For most professional businesses, the slowest months of the year are November and December. Instead of planning ahead during the summertime, a lot of them postpone everything, pushing important marketing considerations out until well into the New Year. Maybe business owners just don’t see the point in trying to generate business during the end of the year, or maybe they’re just purposely slowing down during the summer season because of their own personal agendas. Unfortunately, once the New Year is underway, they scramble to get their marketing efforts in gear. This just doesn’t make financial sense. The fact is, all businesses, at least successful ones, employ marketing strategies all-year-round, which is why marketing is an excellent, end of the year write-off.
Following are two of the primary reasons that the end of the year is the perfect time to invest in marketing.
1. With few exceptions, advertising and marketing investments are tax deductible. As a matter of fact, 100% of every dollar spent on marketing can be written off. That being said, doesn’t investing in marketing as an end of the year write off make sense?
2. Brand development and inbound marketing campaigns take time to see an actual return on investment (ROI). Even if you’re interested in investing in a responsive, mobile friendly website upgrade, it’ll more than likely take 30 + days to go live (realistically). Even if you already have a great web presence, if you haven’t done it already you’ve probably considered investing in an organic SEO or a content marketing campaign, both which can generate an incredible ROI. Well, either can take 4 months or more to start gaining traction and generate new clients.
Let’s face it, every business owner wants to start off the new year with a bang, right? So doesn’t it make sense to invest in your marketing at the end of the year, taking advantage of the write-off and be prepared to make 2017 the best year ever?
Not sure how to get started? Here are a few great marketing write-off ideas.
Update Your Brand
Freshening up your brand, including updating your logo, social media cover images, business cards, email campaigns and printed material to help renew your brand and offer an exceptional user experience.
A New Website
A new, mobile, human-friendly (responsive), well-optimized website has the potential of doubling lead conversions. If you don’t have a responsive website now, it’s crucial that you upgrade sooner rather than later. So, instead of making payments for the site, you’re definitely going to need in 2017, pay for it up front and take advantage of 100 % write-off benefits.
SEO
If you want to improve your positioning in search engines and start building more customer traffic, consider investing in a 6 to 12-month SEO campaign(s).
Content Marketing
To naturally attract prospects to your business and become an authority, also invest in a 6, or 12-month content marketing campaign including SEO friendly content creation.
Social Media
Social media expenditures paid to an individual/service outside of the company, including unique, social account setup and management fees and any subscription based social media websites you’re considering.
Sponsor a Local Charity or Community Event
This is something thats a pro for both your business and the event youre sponsoring – especially if its related to your local community or charity.
Sponsor an Event
Sponsoring an event is a great way to establish yourself as a generous business and at the same time help make the event more successful. Your network of contacts will also have the opportunity see your brand in front of a community-driven, quality people. This kind of marketing effort will present your company in a good light, increase your social visibility and demonstrate that youre committed to your community.
There are a number of marketing strategies available for a write-off. The point is that if you invest in your marketing now, youll be able to write off your marketing expenses and reap the rewards of tax savings this year and lead generation the following year.
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