Set Marketing Goals that Matter – and Track them for Success

Business owners know better than anyone that entrepreneurship is widely defined by goals, and success in entrepreneurship is measured by the ability to meet or exceed them. It follows, then, that goals be just as fundamental when it comes to marketing your business. They guide strategies, define priorities, and determine both start and finish lines for new initiatives. Though it’s easy to talk about goals in the abstract, setting them is more complicated – and reaching them is even harder. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the most important measures and strategies you can use to define and reach your goals. To see them for yourself, keep on reading!

The Importance of Adjusting

Ironically enough, you only know you’ve set a goal successfully when you’ve managed to accomplish it (or, at the very least, to get increasingly closer). And nothing matters more when it comes to reaching your business’s goals than being adaptive. 

Our world is increasingly dynamic, and the digital spaces where our business is advertised are crammed with options and opportunities that create ceaseless competition. For that reason, it’s crucial to be adaptive when reaching your goals. 

This means measuring the success of every initiative in your marketing campaign – and being ready to pivot the ones that aren’t performing well. Though your goals are set in stone, your strategies should never be. Here are some key factors to take into consideration as you create and evaluate your goal-oriented strategies:

Step 1: Vision

Every goal starts with vision. Vision is the most open version of your goals: a picture of how success will look or feel. What gives you a sense of accomplishment? When have you been proudest of your business, and what would it take to feel even prouder? Having a vision helps you define your goals and objectives.

Step 2: Goals

From your vision, you can pin down the specific aims of your marketing initiatives. If reaching your vision is a marathon, the goals you set are the markers along the way that give you an idea of your progress. A set of goals forms an action plan to help your business move forward.

Step 3: Objectives

Objectives are actions that will ensure you meet your goals, designed to break down conceptual aims into tangible chunks. For instance, if your goal is to double your customer base in size within three years, your objectives are the smaller monthly and quarterly landmarks you’ll be expected to hit on the road to achieving your ultimate goal.

Step 4: KPIs

Key performance indicators are numerical markers that help you define what success looks like based on your goals. They help you to quantify the extent to which you’re on the way to fulfilling your objectives and reaching your goals. Track a set of KPIs relevant to your objectives so you can make intelligent adjustments to campaigns.

Step 5: Metrics

These unit-level measurements demonstrate marketing effectiveness according to the KPIs you set. These are the daily numbers you can watch to stay close to your goals, and they allow you to see the small steps, strategies, and initiatives that may not be working as efficiently as you need in order to reach your goals.

Setting goals for your business is only the beginning; the rest of the journey depends on your ability to set up markers that give you an idea of your progress along the way. By taking the outlined steps in your goal-oriented strategy, you’ll be well-equipped to measure the effectiveness with which your business is aiming to accomplish its goals. To learn more about creating goal-oriented marketing strategies that work, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

Read Kelly’s full article, Don’t ‘Set and Forget’ Your Marketing Plan. Here’s How to Make it Agile, on Business2Community.com.