We’ve all heard how important goal setting is. Whether the goals are personal or professional, they give us something to work towards. Something to measure ourselves against. They provide structure and balance.
The same approach should be used with your digital marketing campaigns. You’d be surprised how many business owners begin one without having clearly defined goals in place. I always begin a conversation with a prospective client by asking what they want to get out of this. Typically I hear “more clients” or “increased sales”. Those are laudable goals, but they represent the end result, and not the means by which to achieve them.
In marketing, I tend to focus more on the immediate goals, rather than the longterm ones. For example, I like to follow up to the above responses by asking, “how do we reach your ideal customer”? “How can we convey the best message possible to them”? Those are far more relevant and immediate goals than just driving more sales or leads, and if you accomplish them, you will almost certainly get what you want out of the marketing campaign.
Look at it another way. If you go fishing, your goal is to catch a fish. But you’re not going to accomplish that ultimate goal without accomplishing a few more immediate ones along the way. Your immediate goals might be to find the right lure, and to figure out the proper way to cast. In doing so, you can work towards achieving the ultimate goal of actually catching a fish (something I’ve yet to accomplish with much regularity).
If you’re sports minded, you might have a goal of becoming a better golfer. Maybe your goal is to break 90, or 80. But to do that, you’re going to need to set and accomplish much more immediate goals, like improving your short game or putting. Or keeping your tee shots in play more often. It’s those smaller, more immediate goals that lead to success in the bigger ones.
Back to marketing, if you’re a business owner who is looking to improve his or her revenue, start by setting smaller, more immediate goals like identifying your target customers, and crafting a message that tailors your products and services to them. How will you separate yourself from your competition? If you can set and accomplish those smaller marketing goals, it will help you to tackle the bigger, longterm ones.