Marketing goals determined by the SMART method

Marketing goals is a term that will surely come up if you present your business plan or a new idea to someone. It's worth knowing him. However, not only because a potential investor or business partner may ask about them, but also for themselves - they set the direction, and thus organize every activity undertaken in and around the company. 

For the first time people started talking about marketing strategies in the 60s and 70s last century. It turned out that with the growing number of goods and services, it is not enough to allow customers to buy. Even if the product was good or affordable. A long- and short-term strategy was also needed to provide a framework for the company's operations. Marketing goals were an important element of it. See below for examples of goals and important definitions. 

What are marketing goals? 

It may seem obvious - your marketing goals are the results you expect when you implement specific marketing activities and strategies. Importantly, however, they are not the same as the actions themselves. That is: the goal may be to achieve a certain number of customers or a defined turnover, but not just to develop or look for customers.  

Marketing goals may have strategic, operational or tactical in nature. Many companies define several goals in different time horizons, just broken down into these three categories. Strategic ones are the least carefully defined. They define what the new reality of the enterprise will be like thanks to the implementation of more precise tactical goals (which can be compared to tactical war moves) and specific, everyday operational activities. They are divided into quantitative or qualitative - they can be measurable or expressed more in the sphere of ideas (often wrapped around adjectives, e.g. more, better, faster etc.). 

Marketing goals - examples of good and bad goals 

What marketing goals should you set? It is good if they are in harmony with the other elements of the whole as it is marketing strategy. Then the synergy effect takes place, and individual goals, campaigns or the whole communication strategy they reinforce each other's actions and messages. 

An example of a proper marketing goal Your business may be increasing website traffic or the number of newsletter recipients. Together with other elements, it can translate into increased sales or brand awareness. Valuable goals can be defined by number or percentage (15% higher conversion; 170 successful sales per day). The wrong ones will not be so clearly defined: more customers, better website, development. They are difficult to measure and it is not entirely clear what specific actions lead to them. 

Formulating a marketing goal in line with the SMART strategy 

To facilitate the task, the company's marketing goals are often formulated according to a principle, or rather five principles SMART. This is an English abbreviation, expanded as: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely. There are five key conditions that they must meet. Therefore, before setting a goal, all you need to do is check that it complies with these principles. So exactly what? Accurately defined, measurable, achievable, realistic and whether there is a time limit for achieving it. Qualitative strategic goals can be general to some extent, but must be broken down into concrete steps in numbers and timed.  

Should the company's marketing goals depend on the industry? 

The easiest way to define marketing goals is to combine the specific knowledge of specialists in a given field with marketing insight. You can find training in setting goals for specific industries, such as catering or education. But specific marketing goals regardless of the industry, they often find a common denominator, such as better recognition of the company or a greater number of customers.  

Marketing goals

A lot has also changed in the digital reality, especially in the world of social media. In the past, the campaign was governed by completely different principles public relations for a law firm from billboard product advertising. Currently, these differences are blurring to some extent, because for many companies, regardless of the industry, marketing goals are important: greater reach, commitment, conversion in social-mediach, or more traffic to the site.

Usually, however, activities in social media alone are not enough - they always have to be part of a larger strategy. There are many examples of achieving marketing goals in social media that in no way translated into strategic goals: brand awareness or commitment. Therefore, online activities must also strictly correspond to the overall brand strategy. 

Marketing goals of the company - how to define them? 

You can learn to set marketing goals while studying in the fields of sales and marketing. There are also courses and masterminds that help to specify and designate them faster, even on the basis of the already described SMART principle. Even these, however, require commitment and assimilation of a large number of definitions and concepts. Marketing goals can also be achieved with outside help, by first deciding on marketing auditand then for further activities aimed at increasing sales or brand recognition.