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Here’s 5 Big Marketing Budget Mistakes to Avoid

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Like any other business department, the marketing team is often assigned limited resources to do its function.

As a result, it ultimately ends up being a numbers game: did the marketing team generate sufficient ROI with the restricted amount of money they had? And if you could re-allocate those resources in a particular way, could they have gotten the company more bang for the buck?

The Devil is in the Detail

While maximizing a budget for ROI seems like a straightforward concept, the devil is all in the detail. In the marketing world, ROI is a subjective term – no one agrees what it means, how to measure it, how to develop a strategic plan around it, or what tactics to use. Not surprisingly, it’s within these fuzzy parameters that most marketing decisions and mistakes can be found.

Today’s infographic from MDG Advertising dives deep into marketing budgeting, and it outlines some of the most common mistakes that even seasoned marketers make.

Here's 5 Big Marketing Budget Mistakes to Avoid

Marketing is one of the most fluid business functions, and things are always changing.

The emergence of social media and influencer marketing in recent years is a testament to how dynamic the trade is – and it makes maximizing the value of a marketing budget a perennial challenge for entrepreneurs and seasoned execs alike.

Marketing Budget Mistakes to Avoid

With that in mind, here are five common marketing budget mistakes you can avoid.

1. Starting with bad data
Marketing already relies on hunches and intuition to some extent – so when bad data is driving the rest of the decisions, it’s a recipe for disaster. There are two simultaneous problems here to consider: (1) Data is inaccurate, and (2) Marketers are often measuring the wrong data to begin with.

It’s impossible to plan for the future without better understanding the present.

2. Failing to loop in Sales
Ultimately, the purpose of marketing is to drive sales. Oddly enough, many marketers get wrapped up in the details of their tactics and forget about this key outcome.

It’s absolutely essential for marketing to coordinate with other departments, but no department is more important than the sales team. Managers also need to make sure incentives align accordingly.

3. Not doubling down on what works
This seems obvious, but it’s often missed by marketers for all sorts of reasons, including cognitive biases.

Ryan Holiday, the author and media strategist that has worked with people like Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss, says that not “doubling down” or going “all-in” on a tactic that works is a huge mistake. If something is working, put more money towards that channel until the returns notch down.

4. Underestimating the speed of change
There’s no doubt that the marketing world changes fast, and becoming complacent can lead to failure. Testing new mediums, channels, and tactics must be done to stay current, and not allocating time and resources to this is one of the biggest marketing budget mistakes made by companies.

5. Evaluating efforts too little and too late
In the digital world, it’s extremely easy to test new ideas or campaigns through A/B testing and other simple means. Because of this, all ideas should be tested, adjusted, and re-tested at the micro-level on a real-time basis. Infrequent or inadequate testing can lead to missing out on ideas, techniques, and channels that could have proven useful or even essential.

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Energy

Mapped: Renewable Energy and Battery Installations in the U.S. in 2023

This graphic describes new U.S. renewable energy installations by state along with nameplate capacity, planned to come online in 2023.

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Renewable and Battery Installations in the U.S. in 2023

This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on real assets and resource megatrends each week.

Renewable energy, in particular solar power, is set to shine in 2023. This year, the U.S. plans to get over 80% of its new energy installations from sources like battery, solar, and wind.

The above map uses data from EIA to highlight planned U.S. renewable energy and battery storage installations by state for 2023.

Total U.S. renewable energy and battery installations, broken down by share

Texas and California Leading in Renewable Energy

Nearly every state in the U.S. has plans to produce new clean energy in 2023, but it’s not a surprise to see the two most populous states in the lead of the pack.

Even though the majority of its power comes from natural gas, Texas currently leads the U.S. in planned renewable energy installations. The state also has plans to power nearly 900,000 homes using new wind energy.

California is second, which could be partially attributable to the passing of Title 24, an energy code that makes it compulsory for new buildings to have the equipment necessary to allow the easy installation of solar panels, battery storage, and EV charging.

New solar power in the U.S. isn’t just coming from places like Texas and California. In 2023, Ohio will add 1,917 MW of new nameplate solar capacity, with Nevada and Colorado not far behind.

Top 10 StatesBattery (MW)Solar (MW)Wind (MW)Total (MW)
Texas1,9816,4621,94110,385
California4,5554,2931238,970
Nevada6781,59602,274
Ohio121,91751,934
Colorado2301,1872001,617
New York585095591,125
Wisconsin4939921,034
Florida39780980
Kansas00843843
Illinois0363477840

The state of New York is also looking to become one of the nation’s leading renewable energy providers. The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) is making real strides towards this objective with 11% of the nation’s new wind power projects expected to come online in 2023.

According to the data, New Hampshire is the only state in the U.S. that has no new utility-scale renewable energy installations planned for 2023. However, the state does have plans for a massive hydroelectric plant that should come online in 2024.

Decarbonizing Energy

Renewable energy is considered essential to reduce global warming and CO2 emissions.

In line with the efforts by each state to build new renewable installations, the Biden administration has set a goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.

The EIA forecasts the share of U.S. electricity generation from renewable sources rising from 22% in 2022 to 23% in 2023 and to 26% in 2024.

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