2017 doesn’t have to be as good as this year gone by – it can be better. Not many businesses take the crucial step of setting marketing goals, but doing so will make a notable difference in the amount of leads you generate and the sales you make. Why settle for less when you can make more? If you’re in need of a kick-start to your marketing year, or are simply hungry for more, read on and get ready to set [and kick] some marketing goals.
Get Real
The keystone to setting your marketing goals is to make your ambitions realistic. Forget what you heard about aiming high. You want to take a good hard look at your team, and what they’re capable of, in order to set goals that won’t have them snowed under. Otherwise shit hits the fan… and goals are not reached.
Work Backwards
As a marketer in the new year, you’re going to want to set tangible marketing goals starting at the bottom of the funnel. Start by working out how much money you want to make from sales, then work out how many leads that equates to. As you do the math, work your way back up the funnel, make the best guess-timation as to how many marketing leads you’ll need. From here, you can devise the best strategy to land those leads.
Set Benchmarks
Part of good business goal-setting, and goal-achieving, is constantly re-evaluating your goals and your progress towards them. Set strategic benchmarks throughout the year, for instance quarterly, that reflect the stages of success leading towards your goal. At these benchmark moments, you’ll also want to conduct an audit of your progress up to that point, to evaluate what you’ve done well and what could be done better. Get the team involved and ask questions like, ‘What did we do here and how can we improve it?’ You’ll probably find yourself making tweaks to your goals, pushing back deadlines or perhaps setting the bar a little higher.
Use A Goal-Setting Framework
They’re all over the internet, but if you want a goal-setting framework that’s top notch and works (most of the time), opt for something like SMART goals. Yep, it’s pretty old school, but it’s still used by digital marketing heavyweights like The Natives cos it works. SMART is an acronym that represents Specific and Measurable goals, that are Attainable and Relevant (real, yo) and have a Time frame. A timeframe, although not set in stone, is key because it transforms your goals from vague ideals into concrete futures.