In my last post, we covered why goal-setting is a critical component of successful marketing campaigns.

Of course, the next step is actually setting effective goals. And while the process might seem simple, it’s more nuanced than you might think.

But before dive too deep, let’s answer a big lingering question right off the top. When I float the idea of defining marketing goals, clients often respond with some version of…

“Isn’t the purpose of marketing to make more money?”

Well, technically, the purpose of marketing is to earn and keep customers. And, sure, the point of earning and keeping customers is because those folks pay you cold hard cash.

But marketing is rarely, if ever, a case of drawing a line from Point A to Point B. Typically, there are a number of touchpoints along the path from initial inquiry to final sale.

So, while “making money” is the end-game, you’re not going to reach that goal by simply launching a website, sending an email, or creating a Facebook page. Ultimately, these tactics work together to achieve your end-game money-making goal.

This is why you need to establish definitive goals for each of your tactics — Goals that drive your execution strategy and provides a benchmark to measure your progress throughout your campaign’s lifecycle.

To better illustrate this concept, let’s assume a fictitious scenario…

A pretend company, Acme Serives Inc, wants to launch a new website. Their current website is basically an electronic brochure. And while having the ability to direct prospects and other interested parties to their website is great, the powers that be at Acme keep hearing about competitors reeling tons of leads and closely highly lucrative deals, all thanks to their website.

Eager to reap similar returns, Acme wants to ensure their new site can do the same trade as their competitors.

And to make this happen, the Acme honchos powwow and settle on two primary goals for the company’s new website:

1. Gather More Qualified + Nurtureable Leads

2. Increase Conversions

So, when Acme’s marketing team settles in to structure the new site, these two imperative guides their process. And here’s how they apply these goals to these goals to the new website:

Lead Gen

In order to gather leads, Acme needs a proven mechanism to start a conversation. Their best means to do this is by collecting visitors’ contact info. And the contact info visiting prospects are most apt to hand over willingly is their email address.

Acme sets up a pop-up email subscription form (a pop-up box that appears a few seconds after visitors land on the site). And to sweeten the deal, the pop-up form offers prospects a trade. Give us your email address, and we’ll give you a valuable piece of content — a free report, white paper, how-to guide, curated resource list, etc… — in exchange. (This valuable piece of free content is known as a Lead Magnet.)

Acme also places this email subscription form (offering the same “email for lead magnet” trade offer) at strategic points throughout their site. This includes placement at the end of their About page, at key points in their Services page, and their Contact page (to name a few critical spots).

Sales Conversions

Acme includes messaging, Call-to-Action buttons, and other intuitive navigation in the site architecture to direct qualified, highly motivated prospects to take action. The aim here is to prompt these prospects to contact a sales rep, schedule a free consultation, or otherwise make contact with Acme personnel capable of closing a sale.

The Takeaway

Looking at the bigger picture, you can trace Acme’s process from goals to tactics.

Setting specific goals (lead gen + sales conversions) helped Acme develop a strategy (creating a lead magnet for lead gen + specialized site architecture for sale conversation). And this strategy helped Acme design its new website (the marketing tactic in question) to achieve its goals.

So, rather than just deciding, hey, we need a new website, Acme used goals and strategy to help them craft a more effective website.

Additionally, with their lead gen and sale conversion goals in mind, Acme also has the means to measure the success of its website marketing tactic. And if their lead gen or sale conversion efforts fall short, they can adjust their tactics and experiment until they find an approach that helps them achieve their stated goals.

Need Help Setting Goals + Developing An Effective Marketing Strategy?

If you find yourself looking at your website, email campaigns, or social media marketing efforts and wondering… What am I getting out of this? There’s likely a flaw in your approach, whether it’s goals, strategy, or measurement, that’s curtailing your efforts.

But whatever the case, I can help! So, if you’re looking to crank up the returns on your marketing efforts — let’s chat! 310.466.7893 | ryan@ryananys.com