How to Set Marketing Goals Based on Business Goals

Below are the 10 steps for setting well-defined marketing goals that are in sync with the goals of the business:

1. Identify How Much Revenue You Need to Generate from Your Inbound Marketing Efforts

This is easy. Say your business did $2,000,000 in sales last year. Your CEO just said that he wants to grow the business 30%. You know that you already have $1,800,000 on the books for next year and expect another $200,000 from other marketing efforts, such as trade shows. That leaves you with a gap of $600,000 that you need to close within the next 12-months.

2. Determine How Many Sales You Need to Hit Those Revenue Goals
Take your revenue gap and divide it by the value of your average sale. For example, if the revenue needed is $600,000 and your average sale is $50,000, then you need 12 new customers.

3. Identify Your Closing Rate and How Many Opportunities You Need
We'll continue working backwards to identify how many opportunities you need. For example, if you need 12 customers and your closing rate is 50%, and 50% of your opportunities go for a close, then you'll need 48 opportunities in order to hit your business goal.

4. Identify How Many SQLs You Need
A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that will be passed to the sales team. If this is your first inbound marketing campaign, then you may not know this number, so take your best estimate. I often find that 50% is a good number to start with and adjust over time. For our example, we can estimate that we need to pass 96 SQL's to our sales team.

5. Identify How Many MQLs You Need
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead that is qualified, but not sales ready. MQL's need more marketing such as lead nurturing to become more sales ready. Again, 50% is a safe number if you have no history and you can always adjust this later. Going off our example, we'll need to generate 192 MQLs within the next 12-months.

6. Identify How Many Leads You Need

We define a lead as a visitor that has converted on one of your offers. Not all of your leads will be qualified, so it's important to estimate a number that will provide you with enough MQL's to achieve your goals.

The more attractive your content is for your qualified leads, the higher your conversion rate from lead to MQL will be. To generate 192 leads, in this example, I would estimate that 500 leads will need to be generated to achieve your revenue goals. Monitor this closely and make the necessary adjustments over time.

7. Identify How Much Traffic You Need to Achieve Your Goals
Based on our experience, we would estimate a traffic to lead conversion rate of 2.5% over the next 12-months. We'll plan on this being lower in the beginning as content is being created and higher in the fourth quarter of the program. In our example, you'll need 20,000 website visitors within the next 12-months.

6 Short-Term Goals for Long-Term Success

Small businesses can create big success if they consistently set short-term, attainable goals. Whether your business is looking to expand into a new market, acquire new leads or make key new hires, these short-term goals will help you sustain momentum over the long term.

1. Make sales and marketing a priority.

Clearly, sales and marketing are key to success, but many small business owners don’t have expertise in these areas. Evaluate a few of the free or inexpensivecloud-based applications that can help you optimize for search engines and improve PPC campaign results, increase lead generation or make it easy to launch and maintain marketing campaigns. By getting a bit of help with these sales and marketing activities, you can increase market awareness about your product and allow your team to dedicate more time to improving it.

2. Listen to your customers.

Small businesses need to keep up with the changing needs of their customers in order to keep an edge on the competition. Ensure that there is a way for customers to voice their feedback and for you to show that you’re listening. Create a forum that allows the people actually using your product to share their experiences. This way, you can monitor customers’ satisfaction, provide great customer service and make adjustments and improvements as necessary. Doing so will build your brand and reputation as a customer-centric company.

3. Simplify day-to-day activities and automate workflows to improve productivity.
Try out a customer relationship management (CRM) or project management solution to help you spend less time on administrative tasks, like inputting customer details and organizing call notes, and more time ensuring that each customer has a positive experience while interacting with your product. For example, Yep Roc, a North Carolina-based music label, prepares for the annual SXSW music festival with the help of its project management tool. Organizers can manage performer contracts, vendors and catering contacts, ensuring that all tasks are completed in time for the show and the audience has the best experience possible.

4. Build and nurture customer relationships.

Small business owners may think it’s impossible to create a personalized experience for each customer, but there are simple ways your team can build meaningful relationships. Employees who can recall customer details, such as recent purchases, can create conversations around your product. Ensure that your team has access to all necessary customer information so they can easily build high-quality relationships and grow a loyal customer base.

5. Collaborate with your team to brainstorm new ideas.

Whether your team members are located in the same office or scattered across the globe, consistent collaboration will increase efficiency and productivity and strengthen the team’s bond. Set time aside each week or month, whatever works best for your team, to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of one another for ways to solve problems, improve your product and create new opportunities.

6. Attract and retain talented employees.
In order to attract and retain high-caliber employees, offer flexible work arrangements and areas in which to relax. Instead of driving your staff to work an 80-or 90-hour week every week, respect employees and look after their well-being with balanced work-life schedules. Working hard is important, but taking time to relax and recharge batteries is just as important. Allow yourself and your team to take breaks and de-stress. You’d be surprised what a time-out can do for your mental sharpness and creativity. Also, celebrating the team’s success is key to keeping employees motivated. Bring the team together for a total-office cheers to acknowledge the contribution of the entire team, or take a break from the day and go out to lunch together to celebrate wins.

Building a successful business takes time, and it shouldn’t be a sprint. Conquering each of these tasks will allow business owners to reach short-term goals while continually working toward their long-term objectives. Start today, be consistent and, ultimately, you’ll get where you want to go.