How Much Should You Invest in Branding and Marketing in 2025?

A guide for boutique hotels, vineyards, and wellness brands who want visibility without torching their budget.

You don’t need to break the bank to build a brilliant brand.

But you do need to invest — wisely, and in the right places. If you’re a boutique hospitality business, a vineyard with aspirations beyond the cellar, or a wellness founder who wants your brand to stop whispering and start speaking clearly to the right people, this is for you.

Let’s demystify how much you actually need to invest in branding and marketing in 2025, and more importantly, how to make that spend work harder than your Pinterest board.

First: what does “branding and marketing” even mean anymore?

If you’re imagining logos and Instagram posts, you’re only seeing the tip of the overpriced iceberg. Branding is your tone, visuals, positioning, website, founder presence, and the general aura your brand gives off before you even open your mouth.

Marketing is how people find it. Think content strategy, SEO, email marketing, social campaigns, paid ads (maybe), and, yes, still those Instagram posts.

How Much to Spend on Marketing?

The old-school advice says 5–10% of your revenue should go to marketing. But if you’re in growth mode (or, let’s be honest, panic mode), you’ll need to push closer to 12–20% of what you want to be making. That’s your growth budget.

So if you’re aiming for £100k revenue this year, plan to spend £12–20k total on brand and marketing.

That can include website upgrades, social media strategy, content creation, ads, PR, and more. The trick is not to spend it all in one place, or blow half your annual budget on a logo refresh that doesn’t fix your bookings problem.

Where should that money actually go?

If your brand is:

• Inconsistent online: Put money into messaging, visual identity, and a better website

• Invisible despite looking good: You need marketing strategy, SEO, and founder-led content

• Getting attention but not converting: Time for UX fixes, clearer calls to action, and trust-building content

If you don’t know where to start, book an audit. Seriously. Spend £250 before you spend £5,000 on the wrong thing.

Red Flags That You’re Underinvesting:

• You haven’t updated your website since 2020

• Your social media is a graveyard of soft launches

• You’re still saying “we rely on word of mouth” with pride (that’s just code for “we haven’t marketed ourselves since the grand opening”)

• You have no content plan, but you have posted a photo of a coffee cup

So what’s a realistic budget if you’re just getting serious?

• Website + Copy Refresh: £2,500–£5,000 one-time

• Monthly Content Marketing or Social Strategy: £500–£1,500/month

• Brand Audit: £250 (obviously)

• Content Capture: £300–£550/day

• Thought Leadership Support: £250–£500/month

Final Thought:

Your brand is either costing you money or making you money. There is no neutral.

If you’re not sure what it’s doing right now, you’re probably overdue for a clear-eyed look at the whole system. That doesn’t mean throwing cash at Facebook ads or hiring someone to “do your socials.” It means working out where your brand is strong, where it’s confusing, and what people actually experience when they interact with you.

And if you’re not sure where to begin, start with a conversation or an audit. One hour of clarity now beats six months of confusion later.