Marketing objectives are the desired outcomes of your marketing activities. They are statements that provide guidance on where you are heading, what you need to achieve, and the type of results you should expect. The objectives will depend on the size of your business, the type of products or services you provide, and the type of customers you wish to target.
The objectives of your marketing can vary from organisation to organisation. While there are some common elements, the details are likely to be highly personalised and require careful consideration.
Marketing objectives generally fall into four broad categories; reach, trust, sales, and profitability.
Reach:
The reach of your marketing could include the number of people you are targeting, the geographical area you are targeting, and the types of customer you are targeting. To measure your reach objectives you need to consider metrics such as the number of website visits, the number of leads generated, or the number of people reached through your social media channels.
Trust:
Trust is essential when it comes to customer relationships as it builds loyalty and drives repeat purchases and referrals. To measure your trust objectives you need to look at metrics such as customer reviews, ratings and comments.
Sales:
Your sales objectives are about driving hard sales through your marketing activities. To measure your sales objectives you’ll need to consider metrics such as the number of sales made from each marketing campaigns, average order value, total sales gained from a particular marketing campaign and customer lifetime value.
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Profitability:
Your profitability objectives are all about ensuring a return on your marketing investments. To measure your profitability objectives you’ll need to measure metrics such as the cost per acquisition, return on investment, and cost per sale.
When it comes to developing your marketing objectives it’s important to ensure that they are realistic and achievable. You should use a SMART framework when setting your objectives. This means that they should be:
• Specific – you should be clear on what you are trying to achieve
• Measurable – the objectives should be easy to measure
• Achievable – the objectives should be realistic and achievable in the given timeframe
• Relevant – the objectives should further your overall business or marketing goals
• Timely – the objectives should have a clear timeline
You should also ensure that your objectives are detailed and measurable. In other words, they should be trackable and you should be able to measure the results of your efforts against the objectives.
It’s also important to track progress and make adjustments to your objectives as needed. This is done through a process of setting up a feedback loop and reviewing the results of your marketing activities. Through this process you can determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, which areas are working well, and which need to be addressed.
You should always remember to be flexible and adapt your marketing objectives if necessary in order to stay on track and ensure that you’re meeting your business goals.