A client recently asked, "I don't have a formal marketing budget, so how much should our company spend on marketing?"

There is no simple answer because all companies have different marketing goals, different target audiences and staffing varies for sales and marketing follow up.

Ideally, good marketing helps to bring pre-qualified customers to your sales team, who then complete the sales process and close the sale. But the reality is that most companies spend a great deal of time, effort and money marketing, but spend little time tracking and analyzing. They know exactly what they are spending but may have no idea about how their message is being received, what strategies are really working and what sales were a direct result of their marketing effort.

Companies who clearly define their marketing strategy, set realistic goals and marketing budgets, then track the results always seem to have better control over their marketing efforts, and are able to make changes quickly in response to market changes or changes in strategy by their competition.

Step 1: Establish a Budget

First, figure out what you can afford to spend per month for the next three months without negatively affecting your company's cash flow. Then, create a simple marketing plan that gives you the most effective return on your marketing dollars. Usually this means determining the best way to reach the greatest number of pre-qualified prospects for the least amount of money.

Step 2: Plan and Measure Your Results

Carefully measure the effectiveness of your marketing. Promotions that use codes, coupons or other means to track responses to the campaign are best great since they help you to track responses. E-mails, telephone calls, website traffic and conversions of website traffic to actual leads must be tracked and measured in order to determine what is effective, or not.

Step 3: Analyze Your Results

Analyze your marketing results to determine which marketing strategy or marketing message is working best. A high response rate may be good, but a fewer number of more qualified leads will usually be better. As you follow up on leads ask them what they liked about your marketing message or the way the message was presented.

Step 4: Refine and Perfect

Refine your marketing message and focus on marketing campaigns and messages that work, repeating Step 2 and Step 3 at end the end of each quarter. You can experiment with increasing your marketing budget each quarter to reach more prospective customers. By determining which strategy or campaign works best, over the next few months, shift more of your budget into the marketing strategy that's reaching your target market and bringing you the results you want.