The annual budget process is a time to reconsider basic guidelines for spending money on site promotions.

First, it is important to distinguish between a launch budget and a maintenance budget, meaning how much to spend for a new site and how much for an existing a site.

Second, we have to note the difference between discretionary versus non-discretionary expenses. Marketing people would love to see the promotional budget treated as a necessary or non-discretionary expense. In reality, the promotional budget is one of the first items to be cut when profit and revenue misses start to loom.

As a general rule, a promotional budget at 5 percent of total expenses has been enough to grow an online audience at a healthy pace for an existing local media site. That number also has some downside cushion in case of budget cuts.

The money is best spent in the spring and fall; avoid the summer in particular when school is out, people go on vacation and site traffic tends to get soft. Avoiding January and February has the benefit of saving the money in case revenue misses later in the year, protecting the more important profit margin as well as protecting the job security of the manager responsible for the budget.

Finally, when you do spend it, spend intensively over multiple channels with the widest possible reach and an ideal frequency of three to six impressions per person. We have always found that a single large campaign gets better response than several smaller ones that use the same amount of money.