In good times and bad, advertising is essential for business success. Effective ad campaigns help firms attract new customers and maintain existing ones by increasing online or in-person traffic, generating brand loyalty, sharing a positive company image, promoting repeat sales, and more. However, we suggest advertising only if you have crystal-clear marketing goals and a properly designed marketing strategy.
Our “planning an effective modern marketing campaign” series began with a post on how and why to create a buyer persona for your target audience. Today we take a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of developing, establishing, and refining your marketing campaign goals.
“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.”
- AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Well-defined marketing goals are crucial for effective advertising. Clear-cut objectives enable you to make the most efficient use of your time, energy, and budget. Here’s our proven three stage process for establishing marketing goals that will enable you to run a successful advertising campaign:
To begin the process of uncovering your marketing goals, ask yourself these four questions:
+ Download the “Uncovering Your Marketing Goals” worksheet.
The second step in defining winning marketing goals is to create crystal-clear objectives with a systematic process called S.M.A.R.T goals. S.M.A.R.T. principles are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
Let us walk you through S.M.A.R.T. goal refinement.
Drill down into your goals. What are you looking to accomplish with your marketing? Be exacting with a specific purpose. This could be as simple as “within six months, we want 250 online information request forms completed.”
How will you measure the results of your ad campaign? What tools do you have in place? As the old cliché says, “what gets measured gets done.” By creating specific goals and ensuring you have tools to measure your results, you know what success will look like.
As you are establishing your marketing goals, you must be realistic. For example, if you have an average of 100 monthly website visitors, you should not expect to multiply that by 100x overnight. Set realistic goals and benchmarks so that you can attain the goals you are establishing.
Relevancy is another key factor that cannot be overlooked. Make sure your goals are in line with what you can measure. For example, if you are looking for application completions, make sure you allow for application form completions to be tracked through the conversion tracking methods you have set up on your site. If you do not, pick another measure or put the appropriate tool in place.
Establishing deadlines for accomplishing your goals is equally important. A timeline will help you and your team visualize your destination clearly and ensure that you know when you need to arrive. Just remember, real results take time.
+ Download our free S.M.A.R.T. marketing goals worksheet.
In addition to establishing S.M.A.R.T. goals, we have one more exercise to get you closer to setting those crystal-clear marketing goals: The Journey to Change principles. The Journey to Change process will dig deeper into your marketing strategy and the steps you need to take to reach your goals.
Let’s get started.
+ Download our free “Journey to Change” worksheet now.
We hope these tools will help you develop appropriate marketing goals so that you can create a successful advertising campaign. If you invest in the process, choose the right partners to help get you there, and commit to your goals, you will meet them!
Would you like to learn more about how to create a successful advertising campaign?
Here at MSS Media, Inc., we’ve been providing Education, Government, Real Estate & Lifestyle clients with succinct, optimized, and successful marketing solutions for more than 15 years. Consider MSSmedia a full-service, one-stop shop for all your Media and Public Relations needs. Your goals are our motivation. And our mission is to propel your message, further and faster, to achieve the outcomes you’re looking for. If you found this blog post helpful, please share!