92% of the USA Market Doesn't Have the Budget Available to Pay for True Digital Marketing. Discover the Solution: WebFindYou!

Marketing is Vital to a Company's Existence

Throughout the years, companies have had an ever-growing reliance on marketing departments, making them much more relevant than you could possibly imagine. If a company does not have a good set of marketing specialists available, there is a good chance of it failing in today's market. A company that does not invest in researching what customers want will have great difficulty getting clients, which results in less profit for the company.

Marketing Budgets Have and Continue to Shift to Digital

Today, marketing has become more effective due to its integration with the new era of digital technologies, making digital marketing more and more popular every day. Many companies have left behind or drastically reduced their spend with traditional marketing (TV, Radio, Print) to invest in more cost-effective campaigns via the Internet. According to an annual report from 2016 by State of Inbound by HubSpot, 41% of businesses claim that content marketing provides a positive ROI. Further research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute states that companies that improved their results during the year 2016 invested 42% of their marketing budget in content marketing.

Digital Marketing Isn't the Problem, It's How Companies Do It

Although it is clear that traditional media such as Print, TV or Radio do not have the same demand as they used to, many companies in the U.S. still do not fully believe in digital marketing and refuse to invest in something that might not yield the desired results. In reality, the problem isn't digital marketing. The problem lies in the way most companies implement and manage it.

True Digital Marketing Defined

The proper way to implement digital marketing, or as WebFindYou calls it, "True Digital Marketing," is to maximize a company's online presence by doing what is considered "Everything Digital," as this allows each element of the complete digital marketing puzzle to support and help maximize the other.However, to do everything requires the use and knowledge of many different digital marketing toolsets, services, and strategies which increases the time and costs required to implement true digital marketing. For this reason, most companies have opted to do only what they can afford or understand which therefore greatly limits the overall potential gains in brand building and recognition, leads, and sales. Many companies have even decided to outsource this work, but the companies they are contracting will likewise do only what their clients can afford, because at the end of the day, in any business, time is money. If something takes more time to implement, it will cost more money to have it done. Now mix into this equation the fact that Google modifies their formula 300 - 400 times per year (on average once per day), and that everyday a new digital marketing idea, concept, social media platform, or technology takes front stage. This just simply exacerbates the complexities of digital marketing which in turn further increases the time required and overall costs to implement. And for this reason, many businesses have stopped doing digital marketing, or simply don't believe in it. But again, the issue isn't digital marketing. It's the way digital marketing is implemented and managed that leads to failure.

A Company's Website is at the Core of Any True Digital Marketing Campaign

At the core of any digital marketing campaign should exist a company's website, although some companies try to lead you to believe that a website isn't necessary and a simple company profile on Facebook or Instagram is more than enough. Again, these trends come and go because they are attempting to provide a less complicated solution, but they fail to maximize the true power of the Internet for a business when everything digital is properly implemented. A company website, when properly implemented, can rank within search engines like Google and Bing, and provide a direct line to the consumers specifically looking for your company's products and/or services - and these are the best leads possible. This process is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and a website will always have superior SEO over a company's Facebook or Instagram profile.

Google has very strict technical guidelines now (mobile friendly, fast load times, secure website, among many others) that if not adhered to will cause your website's ability to get in front of these ideal clients using search engines nearly impossible. To perform proper SEO you have to engage in what is called Content Marketing (the creation and development of text and graphics on your website that provides valuable information to your potential client or target audience), Social Media Marketing, Reputation Management (Online Reviews), Back Linking techniques, and many more necessary tricks of the trade. All of these concepts have a common goal of building your company's credibility in the eyes of the consumer, and when it is done correctly, you will receive an ever-flowing source of leads and sales for your business.

The Proper Digital Marketing Tools, Services, and People are Required!

To implement true digital marketing you must have the proper tools, services and people. Some of the required tools and services include: a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla, a Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) such as HubSpot or Infusion Soft, Reputation Management services like BirdEye o Trustpilot, Email Marketing like Mail Chimp or Constant Contact, Short URL Technology like Bit.ly, Keyword Ranking Reports, Lead Tracking Technology, Sales/Marketing/Return on Investment Reports, and many more options. The current way everyone is implementing their websites is by beginning with a CMS like WordPress or an Ecommerce System like Shopify or Magento and then adding on the myriad of modules available. They'll then use other third-party services like HubSpot (CRM), Mail Chimp (Email Marketing) or BirdEye (Reputation Management) and use their recommended integration methods.

The problem, as already stated above, is that each new module and/or service requires time to integrate, time to understand how to properly use it, and increases your costs to implement and manage your website and digital marketing. Ask any business owner or marketing coordinator that has tried this already and a vast majority of them will tell you it's a huge headache, requires a lot of time, and can turn into a disaster if you don't know what you're doing. Just the tools and services alone can cost more than $1,500 per month and that's not including what you'll pay someone to integrate them. In addition, because these are all disjunct systems, their integrations are many times clunky and not optimal which can lead to loss of time, increased frustrations, and lead to sales not being maximized.

Only Three Options Are Available to Implement Digital Marketing: Internal, External, or Hybrid

So now that you know what true digital marketing is, why it's important to do, and the tools and services required, let's analyze the manner in which a company can implement it, then we'll analyze the marketing budgets companies have to illustrate why 92% of the companies in the United States, don't have the proper budgets.

Each option below has its own requirements in terms of costs and resources, which we analyze below.

• Internal: This option requires that the company already has or hires internal experts in digital marketing strategies, writing, social media, web design, and programming. The minimum cost for this option is $24,000 - $30,000 per month which equates to $4,000 - $5,000 per person per month plus 20% on top for taxes, benefits, and operational costs such as laptops, phones, electricity, rent, etc. These amounts are actually low because if true experts were utilized this amount would be double. Furthermore, if these people are not truly experts, but rather are requested to study or take digital marketing courses and classes, which many companies are requesting their employees to do, then more time and costs would be involved, as well as costly errors and lost revenues. In addition, this option requires the additional costs of the tools and services ($1,500+ more per month), as mentioned above for CRM, Email Marketing, Reputation Management, Hosting, etc., as well as Pay Per Click costs for Google and Facebook Ads, causing the monthly required investment to be much greater.
• External: This option is where you would outsource the work to a quality digital marketing company. Remember, as stated above, time is money, and digital marketing is complex, so that is why the good digital marketing companies charge $5,000 to $10,000 per month excluding paid media (Google Pay Per Click and Facebook Ads), and the tools and services mentioned above which can amount to another $1,500+ on top. If the targeted market is only a city or major metropolitan area, you might find a good digital marketing company for $3,000 - $4,000 per month, but even so, with the additional tools and services required for CRM, Email Marketing, Reputation Management, etc. you'll be at the $5,000 per month minimum. Many companies don't understand why digital marketing companies charge $5,000 - $10,000 per month. If you understood from the above explanations that digital marketing is complex and requires many people to implement all the fine details (Marketing Strategists, Writers, Social Media Programmers, Designers), then you'll be able to understand that a digital marketing agency can only dedicate a maximum of 8 - 10 clients to their internal team of five without sacrificing quality. If they charge $5,000 per month then they are receiving $40,000 - $50,000 per month but their costs are a minimum of $24,000 - $30,000 per month, and that doesn't include the other costs for sales people to bring the clients, other employees for accounting, client retention, etc. To demand the higher amount of $10,000 per month would require having more expert employees which would cause the digital marketing agency's costs to be doubled (as mentioned above in the Internal explanation). If this makes sense to you, then you can fully understand why being able to find quality digital marketing at $500 - $1,000 per month simply isn't possible, yet many bad companies out there are selling their low-quality services at those price points since they know many companies will pay them. They will lock you into contracts and show you they are doing some digital marketing, but it always leads to the same end result - you the client being frustrated with the results and back on the trail again looking for a good digital marketing company that you'll never find, because once again, time is money, and no digital marketing company in their right mind can charge less than $5,000 per month unless they do only a portion of true digital marketing, or other economy of scales factor enters into the equation as is the case for franchise digital marketing (multiple local franchisees paying for local digital marketing bringing more revenues to the marketing agency).
• Hybrid: This option is the combination of the above Internal and External options meaning the Internal employees you have or that you'll contract for managing your digital marketing will be supplemented via the External options for those you don't have. Many companies that employ this option will typically have a Digital Marketing Strategist who is capable of Writing, and/or a Writer, and/or Social Media strategist on their payroll and will outsource the rest. Since the Design and Programming responsibilities can be outsourced offshore to save money, this option will typically save you money over the Internal option, but you'll still be looking at $10,000 - $12,000 per month ($8,000 - $10,000 per month for the employees plus $2,000 on average for the outsourcing), and like both options above, you still need to pay the additional $1,500+ for the digital marketing tools and services, and any Paid Media.

How Much Money Should Companies Invest in Digital Marketing?

According to a prior survey published by the American Marketing Association, companies spend on average 10% to 12% of their annual revenues on marketing. Entrepreneur.com states that the golden rule is for companies with less than five years in operation should apply 12% - 20% of their gross annual revenues to marketing and those greater than five years 6% - 12%. And in a prior study, the U.S. Small Business Administration claims businesses with less than $5 million in revenues should allocate 7% - 8% of their revenues to marketing. Obviously there are different opinions out there, and of course all depends on the company size, industry, time in business, and other factors, so for purposes of our analysis we'll use the average range of these three credible sources which is 9% - 13%.

According to an article by Forbes magazine, by 2017 digital marketing reached between 18% and 27% of the total marketing budget, with the expectation of a 10% growth per year (this varies according to the industry, type of service and product).

Therefore, if we take the average recommended marketing budget of 9% - 13% and multiply that by the recommended digital marketing budget of 18% - 27%, we are left with a digital marketing budget as a percentage of total annual revenues of 1.62% - 3.51%, and these are the numbers that will be used in our analysis below.

How Many Companies are in the United States and What are Their Digital Marketing Budgets?

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are 30 million businesses in the United States. Between 2012 - 2014, the U.S. Small Business Administration divided these 30 million businesses into categories based on income (estimated receipts), which breaks down as follows:

• Non-Employer Businesses: These make up 80% (24 million) of the businesses in the market. They do not have employees and have an average annual income of $43,000, of course some make much more than this per month, but the average across all 24 million businesses in this group is $43,000. If they invest 1.62% - 3.51% of their revenues, they would allocate $58 - $126 per month to digital marketing.
• Businesses with Employees: These make up 20% (6 million) of the businesses in the market. They have an average annual income of $5,600,000, which is broken down by the number of employees they have. For example:
• Businesses with 0 to 4 Employees: These make up 12% of the businesses in the market. They have an average annual income of $400,000. If they invest 1.62% - 3.51% of their revenues, they should allocate $540 - $1,170 per month to digital marketing.
• Businesses with 5 to 19 Employees: These make up 5% of the businesses in the market. They have an average annual income of $1,600,000. If they invest 1.62% - 3.51% of their revenues, they should allocate $2,160 - $4,680 per month to digital marketing.
• Businesses with 20 to 99 Employees: These make up 2% of the businesses in the market. They have an average annual income of $7,600,000. If they invest 1.62% - 3.51% of their revenue, they should allocate $10,260 - $22,230 per month to digital marketing.
• Businesses with 100 to 499 Employees: These make up .3% of the businesses in the market. They have an average annual income of $44.6 million. If they invest 1.62% - 3.51% of their revenue, they should allocate $60,210 - $130,455 per month to digital marketing.
• Businesses with more than 500 Employees: These make up .06% of the businesses in the market. They have an average annual income of $1 billion. If they invest 1.62% - 3.51% of their revenue, they should allocate $1,472,850 - $3,191,175 per month to digital marketing.

So, What Do USA Companies Get Based on the Option Chosen to Implement Digital Marketing and Their Budget Available?

• With a budget of $58 - $126 per month, 80% (24 million) of non-employer businesses cannot afford internal, external, or hybrid options for digital marketing. The digital marketing tools and services alone are more than $1,500 per month.
• With a budget of $540 - $1,170 per month, 12% (6 million) of the businesses with 0-4 employees cannot afford internal, external, or hybrid options for digital marketing. Nor can they even cover the digital marketing tools and services of $1,500+ per month. Even if they were to try to use only some of the tools and services, there's still no money left over for Paid Media or to cover offshore outsourcing in the case of the Hybrid option, and this is under the assumption that the Internal resources used are those already on payroll and therefore it's not an additional expense to the company.
• With a budget of $2,160 to $4,680 per month, 5% (1.6 million) of the businesses with 5-19 employees cannot afford the Internal or External Option, however they could implement the Hybrid approach if and only if they already had internal staff on payroll with free time that can be used in part to manage their digital marketing. But as stated above, the company will be at risk if this internal staff commits errors, and they will have to spend time reading and studying the different toolsets required and will have to manage a team of offshore personnel to cover the missing pieces, most likely programming and design. If they get all the tools and services needed at $1,500+ per month they are drastically using a large percentage of their available budget for just those tools and services, greatly reducing their ability to invest in Paid Media.
• The remaining 3% of businesses cover 20+ employees and have more than $10,260 per month to spend on digital marketing and therefore could employ all three options of Internal, External, and Hybrid. Of course, for the Internal and Hybrid options it would require as well that they already have some of those people on staff to consider it not as an additional expense.

As you can see from this analysis, 92% of the market has no viable option to implement true digital marketing, and even 5% of the market in only certain cases can make it work, and this is why the market is found chasing its tails in search of a true digital marketing option, only to find themselves once again frustrated with the results and seeking out another company that will say the right things to get them to try it one more time. It's a depressing cycle. If something isn't done, 92% - 97% of the businesses will be pushed out more and more by the other 3% - 8% of the market that has the budget to properly brand themselves and attract quality leads and sales from Internet Marketing.

WebFindYou to the Rescue!

The founder of WebFindYou, Robert Blankenship, an expert in Internet Marketing and Development, foresaw where things were headed back in 2008, which is why he developed the concept of greatly simplifying the tools, services, and acumen needed to implement true digital marketing, and hence the birth of WebFindYou in late 2009. Over the past 9 years WebFindYou has been greatly expanding on its technology to become the Internet's First and Only All-in-One Digital Marketing Technology that provides 92% of the market with a viable solution to implement everything digital marketing and an even better and proven solution to the other 5% of the market. The remaining 3% of the market can as well benefit greatly from WebFindYou, but many times will feel if their more expensive means of digital marketing is already working for them then why risk the change. With WebFindYou, a company can greatly reduce their digital marketing spend on the tools and services required, greatly reduce the time required to implement true digital marketing, and achieve better results from digital marketing campaigns, due to its revolutionary, single, integrated technology that provides all the toolsets and services that one needs. Below we'll now show how 92% and even up to 97% of the market has better options to implement true digital marketing that allows them to get out of the frustrating cycle of receiving empty promises with no results.

WebFindYou, All-In-One Digital Marketing Technology, is the Solution for 92% of the USA Market

WebFindYou is the first All-In-One Digital Marketing Technology that provides everything you need to implement True Digital Marketing, strategically architected and programmed from scratch, and integrated into one single Technology. We have all the necessary components (under the same roof) you need to run an efficient and successful digital marketing campaign. These components include: Search Engine Optimization, Reputation Management (Online Reviews), PPC Optimization, SEO Web Design, Responsive Technology (mobile-friendly website), Promotion Management, Online Surveys, Web Promoter Score, Keyword Ranking Reports, Marketing/Sales/ROI Reports, Lead and Sales Tracking Technology, Short URLs, Chat, Marketing Management for Social Media, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Email Marketing, E-commerce SEO, SSL Technology, Content Management System (CMS), Online Directory Management, Video marketing and much more. Each of these components are necessary and work in unison to provide the highest-level of effective digital marketing in today's demanding and competitive environment. WebFindYou implements all of these components and uses them to maximize your company's Internet presence to increase leads and sales.

WebFindYou is the best, and only option for 92% of the USA market that wants to establish their brand over the Internet, maximize sales via a proven strategy that will produce a positive return on investment, and do it in a way that isn't complicated, that is efficient, with little hassle and frustration, and at a price point they can afford. With WebFindYou, a company has access to all the necessary tools to implement a successful digital marketing campaign starting at just $499 paid once and then $49 a month for an informational website, and $599 paid once and $59 a month for an eCommerce website, which is the license fee to the WebFindYou Technology. You then decide based on your budget how you'll implement it. See below for how the three options to implement true digital marketing (internal, external, hybrid) are greatly simplified with time and costs with WebFindYou.

WebFindYou Provides 97% of the Market, According to their Budget, the Most Powerful Option to Maximize Brand, Leads, and Sales from True Digital Marketing

WebFindYou greatly simplifies the digital marketing process as well as the personnel (and their digital marketing acumen) required to implement it. WebFindYou provides step-by-step guides via video and text to walk you through every step to maximize success. Furthermore, we will soon begin to have weekly and monthly webinars as well as live conferences where participants can ask strategy and implementation questions and hear responses from the experts at WebFindYou. In addition, we are creating a WebFindYou Marketplace of WebFindYou experts that can be used to help you with the management of your WebFindYou at pricing that should accommodate most available budgets. Thus, with WebFindYou only a Marketing Strategist and Writer are required, however if the Marketing Strategist is also a writer, then only a Marketing Strategist would be needed. For blog and social media images WebFindYou will eventually provide image options, but until then companies can use Snappa for FREE for 5 downloads per month and $10/month for unlimited downloads. And with WebFindYou it's very easy to upload and edit images and add them to your website and social media posts. This is important to understand because we review the implementation options available for the budgets available of the 30 million businesses in the United States.

• With an available digital marketing budget of only $58 - $126 per month, 80% (24 million) of non-employer businesses can afford WebFindYou at $49 per month. Below are their implementation options explained in detail:
  • Internal: This is the most likely option for this group of businesses. It requires the company to already have a Marketing Manager/Strategist and/or Writer on staff, otherwise, the company owner(s) would be responsible for the digital marketing implementation.
  • External: This option is still not available for this group since their budget even with WebFindYou isn't enough for someone to completely manage their digital marketing for them.
  • Hybrid: This option is also available, but the limited budget left over after paying WebFindYou $49/month would leave them $9 - $77 per month which could be used for an editor to edit the writing work done by the company owner(s) or Marketing Manager if required.
• With an available digital marketing budget of $540 - $1,170 budget, 12% of businesses with 0 to 4 employees can easily afford WebFindYou at $49 per month.
  • Internal: This is a definitive option for this group of businesses. It requires the company to already have a Marketing Manager/Strategist and/or Writer on staff, otherwise, the company owner(s) would be responsible for the digital marketing implementation.
  • External: This option is only available for the percentage of this group with digital marketing budgets on the higher side of this range (towards $1,170 per month), since there will be some marketing professionals within the WebFindYou marketplace (coming soon) willing to charge $1,000 - $1,170 per month for their marketing strategy and writing capabilities, since again, WebFindYou greatly simplifies the process and turns digital marketing into more of an exercise of Writing and Content Marketing.
  • Hybrid: This is a definitive option as well for this group with a few different options. The company owner(s) or Marketing Manager could do the work by themselves and possibly contract a Writing Editor. They could also just worry about the marketing strategy side and contract a Marketing Writer with the budget they have available. And they could contract a marketing professional from the WebFindYou marketplace to share in the workload with the company owner(s).
• With an available digital marketing budget of $2,160 - $4,680 budget, 5% of businesses with 5 to 19 employees can easily afford WebFindYou at $49 per month.
  • Internal: This is a definitive option for this group of businesses. It requires the company to already have a Marketing Manager/Strategist and/or Writer on staff, have the company owner(s) manage it, or with their available budget they could hire a part-time or full-time Marketing Manager/Strategist and/or Writer.
  • External: This is a definitive option for this group of businesses as there will be many certified WebFindYou marketing strategists, writers, and even digital marketing agencies within the WebFindYou marketplace (coming soon), that would be willing to provide their services for this monthly budget available.
  • Hybrid: This is a definitive option as well for this group with the same options as stated above for the group corresponding to 12% of the market.
• The remaining 3% with budgets between $10,260 and $3,191,175, comprised of businesses with 20-99, 100-499, and more than 500 employees, may not think they need WebFindYou, however using our All-in-One Digital Marketing Technology will only greatly save them in personnel costs, more than $1,500 in the tools required to manage their digital marketing, and they will most likely be more efficient with their Paid Media spend, and will maximize conversion rates, leads, and sales by using WebFindYou.

This analysis is based on the United States market. If you are interested in seeing how other countries are doing, we will soon provide an in-depth analysis for Canada, Colombia and Chile. Leave us a comment below to find out about your market and we will gladly provide you with the information.

Are you ready to discover the True Power of the Internet and maximize digital marketing revenues with WebFindYou? Simply follow these easy to follow steps to get started:

1. Click here to purchase WebFindYou.
2. You'll receive an email to access the WebFindYou platform for your website.
3. Follow the very easy to follow videos to implement WebFindYou for your business.

For questions, please call us at 866-SEO-WEBS, fill out our contact form, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media to stay informed of everything WebFindYou including webinars and live speaking events.

If you found this article helpful then let us know in the comments section below. Likewise, feel free to share it using the share options below. Want us to cover another topic of your interest pertaining to digital marketing? If so, then like us and follow us on social media, and post to any of our social media profiles the topic you'd like us to discuss: Facebook WebFindYou, Instagram @WebFindYou and Twitter @WebFindYou.