In my experience, many companies still treat digital marketing like a “set-it-and-forget-it” Ronco product. It really doesn’t work that way. It’s not enough just to create a website and a social presence to make things happen. Developing a following, growing likability, and building trust takes work, and it’s important to have goals for every campaign you launch.
When I talk about a “goal”, I don’t mean simply “more sales” or “more revenue”. What I mean is to have a specific action performed by your leads during their journey to make a purchase. That goal may not initially be to make a sale. After all, your lead may be in the first leg of their journey where they just found you, but they don’t know you from Adam or Eve. They aren’t going to make a purchase until they have graduated beyond discovery to consideration and finally to making a decision. Just because you want it to happen, they are highly unlikely to jump the track to your liking.
Examples of Marketing Goals
As trite as this sounds, your goals truly need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely), and need to contain EACH element of a true SMART goal. Missing any of the five components weakens that goal to something that will never really be achievable.
Some examples of good goals in your digital marketing campaigns may be:
- Boost visits to a specific landing page targeted to a segment of your audience on your website from 200 to 250 in the next thirty days.
- Grow contacts in your database through the use of an eBook download form by 20% using specific blogs targeted at the right audience and syndicated on social media with boosts / sponsored ads targeted at the affinity group of that audience.
- Create ten more eCommerce customers buying at an AOV (average order value) of $700 (let’s say that’s typical for your company) through merchandising a specific product with banner ads and blogs pointing to that product’s conversion page.
There are several reasons of which I can think why you would want these goals to be SMART:
- You can track with digital marketing tools and techniques your campaigns’ progress and benchmark performance for future goals.
- You can measure trends over time to map out changes.
- You can better forecast future performance.
But, honestly, the biggest reason for me, personally, to set a goal AND WRITE IT DOWN is that you set your mind to it. Thinking about your goal and writing it down makes it real in your mind, and it, therefore, makes your personal life experience align with the attainment of that goal. In other words, “we become what we think about”. If we think about us being someone who can bring in those 250 visits, those 20% more contacts, or that extra $7000 in sales, and we truly believe that, it has to be true as long as we work toward and think toward that goal.
If you need help in setting your goals and planning strategies and tactics to attain them, I can help your company to write a business plan or marketing plan that is tailored to your unique goals!