Setting marketing goals can be a daunting task for many business owners, especially when you’re just starting out. It can be hard to know what’s realistic and what’s too ambitious. The good news is that setting realistic marketing goals doesn’t have to be overwhelming. All it takes is a bit of research, some creative thinking, and an honest assessment of your current resources. Here are a few tips on how realistic marketing goals for your small business.
Start with Small Steps
When setting marketing goals, it’s important to start small and work your way up. This will help keep you from getting overwhelmed and make it easier for you to track your progress. Begin by identifying one or two short-term goals that can be achieved quickly and easily. For example, increasing website traffic by five percent in the next month. Once these goals are accomplished, you can move on to larger ones such as, creating a new email campaign or launching a new product. Do be specific about all your goals though because specific is terrific when in comes to goals setting! If you’re experiencing mental blocks with your marketing, it will help with this too.
Set Measurable Goals
The best way to track progress is to set measurable goals, such as acquiring one hundred new customers within six months, for example. This type of goal provides clear direction on what needs to be done and allows you to accurately measure success. Also, if you don’t have your own marketing mentor, it helps hold yourself accountable because there are clearly defined parameters that must be met in order for the goal to be achieved. I’m an advocate of monitoring and measuring marketing results and I champion this for goal setting too.
Research Your Market
It’s important to research your market before setting any marketing goals. Reaching potential customers requires understanding their needs, wants, and behaviours. This information will help inform the types of marketing strategies and tactics that should be used in order to reach your goals effectively. It’s important that you know your customer at this stage because it will help you to avoid spending money targeting the wrong type of customers. Researching your market will also give you insight into how your competitors are reaching their target audience so that you can develop a strategy that stands out from the crowd.
Conclusion
Setting realistic marketing goals doesn’t have to be complicated—all it takes is a bit of research and creative thinking! Start by identifying short-term objectives that can easily be achieved. Next, move on to longer-term goals once those have been accomplished. Be sure to set measurable objectives so that progress can easily be tracked. This will help hold yourself accountable and ensure success! Finally, don’t forget about researching your market, as this will provide valuable insights into potential customer behaviours. Therefore, you can develop effective strategies tailored specifically for them! With these tips in mind, small business owners should feel more confident about setting realistic yet ambitious marketing goals for their businesses!
Need A Marketing Mentor?
I’m an international marketing mentor delivering online one-to-one mentoring. As a Chartered Marketer and business owner
myself, I not only understand business, but I get the emotional ups and downs that business owners go through. So, whether you’re a sole trader or small micro business, or high growth small business, I can help you get the clarity, focus, direction,
Feel free to get in touch. In the meantime, you may find some of my other marketing and networking blogs and podcasts useful too.
My name is Tracy Heatley and I hope you’ve found these few tips useful!
