I need help estimating my marketing budget

I am a professional photographer looking to monetize my unique knowledge of exotic locations into a photography tour business. I am currently projecting costs for the business plan, and the one area I have no idea how to get started on are the marketing costs. In fact, I consider marketing will be the primary focus of the business and the only possibility for success so I want to get this right. The target market is landscape photographers.

The first year objective will be to make between 72-98 sales. (1 tour per month, 6-8 people per tour). The cost will range from $2000-$6000 per person depending on location. I roughly estimate this so far, has the potential to net between 90-120k the first year after expenses if these sales goals are met (excepting the marketing budget which is not yet determined). The business will scale by hiring additional photographers to lead additional tours at additional locations, but this is the first year objective.

So my question is, what are going to to be the most effective outbound marketing channels I can employ, and how can I estimate those total costs, as well as a per customer acquisition cost estimate?

 

Wow, you have a lot of orders) Try to use any marketing experts, they will advice the best way for you! Good luck, friend!

 

Hi there Elijah,

If your average customer is work between $2k to $6k then this tells us approximately what you
are able to spend to get a new customer.

If I were you I'd want to see at least a 40% profit margin (i.e. 40% of $2k-$6k)
leaving you with 60% of your sale price which could be gobbled up by ad costs.

You can also make great use of referrals by doing "referral marketing" where you
ask a client at the end of your providing your service if he is satisfied and pleased.

When you get a "Yes" you can ask if he'd be willing to make a list of people who
also could benefit from your services and for permission to call them and ask them
if you are the right man to handle their needs.

"Where" and "how" to market to people is going to be based on your ability to
determine who your avatar or "perfect prospect" would be, and then to go there
and speak their language.

Cheers,
Justin

 

okay - you want to look at 2 things. Cost per lead and conversion rate. First off you'll have to find leads. This could be through social media like facebook or ppc on something like google. To begin with you'll have to be prepared to spend some money without any guarantee of getting a lead. But you won;t know unless you try. It's kind of like mining - you won't know whether there's any gold down there unless you are prepared to dig. You'll quickly learn whether to continue spending based on the number of leads you get. Once you've got a few leads then you have to work out the conversion rate - say 1 in 10 leads pays to go on your tour. So if you can get a lead for 10 dollars say, then it will cost you 100 dollars per conversion. It might cost way more than this but you should have an understanding of what you would be prepared to spend to get the business.