Setting Business Goals for Marketing
All too often business leaders rush into marketing without clear goals for their business or for how they will market that business.
The temptation to “Have a Twitter account!” or “Start a business blog!” just because it’s the thing you’re hearing or reading about can be compelling. But there’s simply no reason to start a Twitter account – which must be carefully built, used, and maintained if you are going to profit from it – if your target market is not on Twitter! So always begin by working with your business partners and marketing team – if you have them – and determining specifically what goals you have in mind for your business. This, and knowing your target market will help you determine which marketing tools will work best for you.
Setting goals helps you target your message and keep your marketing on track. Even if you modify or change your goals later, you should always begin here so that you don’t lose focus and waste valuable time handling marketing tasks that simply aren’t going to pay off.
Setting goals also helps you track and measure your success. It can be incredibly defeating to learn that you’ve just expended a tremendous amount of energy for something that will never result in increased leads or sales for your business. Don’t spend hours crafting and running a contest for Facebook just because you had a cool idea and thought you’d try it out. Don’t make, edit, and upload videos to YouTube because you just got a new video camera and want to use it for your business. Make sure it is going to help you meet your goals before you ever start into a new marketing project.
Be cautious of casting too wide a net. “Selling Roses” may be too broad for a business goal, particularly if you happen to specialize in antique roses, or climbing varieties. And it may not even be an appropriate goal if you run a garden shop and roses are just one of hundreds of products you offer. Make sure your goals are as targeted as you can make them.
One good way to begin thinking about what your business goals are is to ask yourself where you want your business to be in 3 years. It may be that you want to go from having two regular clients for your fledgeling at-home custom cupcake business to having a brick-and-mortar storefront bakery.
Break your goals down into manageable parts. What will it take to get you to your specific goals? Will you need to reach a specific geographic area? Will you need to hire part-time help? Are there industry publications you should subscribe to or local groups you need to join? Do you want to drop one or two of your product lines so that you can focus on the ones that you think will perform best?
Define goals initially as closely as you can and refine them as you gather data about your levels of marketing success with each specific component you build into the mix.
INSIDER TIP: It’s generally a bad idea to try and keep selling to an old group of clients if you are dramatically changing your service area. When your earlier batch of clients keeps getting emails and selling messages for a product they never bought from you they will increase your unsubscribe rate and (even worse) you will have damaged their trust in you. Instead, let them know about the changes and invite them to subscribe to a new list.
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