As businesses focus more on digital marketing, forecasting your educational institution’s marketing budget is more important than ever. But which parts of your budget should you be looking at? Let’s break it down into the main areas you should track to strategically manage your marketing spend. 

ROI of various channels

Firstly, it’s crucial to understand what percentage of your budget goes to each marketing channel to identify the best ROI. Tracking this allows you to forecast and adjust your marketing mix as needed.

Acquisition marketing 

Track your online and offline acquisition budgets. Monitor your spending on digital channels, as well as other media like TV, radio, and direct mail. Check each channel’s budget cost side by side, adjusting budgets if priorities shift and analysing month to month trends. Don’t overlook seasonality within your budget. If you run a language school, for example, you may want to invest more during the summer months when you could benefit from higher demand for courses. 

Creative and content 

Your creative budget covers designs, printing, tools and more. Content needs a budget for content writing, videos, translations, promotion, and audits. Repurposing creative assets across channels can be a cost-effective way to keep content regularly updated.

Research, insights and tools 

Budget for SEO tools to track visitors, leads, conversions, and engagement. What’s more, having a dedicated social budget ensures your brand stays active, so keep track of spending on social media management tools, ad spend, influencer marketing, and social listening software.

Email marketing budget

Remember to budget for your email marketing efforts, including email software, purchase of email lists, copywriting for campaigns, and any complementary advertising spend.

Marketing personnel

Allocate budgets for marketing team training, recruiting, travel, events, and staff initiatives. Sometimes upskilling existing staff is more cost-effective than hiring.

Website costs

Lastly, remember to budget for hosting, domains, integrations, and staff training on your website and CMS.

By creating budget forecasts for each marketing channel and related expenses, you can strategically invest to maximise results for your international education marketing efforts in 2024 and beyond.

Written by Stephanie Clark