The Line That’s Missing From Your 2027 Budget

This & That is where we get into the parts of marketing that actually grow your business. This edition focuses on your 2027 budget, because some of the projects that you’ll end up doing next year are probably going to miss the first draft.

Most marketing budgets are built from a list: events, campaigns, sales materials that need updating, or perhaps website projects. You assign a cost to each item and present the total to the board. It’s a rational approach that provides a solid foundation for your budget.

The problem is that, in a fast-growing company, a significant portion of the creative work for the coming year hasn’t even been conceived of yet. By the time it turns up, the budget’s already been fully allocated.

The projects that nobody’s planned yet

Think back over the past year. Perhaps there was an early product launch, or a new partner who requested co-branded materials. Maybe you suddenly needed to produce an investor report, or perhaps a new sales hire joined the team and asked for a different type of presentation.

None of this was on the agenda last November, and often these requests are urgent. It’s what happens when a company grows rapidly and people keep coming up with good ideas.

How unplanned work is paid for

Extra budget often comes from something that’s already planned, usually from the item furthest away in the calendar. For instance, an autumn campaign might be scaled back to fund a flurry of activity in the spring. Or perhaps a design’s created in-house, which sometimes works but other times leads to a brand that starts to look askew. In any case, the plan that you championed in November is no longer quite the same as the one that you’re implementing by July.

Leave room on purpose

The solution is to deliberately set aside a portion of the budget and give it a clear, explicit name. This shouldn’t be a vague line item like “contingency”, which is the first thing that gets trimmed. Make it an honest allocation: design work that we know will be requested, even if we can’t yet define it precisely.

To estimate this line, look at the expenses incurred this year for items that weren’t in the original plan. This figure serves as your strongest argument; it’s far easier to justify during a budget meeting than a percentage plucked at random.

It’s also wise to define, in advance, who’s authorised to request these funds and for what purpose. Otherwise, it risks becoming the pot that everyone dips into.

Plan the decisions, not just the deadlines

Even planned projects can end up costing more than necessary, often because of timelines. Take the example of a stand for a trade show in June: the design and production process doesn’t take significantly longer in May than it would in February. What actually extends the timelines is getting everyone to agree on the message, the product to highlight and the logos to include. When these decisions are late, production windows shrink. And then a rushed deadline leads to additional costs – such as extra-quick printing – and leaves little time to explore ideas.

So as you plan for 2027, incorporate not only delivery dates but also specific deadlines for decision-making. It’s a minor adjustment to your project tracker, but it can really help to keep costs in line.

Plan the help early

When something unplanned occurs, the project brief is usually short, and the deadlines are even shorter. What’s really valuable in these cases is being able to rely on an agency who already understands your business and can hit the ground running, without you having to explain everything from scratch.

It’s far easier to build this relationship now, during a quieter period, than in the middle of a deadline. This is a core part of the support we provide to the technology companies we work with, and it’s one reason why we work with them on a retainer.

Short on time? Here’s a quick exercise.

Take your marketing spend for the current year and go through it with a highlighter. Mark everything that wasn’t part of the plan that you approved in November last year, and then total up the items you’ve highlighted. This figure roughly represents the shortfall in your 2027 budget. It’s a useful figure to have on hand if you’re requesting funds that you can’t yet account for.