eMarketing
Marketing goals help your team understand where they need to head and can accelerate reaching overarching business goals more quickly.
Goals should be set with a SMART methodology in mind – meaning specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound objectives in mind. Establishing metrics will allow objective evaluation of each goal set.
SMART Goals
The SMART framework is an effective method for setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable and relevant. By following these criteria, it will enable you to craft goals that have greater chances of succeeding.
Utilizing such a framework can help you set and track goals for any small business projects you undertake, as well as ensure the project remains on schedule and meets key marketing milestones. Not all goals need to be SMART goals, but using such an approach streamlines this process of goal-setting and tracking their progress.
Specific goals provide precise details and are easy to comprehend, while at the same time allowing for tracking progress over time. Instead of saying, for instance, “increase unique blog views”, instead set specific goals such as, “Increase social media marketing content by 25% over the next month”. Measurable goals can be tracked with metrics like unique visitors or click-throughs; realistic and attainable goals must also be feasible within their given timeline; lofty targets that require extensive overtime hours may not be achievable due to other demands placed upon team members’ time constraints.
Finally, your measurable goals must be meaningful to both your professional and personal lives. This will keep your motivation high; for instance if someone wishes to enhance their management abilities by mentorship they might set an achievable goal of finding at least two mentees within a year.
Finalizing any measurable goal requires setting an exact timeline or target date for completion. This gives individuals a realistic timeframe in which they can expect their goal to be completed while keeping everyday tasks from interfering with its pursuit. For example, Jane may set her team a goal to increase new app users by 20% over three months by creating a clear timetable and resource plan to reach this objective.
Specific
Marketing goals provide your team with direction, purpose and vision. From specific tactics to larger business goals, marketing goals help drive the success of digital marketing campaigns. Marketing objectives must be measurable so they meet your company’s needs; additionally they should align with overall business goals in order to be effective. When crafting marketing goals it helps to answer six “Wh-” questions like this one: “what, who, where, when, why and how.”
Establishing a marketing plan without setting clear goals is like tossing spaghetti at the wall: while you might achieve some results, but more effort and time may be spent than necessary on creating it. Marketing objectives provide a way of narrowing in on what works and assessing results more effectively.
Marketing objectives provide your team with guidance while setting the standards against which you can judge the performance of your company. Therefore, it’s essential that SMART goals be established, meaning goals which are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.
Common marketing goals may include increasing brand recognition, generating leads and driving sales growth. Other goals may be more strategic; for instance focusing on customer retention by offering rewards programs or add-on services may take longer-term approaches to achieve.
Setting marketing goals also serves the secondary function of unifying a team working on various aspects of digital marketing efforts. A social media manager and copywriter, for instance, may each have individual campaign goals they’d like to meet; these can then be aligned with your overall objective of promoting new products through setting clear communication strategies and understanding your company’s long-term plans.
Time-Bound
Marketing goals that are successful need a clear timeline and measurable milestones in order to track their progress and ascertain if you have reached your desired objective or not.
When setting marketing goals for your business, ensure they are relevant and attainable taking into account available resources and potential obstacles. Furthermore, be realistic in regards to both your capabilities and timescale for accomplishing each goal; otherwise you risk setting yourself up for failure.
Setting marketing goals should follow a SMART framework. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound and is used to help identify your most crucial marketing goals for your business. Setting SMART goals involves research, planning and discussions within your team – although challenging at times! It will pay dividends over time!
Building an effective marketing strategy takes hard work, but if you follow these steps you can develop an actionable plan to meet your goals and help ensure their achievement.
As part of an overall goal setting process, the head of a company and leadership team should collaborate to set high-level goals for the business and each marketing team can set individual goals that support those set by leadership. Once goals have been set at this level, individual marketing teams can set specific objectives that tie back into larger objectives set at the company level. Setting mini milestones like increasing email subscribers by a certain percentage each quarter can ensure your team remains on track towards meeting its objectives while still having time to make adjustments where needed if necessary. Project management software such as Wrike can also make keeping track of marketing goals easier and more effective – perfect if your company uses leadership.
Relevant
Marketing goals are an indispensable component of a marketing strategy for any business. Without clear goals in place, your team may feel disoriented and aimless as tasks add up over time without knowing their significance or contribution to the bigger picture. Utilizing SMART goals can help focus your team and easily track them over time – increasing productivity while allowing you to gauge success of efforts made towards meeting those goals.
Marketing goals that meet these criteria should be specific, measurable and attainable – just like your company’s intentions – while remaining aligned with other aspects of its business plan. For example, if one of your company’s goals is increasing revenue from Europe by 30% then an ideal marketing objective could be increasing leads there.
Marketing objectives differ from business goals in that they can be measured against KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). KPIs communicate the performance of an organization and help pinpoint areas for improvement, for instance the number of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). This measure measures how many visitors convert into paying customers over time allowing one to evaluate progress over time.
A SMART framework for goal-setting can be an invaluable way to set measurable and actionable objectives that will guide both daily tasks and long-term strategic marketing initiatives. A memory aid or internal goal-setting process can help keep goals top-of-mind; or alternatively it could provide leadership with evidence of how marketing plans contribute directly to company bottom lines.
Measureable
Measurable goals provide you with an opportunity to keep an accurate record of your progress and stay on track, eliminating guesswork and providing clear indicators of success. They help keep the momentum going when making adjustments as necessary and offer clear insight into success.
To create a measurable goal, first determine what you hope to accomplish and the importance of that achievement for your business. For instance, if customer satisfaction is an important goal of yours, identify which aspects are most critical so you can define specific metrics to measure customer satisfaction over time and compare results against previous results.
Once you’ve established a metric, it’s time to develop an action plan. Setting realistic goals that are within reach with regards to both current resources and economic climate is key when setting measurable goals – keep in mind that you may require additional support should this prove necessary!
Setting a measurable goal can be a complex undertaking, so it is essential that you seek feedback from others when crafting one. If no consensus can be found among your associates on what should constitute your measurable goal, chances are it won’t be precise enough.
Regular reviews of measurable goals are necessary in order to assess their progress, as it allows you to identify effective methods for increasing marketing efforts and making them more measurable. It will also show whether they align with market needs as well as give an indication of what pace should be set when working toward them.
