How to Set Marketing Goals
What? Where did 2016 go?? Somewhere between birthing both a business and a baby, it has gone in a blink of an eye! But now it’s the time of year when we think about how to set marketing goals for the year ahead.
And so like many of you, my focus is turning towards 2017 and the next steps for my business. So as I sit here running through all the possibilities for the year and making my plans, I thought I would share a little bit of my goal setting process with you.
One of the biggest things about Marketing is that it often falls into the “Important but Not Urgent” basket…. well until you need to get a quick shot of revenue! So this is one of the most important areas you really need to have some solid goal setting practices in place. Otherwise, it will be this time next year and you will not have achieved anywhere what you had hoped.
And if you want to start really achieving, you do want to write your goals down! A study by Dr David Kohl showed that 80% of Americans didn’t have any goals, 16% had goals but didn’t write them down, 3% had written goals but didn’t review than and ONLY 1% wrote their goals down and reviewed them. And funnily enough that 1% were some of the top achievers in the US.
So let’s start writing!!
To make it easier, I have put together a Workbook for you so you can apply this straight away! Get it here (no email address required).
Step 1: Start with the End in Mind
What goals do you want to achieve in the coming year? Or if you prefer, just the next 3 months? It doesn’t really matter but the important thing is to choose a timeframe.
This can be goals around sales increases or increased list numbers or you might have specific goals of launching a new product or being featured in a major publication.
The important thing here when you think about marketing goals is to be specific – what you want to achieve, when you want to achieve it by and how you will know if you were successful.
That last question is really key as unless you specify exactly what success looks like to you, you might even realise when you have made it!
Plus having a specific vision of the idea really does help it become a reality. Now I’m not usually one that follows “The Secret” but it amazes me how time and time again if I really vision something whether by writing it out or creating a Pinterest vision board, things start happening.
Step 2: Define some Projects to Get There
This step is about the bigger picture actions you need to work on to achieve your end goal. What are the main things you need to do in order to achieve that goal? In other words, make the goal actionable.
Taking the goal of launching a new product as an example, 3 projects you might need to do are:
- Develop the Product
- Build your Email List
- Create your Sales Funnel
Step 3: Plan for Consistency
The third step in the how to set marketing goals process is to plan for consistency. There are a number of tasks’ that you will need to do on a regular basis in order to achieve each of your project goals.
This can be actions you will need to complete daily, weekly or monthly. Things that never really get ticked off the to do list because they come around time and time again.
Examples of this include your social media posts, content creation and how often you send out emails.
Step 4: Plan the Once Off Tasks
The final step is to break down your projects into the smaller tasks you need to complete. These are things that you can set a target completion date for and then once done tick them off the list.
Examples include creating your sales or product page on your website, running a specific Facebook Ad’s campaign or doing your photo shoot.
Step 5: Map it Out
Once your projects and tasks listed, it’s time to map it all out.
Pull out your calendar, open it up to a month view and start adding all the tasks you have listed above. First add in all your recurring tasks. Then add in when you will work on your once off tasks and mark the deadline.
If you are highly organised you might want to mark down how much time you think the task will take. (Side Tip: Add at least an extra 25% just in case you underestimate!)
In addition, make sure you create some space for unexpected things, opportunities that crop out or just some reflection time.
Now take a step back and ask yourself – is this achievable? is this realistic? Be honest with yourself!
If not you might need to think about extending your deadline, removing some of the “nice to have but not essential” tasks or think about outsourcing some things. Or alternatively, where else can you create space in your schedule to get it done? (cleaner maybe? yes please!)
By going through this process of how to set marketing goals, you will not only have written down your goals (top 4% baby!) but also be in a position to really make them a reality.
If you haven’t done so already, make sure you download the Goals Meet Action Workbook which will guide you through all of the above 5 steps.
