Ted Dacko: 5 Ways To Manage Your Marketing Budget For Improved ROI

With the growing complexity of marketing channels and the need for businesses to constantly adapt their strategies, managing marketing budgets effectively has become more critical than ever to ensure the highest possible return on investment. In this interview series, we are talking with marketing experts, industry professionals, and thought leaders who have significant experience in budget management and optimization, to share their “5 Ways To Manage Your Marketing Budget For Improved ROI.” As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ted Dacko.

Ted Dacko, the founder, has over 45 years of experience in executive-level management and leadership, including Sales, Marketing, M&A and the Chief Executive Office, principally in the area of software applications and solutions. As CEO, he has been credited with taking great ideas and turning them into great companies.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us three strengths, skills, or characteristics that helped you to reach this place in your career? How can others actively build these areas within themselves?

I have both a sales and a marketing background in addition to being a 7-time CEO. So, for marketing purposes, I better understand what sales needs and what a customer needs and wants.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main part of our interview. What factors do you consider when allocating your marketing budget across different channels and tactics?

Accurately and consistently measuring results is absolutely critical. Which sources of lead generation produce the most sales, not the most marketing qualified leads. If you only measure marketing qualified leads, you may be getting tire-kickers. I want to know where the quality leads are coming from and allocate funds there.

In your opinion, what are some common mistakes that marketers make when managing their budgets? How can they be avoided?

See above. First, they don’t measure. Second, if they do measure, marketing people measure marketing qualified leads not sales qualified leads. Big difference. So. Marketing says “Look at all the leads we generated.” And sales says: “Yes, but they are all crap.” The other critical mistake that people make is starting lead generation before they have clear, concise, compelling messaging down. Having the right value proposition and benefits and making your marketing about the customer, not about you is essential.

When allocating your budget, how do you balance short-term marketing goals with long-term brand building initiatives?

This depends on the needs of the company and the cash position. I work a great deal with early-stage companies, so their interest is short-term. If they don’t get short-term, there is no long-term.

For start-ups and those with limited budgets, what tactics would you recommend to receive the highest return and the fastest initial growth?

This depends on their target market and their ideal customer profile. There may not be a right or wrong answer to this question. They need to experiment and, as I said above, measure, measure, measure.

How do you collaborate with other departments within your organization, such as sales or finance, to ensure alignment and maximize ROI from your marketing spend?

I clearly state, upfront, what we hope to accomplish with the marketing spend. This is about results and you need to put a stake in the ground about your specific sales goals by program. Then measure to see if you accomplished that.

What tips do you have to get buy-in from the CEO and others in the C-Suite when requesting additional budget for new projects or tactics?

Which marketing software in your tech stack do you feel is most worth the investment?

CRM

Here is our main question: Can you please share five things marketing leaders should do to improve the ROI of their marketing efforts?

1 . Get the messaging right before they begin lead generation

2 . Experiment with various channels

3 . Measure for sales effectiveness

4 . Don’t stick with a concept too long if it is not working

5 . Adjust accordingly

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be?

You never know what your idea can trigger. I think that most entrepreneurs are domain experts or product people. They fall in love with their product and can’t top talking about it. Success is about sales and building a company around that product. Peter Theil says “If you have invented something, but haven’t invented a successful way to sell it, you have a bad business — no matter how good the product.

How can our readers best continue to follow your work online?

I can be found at https://arbordakota.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.