Now that you’ve started your Review, you have had some time to assess where you stand in reaching your short-term goals for this year. It is the perfect time to think about what the rest of the year might look like. To start the process, ask these two simple but expansive questions:
Be thinking about the answers; they will be useful in the next several steps of our goal setting series: Review. Reset. Re-envision. Realize.
Before we dissect the goal setting process any further, let’s take a moment to consider how marketing goals fit in with larger company goals. The most successful companies ensure that their marketing goals are created with overarching business goals in mind. This requires some planning, collaboration and communication.
Simple marketing goals such as increased site traffic or larger subscriber lists need a bit more development. Company goals can guide the answers to the questions these goals raise – how many site visitors, or how many additional subscribers, for example, are necessary to make sure conversion goals are met. More strategy and details are required in the planning, and the marketing plan then becomes a successful part of a cohesive whole.
The marketing plan should be a series of well-defined initiatives that will take the company to the next level, as outlined by its leadership. Increasing Twitter followers, to cite another common, yet limited goal will do nothing to contribute to the overarching business vision without a plan in place.
As outlined effectively in this article, effective marketing goals must be made by considering how much revenue efforts must generate, how many sales are needed to reach that revenue, how many leads are necessary to make those sales and how much traffic is needed for that many leads. This is a start. Further considerations include quarterly benchmarks and how to utilize the marketing plan to meet them, along with a clearly defined budget that aligns itself with company goals.
In an ideal world, the CEO and CMO might work together to develop a united vision that takes the company to another level, with short-term goals to get it there. If you’re serving as both, and executing your own marketing plan, as a small business owner, consider sharing your goals with an advisor or team members for constructive feedback and accountability.
On Friday, we’ll continue to Review.
Image credit: Dave Bezaire & Susi Havens-Bezaire
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