Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Many small businesses spend between 5 percent and 10 percent of their revenue on marketing. A business-to-business company that is not trying to attract retail customers may commonly spend less than 5 percent. Your marketing strategy needs to be unique to your business and your audience, especially when you are just starting and establishing stable cash flow. M&T Bank can guide you to the resources you’ll need to build a marketing strategy appropriate for your business.

To determine how much you need to spend on marketing, you need to identify which channels will reach your targets. A content-rich website gives your brand a home base. Email and text messaging are great for promoting your business, driving website traffic and collecting subscribers. Social media often works well for short-form content and videos. These marketing channels and many others each have different costs. There are small business marketing tools that can help you manage multiple channels at once, potentially consolidating some of your expenses. If done well, marketing doesn’t have to cost a lot to make a big impact on your bottom line.