Are you struggling to meet your business goals? Entrepreneurs talk about goal setting a lot, but I don’t often hear how marketing goals play a role. In actuality, your goals, strategies, and tactics are how you drive real business growth!
I’m narrowing down the conversation to focus on setting realistic goals that move the needle toward your overarching business goals. This involves three steps: defining your strategy, setting realistic metrics, and breaking the goal down into smaller, actionable tasks.
Align Marketing Strategies with Business Goals
Your marketing goals should align with your business’s bigger picture. Are you trying to increase revenue? Do you want to improve brand awareness? Does your customer retention need some work?
Marketing strategies for small businesses support your overall business goals. Whether you’re improving lead generation, conversions, or customer lifetime value, how you market your business will influence your results and success.
I see many small businesses get caught up in the little things. They think they need to post on social media every single day when, in reality, that task isn’t moving them toward their business goals. You can work on many things, but you can’t do everything. You have to prioritize the marketing activities that align with your business goals.
This idea is especially important for businesses with multiple departments and a lot of ideas and opinions. We all know how quickly that can get out of hand! Marketing departments should be able to show how their strategies and campaigns align with overall business goals.
Here are some examples to show you what I mean:
- Business Goal: Increase contact form submissions by X%.
- Business Goal: Increase revenue by X%.
- Marketing Goal: Run conversion-focused PPC campaigns on Google Ads and Meta Ads to drive traffic to product or service pages.
- Business Goal: Expand into a new market.
- Marketing Goal: Increase brand awareness in the new segment by X% through influencer partnerships and PR campaigns.
See how the marketing goals have specific activities and metrics tied to them that align directly with the business goal? All your marketing activities should have a goal, strategy, and purpose behind them. You aren’t doing all this work for nothing!
Identify Key Marketing Metrics
So, step one is to figure out the best marketing strategy to meet your business goals. Now, you need to set reasonable marketing goals.
Marketing metrics can show how well your marketing strategies are working toward your business goals. The examples in the previous section had specific numbers associated with the goals. You aren’t just saying, “We want to increase sales.” You’re saying you want to increase sales by a specific amount and have actionable and realistic marketing strategies behind it.
Creating SMART goals can help you define clear, actionable marketing goals. Every marketing activity should have a strategy, KPI, and timeframe around it. The more specific you can be, the more clarity and direction you have when it comes to the outcomes. When you aren’t specific with your goals and strategies, you’re more likely to waste time on marketing activities that aren’t working toward your business goals.
Break Goals Down into Actionable Steps
Even if you have specific goals, sometimes they can feel overwhelming. Step three is to break your goals into actionable steps.
Let’s use this business goal as an example: Generate More Qualified Leads.
Your marketing goal is this: Increase the number of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) by X%.
The marketing activities to meet this goal could be:
- Develop targeted LinkedIn Ads
- Create a new free offer for the paid ads
- Improve ad landing page optimization
- Set up an automated email campaign for new opt-ins
These four steps work together to create a holistic customer journey that meets both the business and marketing goals. The ads strategy and free offer draw in new leads, the landing page converts users, and the email campaign nurtures them into customers. Consider how you can break your goals into smaller, more actionable steps!
Ignoring Outside Noise
I just want to make a quick note here. A lot of experts will tell you that you have to invest time or energy into a marketing strategy because it works well for them. That doesn’t mean it will work for your business. Take advice with a grain of salt.
I’ll use myself as an example. I have always heard that email lists can drive tons of sales and that they absolutely have to be part of your marketing strategy. Personally, creating emails for my list takes a lot of mental energy. It takes me a lot of time to brainstorm valuable ideas, write the copy, format the email, and send it to my list. I send emails when I can, but I’m not prioritizing it right now. My subscribers will be there when I’m ready to invest time and energy into it.
Even though experts tell me to send emails every week, it doesn’t happen. That doesn’t mean I’m not meeting my marketing goals. My goals just look different from those of other businesses, and that’s okay!
Setting Realistic Marketing Goals
All of your marketing strategies, tactics, and goals should align with your overarching business goals. That’s how you see the business growth you want! Think of the activities that best align with your business goals, set realistic metrics, and break the goals into smaller steps. Track your progress and make adjustments as needed. By following these steps, you’ll feel more confident in meeting your business goals.
