This is exclusive of media costs, Google AdWords costs, or printing. This could be $5,000 per month for 3 months of digital marketing services, or it could be a $15,000 website or collateral package.

Pricing Structure

As an integrated marketing communications agency offering advertising, marketing research, public relations, Internet marketing and website development, we offer our services based on four pricing methods:

  1. Time & Materials
  2. Fixed Bid
  3. Block Time
  4. Monthly Retainer

There are meaningful discounts offered to clients who elect the monthly retainer or block time options.

Typical B2B Marketing Communications Budgets (as a percentage of sales)

Typical B2B Marketing Communications Budgets (as a percentage of sales) Graph

What are you trying to accomplish?

Most marketing communications programs are designed to accomplish one of three goals:

  1. Brand Awareness
  2. Customer Acquisition
  3. Customer Retention

Different marketing communications techniques are used in various combinations to accomplish these goals. Creating an effective integrated marketing communications program for your company is one of the most important services that Young Company provides. On a national basis, below shows how large B2B budgets break down:

Budgets Pie Graph

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How does Young Company typically charge?

Every client situation is somewhat different, so here are some guide lines:

Advertising

For media planning and placement, Young Company earns the 15% commission offered by most media. When the media is not commissionable or the budget is very small, the net cost is either grossed up to yield a 15% commission or a fee for the services is charged.

Marketing

Most clients elect to have Young Company provide marketing support on a monthly retainer basis. This typically includes marketing plan development, competitive positioning, message hierarchy, campaign integration and general marketing counsel.

Public Relations/Social Media

Our PR services typically include press releases, feature articles, white papers and editor relations. Because of the time required to prepare, pitch and follow through with the media on our client’s behalf, our PR services are only provided on a retained monthly service basis. As with all services, the budget is based upon a scope of work and the anticipated time requirement. Social Media campaigns include research, creating and posting of content to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and blogs. Monthly budgets range from $5,000 to $8,500. When combined with other agency services a solid PR program can be provided for as low as $3,500 per month.

Internet Marketing

Once a client’s website is completed, the most important work is shifted to the Internet marketing team whose job it is to cost-effectively drive more traffic to the site. This typically involves SEO (search engine optimization), website structure maintenance, refresh content creation, and implementation of a linking strategy that includes industry, vendor and a variety of social media websites. These services are typically provided on an ongoing monthly fee for service basis starting at $3,500 per month.

Website Development

We create websites from scratch and perform major overhauls as well. Just like with a home, renovation is not always cheaper, but there can be advantages to building on an existing framework. We offer turnkey services that include website strategy, copy writing, design, programming in multiple languages, and comprehensive project management. Because our sites are typically built for search and often incorporate video, animation, a CMS (content management system), ecommerce or database driven calculator. Pricing will depend on detailed scope of work.

Sales Tools

These are often CRM (customer relationship management) software tools such as SalesForce.com and other types of video and digital presentations. Support for the CRM tools are typically retained services and integrated into a monthly Internet marketing fee. Presentations are typically handled on a project basis.

Events

For trade shows and sales meetings, we typically provide creative and public relations which are provided based on a monthly retainer or fixed bid project basis.

Direct Marketing

This category usually involves direct mail, telemarketing and digital marketing. Direct mail is handled on a project basis, and budgets include agency creative and management services as well as “buy-outs” such as printing, postage and handling. For telemarketing, we draft the scripts and contract the calling to an outside firm whose operator skills match the needs of our client.

Collateral

Printed material such as brochures, manuals and point-of-purchase displays are handled on project basis that include creative and project management services, as well as printing and other outside buy-outs required to produce the work.

Knowing where you will fit in is a good place to start.

When selecting a professional agency it is important that you are a good financial fit. If your budget is significantly smaller than the other clients of the firm, it is unlikely that you will be well served in the long run unless your budget grows. If your budget is larger than the typical agency client, most agencies will invest in the staff and resources needed to serve your business. These days, no agency can afford to have talented personnel laying idle waiting for a large account to come along. Team expansion is the norm when new accounts are brought onboard.