We are Christina and Peter Pilarski, founders and leaders of CIPR Communications.

We began the second series of our podcast by talking about the importance of having a marketing strategy. We needed to expand on that subject by taking a step back and talking about business goals. Business strategy and marketing strategy are two very different concepts. You can’t devise a strong marketing strategy without first knowing exactly what your business goals are. You then need to use your business plan as the primary reference for your marketing strategy and measure all your marketing and business achievements against that initial plan.

Connecting your business and marketing goals

It is surprising how many companies get up and running without setting clear business goals. Without these goals in place, you might still experience some success in both your operations and your marketing, but the results are unlikely to be optimal, and you will find it hard to tell just how well your digital marketing is really working. Without having set a standard against which to measure your marketing efforts, you are unlikely to get an accurate picture of your marketing strategy’s effectiveness. For example, you may be very impressed with your growing number of Facebook followers but on analyzing the make-up of your following, you may well find that your strategy, while reaching plenty of people, is not targeting the right people to improve your sales and lead to growth.

Your marketing goals will only work if they are in line with your business strategy, so it is very important to start by documenting your business goals, plotting your company’s course, and then developing a marketing strategy that will support your overall business plan.