In Episode #219, Eric and Neil discuss how much you should spend on marketing when you’re first starting out. Tune in to find out the importance of establishing that budget before you begin and why you need to stick with what works.

• 00:27 – Today’s topic: How Much to Spend on Marketing When You’re First Starting
• 00:54 – Come up with a budget you’re comfortable with when it comes to experimentation
• 01:20 – “Marketing should be a cash flow positive endeavor”
• 01:27 – It all comes down to experimentation when you’re starting off
• 01:59 – Keep doing the experiments until something works and pays off
• 02:05 – Stop experimenting when you’ve found a channel that’s working
• 02:17 – Some companies have a 3-year LTV
• 02:33 – “Experiment until you have a channel that works, then scale up and stop the experimentation once the channel caps”
• 03:01 – Sean Ellis’ blog post on setting growth experiments
• 03:09 – Brian Balfour’s blog post
• 03:22 – Do experiments consistently and track it
• 03:38 – Set the budget at the beginning
• 03:52 – You are setting a budget which is a percentage of your growth—you can scale it over time
• 04:34 – Look at your experiment and company as a whole; what is going to benefit in the long run?
• 05:05 – That’s it for today’s episode!

1. Create a budget, at the start, that you’re comfortable spending on experimentation.
2. Marketing should be a cash flow positive endeavor.
3. Do experiments consistently and be sure to track it.

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• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @neilpatel
• Twitter @ericosiu

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