Marketing is not an end in itself. It is all the more important to define goals that should be achieved with the individual (already existing) marketing measures. This is especially true for larger companies – but smaller companies are also more successful if they formulate their marketing goals.
Marketing goals – that may sound a bit off the mark for some founders and small business owners. Ultimately, these can be directly subordinate to the corporate goals that every self-employed person should set, regardless of whether they have their marketing department or have to take care of the formulation and implementation of the goals themselves because only those who have a clear view of what they want to achieve can choose appropriate measures and use them precisely.
SMART formulate your own marketing goals
The SMART method is a project management formula that can be applied to all areas in which specific goals are to be achieved. It describes how these must be formulated to be successful:
S specific: The goals should be defined as precisely as possible.
M edible: The results should be correct; appropriate instruments are selected.
An attractive: The objectives should be formulated so that they are often tackled.
R realistic: The objectives should be able to be achieved in a mated time frame.
T erminier: For the targets, a specific schedule as possible should be created.
What marketing goals are there?
The number of conceivable objectives becomes more manageable if you group them. An overview of the most common classifications follows.
Quantitative and qualitative marketing goals
Marketing theory divides the possible goals into two broad groups: the quantitative (economic) and the qualitative (psychological) marketing goals. In practice, these are not always clearly distinguishable from each other, since there are many intersections and the purposes are partly mutually dependent.
Quantitative marketing goals
This is about hard facts. These have a decisive advantage over the psychological goals: They can be clearly defined in advance and can be measured precisely. If the desired success is not achieved within the set time frame, this can be quickly determined and corrected.
Marketing goals with numbers refer to:
- sales
- Profit
- paragraph
- contribution margin
- value-based market share (sales revenue)
- quantitative market share (sales volume)
- Number of customers
- growth
These quantitative projects aim to improve in the area concerned and are often superior to the other goals.
Qualitative marketing goals
The qualitative goals are rightly called psychological marketing goals because they have a lot to do with emotions. Often unconsciously, these play a significant role in the decision for a brand or a specific product. Companies can take advantage of this.
Qualitative marketing goals are geared towards achieving an increase or improvement in the following areas, among others:
- quality
- image
- Awareness
- Customer loyalty
- Customer satisfaction
- Trust (in brand or company)
In contrast to the economic goals, the psychological goals are challenging or sometimes not measurable at all. It is still the easiest way to determine the achievement of goals that relate to the level of awareness – but also not by a quick look at the database, but only by extensive surveys and surveys.
But even if they cannot be quantified, the qualitative marketing goals are just as important. The examples are given here provide the prerequisites for realizing the above-mentioned economic goals.
Strategic and tactical marketing goals
The termination plays a role in this division. It is also essential at which hierarchy level the goals are arranged. The strategic marketing goals are located at the management level and are rather long-term goals (achievable over several years). These are goals, such as increasing growth or sales.
The tactical marketing goals are pursued at the operational level to speak of functional or operational purposes. They should instead be reached in the short or medium-term and are therefore subordinate to the strategic goals. For example, to achieve the strategic goal of increasing sales, the tactical marketing goal can be to raise awareness.
Area related marketing goals
Marketing goals can also be formulated for each area or department. For example, a company’s sales can consider creating more offers and take the necessary measures. The online department may want to attract more unique visitors to the website and have the corresponding content created.
Define your own marketing goals for your company
The more precisely you work out the plan, the more intensively you can pursue your goals and measure the results of your measures. The following steps are useful for implementation:
- Perform actual analysis
This term also comes from project management and describes the starting point on which all considerations are based. Take a close look at your company and create an analysis. These questions help:
- Where is my company currently?
- What resources are available?
- Which areas need to be expanded?
- Where are (acute) problems?
- Which measures have been successful/unsuccessful so far?
- How do sales/profits/sales etc. develop?
- How much do they differ from the target?
After this as-is survey, it should be reasonably clear where there is room for improvement and what needs to be done. Involve your employees to get the most precise possible picture of the current status. Also, your employees will certainly make some suggestions for implementation or improvement.
2. Specify quantitative goals
One of the targeted marketing goals will likely be to increase sales and profits. Perhaps even more customers should be won. This is, of course, not very tangible and must, therefore, be poured into concrete numbers.
In cooperation with the employees involved, you should set a precise and realistic target with a binding time frame (see also the SMART method mentioned above ). A simple “expand the customer base,” for example, becomes: “20 percent more existing customers by September 20XX”. If in doubt, it makes sense to set the desired vital data somewhat lower. Increasing the numbers after the first controlling is much more motivating than correcting them downwards.
3. Determine qualitative goals
Clarify with your employees or as a sole trader for yourself which qualitative goals can be used to achieve the quantitative goals formulated under point 2. Let’s stick to our example: To expand the customer base, it makes sense to rely on customer loyalty, since satisfied existing customers also bring new customers to your company through recommendations.
At the same time, it is advisable to include customer satisfaction and awareness, which is essential for founders in the plan. Even if the results of these goals are not so easy to measure, you should be as specific as possible when formulating them.
In practice, both quantitative and qualitative marketing goals will be a combination of multiple targets. Rarely is there a single specific goal.
4. Select marketing measures
Once the goals have been set, instruments must be put together with which it is likely that they can be achieved – the marketing mix must be defined. Like the corporate goals, the planned measures should be worked out as accurately as possible. This includes a precise schedule for the individual steps and a written record of who is responsible for which implementation.
For example, a service call can be introduced after a job has been completed to increase customer loyalty. The best way to instruct the employees entrusted with this is in writing how to conduct these discussions and how to respond to customer complaints.
5. Define controlling
The best goals and measures only remain approximate if you don’t control their results. You should, therefore, determine immediately after the package of rules with which control instruments and when a review should be carried out. Determine in advance which numbers need to be corrected. This avoids misunderstandings when interpreting the data and enables a faster reaction.
6. Commit employee
The employees who are already involved in the decision making are already in the picture. Now it is a matter of informing all employees about the planned measures and highlighting their importance. Everyone has to pull together. Corresponding employee motivation works more than any horror scenario that could occur in the event of a failure. Make your employees accomplices of a common cause.
7. Carry out a check
The first controlling should take place at the specified time. If everything moves within the desired framework, the selected measures can continue according to plan. If the results are weaker than expected, improvements must be made. If they are significantly above expectations, the quantitative targets should be revised and, if necessary, adapted to the new situation.
