In the episode of our second podcast series, we begin the discussion of marketing goals and how to set them. So far, in the second series, we have talked about marketing strategy and business strategy and how they relate to one another. We focused on SWOT analysis, business goals, and marketing personas. With all these in place, it’s time to establish what you want to achieve and set specific goals to guide your marketing strategy.

It starts with your business goals

To set effective marketing goals, you need to have clear business goals in place. You can then decide how you intend to mobilize your marketing to help you reach those goals. If, for example, you have set a business goal of increasing traffic to your website by a certain percentage, you can then look at the marketing tools available to you and work out which ones you need to use – and how – in order to reach that specific objective. Just as you can’t draw up a marketing strategy without having a business strategy in place, you also can’t set marketing goals without having set business goals.

Brand reputation and lead generation

Most companies, when they set digital marketing goals, tend to focus on lead generation. For example, they aim to increase traffic to their website or build their social media following. These are essential objectives, but lead generation should only make up half of your marketing goals. The other half is about brand reputation or brand awareness, and it’s probably more important in the long run than generating leads. Once you have built a recognizable brand with a dedicated following and community around it, boosting the numbers becomes that much easier. You will also reach more of the right people if you have worked on refining and strengthening your brand. Marketing goals not only help you meet your business goals; they also help you to see a better return on investment with regard to your marketing spend.

As we start off 2021, a great resolution would be to start setting marketing goals specifically designed to help you achieve your business goals.