Setting Actionable Marketing Goals For Your Small Business
Defining actionable marketing goals is key for any business, especially small businesses.
All too often, I see brands either measuring nothing or measuring things that don’t connect to business impact. Both are recipes for frustration and subpar results. Let’s start by setting goals that drive your marketing strategy and propel your business forward.
Start with Clear Business Goals: Step back to define your business's objectives before setting goals. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive website traffic, boost sales, or enhance customer loyalty? Be realistic about what stage of the business you are in. Of course, everyone wants to drive sales, but if you have no audience, that will be hard initially. Clarity on your broader business goals will inform your content marketing objectives and ensure alignment with the outcomes you want to drive.
Be Specific and Measurable: Vague goals lead to vague outcomes. Be crisp in defining your content marketing goals, making them specific and measurable. For instance, instead of setting a goal to "increase website traffic," aim for a target such as "increase organic website traffic by 20% within six months." This specificity enables you to track progress accurately and assess the effectiveness of your efforts.
Consider Where Your Buyer Is In Their Journey: It’s not about you; it’s about your audience. Recognize that your audience has various stages of the buyer's journey, from awareness to consideration to decision-making. Tailor your content marketing goals to align with people's journeys. You can do this by focusing on objectives such as increasing brand visibility (awareness stage), nurturing leads (consideration stage), and driving conversions (decision stage).
Set Realistic Timeframes: As I tell my kids, you need to put on your patience pants; marketing takes time to test, refine, and see the impact. Set realistic timeframes for achieving your goals, considering market dynamics, competition, budget, and resources. Break down long-term objectives into smaller, achievable milestones, allowing for incremental progress and momentum building along the way.
Ensure Relevance and Business Alignment: Your marketing goals should closely align with your business's values, target audience, and market positioning. Ensure that each goal contributes directly to your growth trajectory and resonates with the needs and interests of your audience. Avoid setting goals for the sake of it; instead, prioritize those that drive tangible business outcomes and add value to your customers' lives.
Factor in ROI and Budget: Marketing is an investment, and like any investment, it requires careful consideration of ROI (return on investment) and budget allocation. Set goals that drive results and deliver a positive ROI, whether measured in terms of leads generated, conversions achieved, or revenue generated.
Stay Flexible and Iterative: People's behaviors and the market change, so what works today may not work tomorrow. Stay flexible and be OK with pivoting based on market trends, audience feedback, and performance. Launching is step one, and now the actual work and fun start.
