Know Your Marketing Objectives

Marketing requires investment. You need to know if your investment is paying off for you. How can you do that unless you have outlined ways in which you can measure success? You need to identify the marketing objectives, and yes, they can be measureable.

In many cases for small and medium-sized businesses, marketing can be an after-thought. You are so busy managing the day-to-day, or in the business, that it is hard to find time to spend on the business. The result is that marketing budgets can be very small or non-existent, and growth seems out of reach.

Business owners and managers often feel as though they are already busy. Others don’t feel as though they have the time to donate towards marketing their company. More believe that their marketing is done for them via word of mouth. However, the truth is that thinking about the growth of your business requires planning and investment.

When crafting your marketing strategy, you need to establish your objectives so that you can measure your results accurately. Examples of metrics for your marketing success could be:

• Additional website traffic
• Number of email sign-ups
• Number of participants for a content
• Number of Facebook likes
• Coupon redemption

Set your budget and your marketing goals, keeping them realistic. It is important that your marketing objectives are measured against your budget in order to clearly understand your return on investment (ROI). Starting a marketing campaign without setting a budget can lead to wasted investment.

 Here are a few examples on how to measure your success with your marketing efforts:

1. Contests – Contests are a great way to measure encourage customer engagement. Measure the number of participants, newsletter signups, and/or transactions that result from contests as ROI indicators.
2. Email Marketing Campaigns – Any purchases, click-throughs, or email opens that result from an email campaign are usual ways to measure the results for each campaign.
3. Social Posts – The level of engagement and number of shares are your best indicators for the ROI on your social media posts.
4. Blogging – Blogging is one of the most effective ways to build your SEO and the number of visitors generated to your site from promoting the post is a good marketing objective. This content development will also position you as an expert in your field.

For larger businesses that have a larger budget, the marketing strategy for brand awareness is necessary to earn “top of mind” status. Budgets need to be distributed for awareness and for other more measurable marketing objectives.

For small- to medium-sized businesses, you need to see a more tangible return on your investment. Start with defining your business needs, map out your marketing objectives to meet these specific needs, and measure on these objectives for each campaign. With a strategic approach, and clear marketing objectives, you will enjoy the benefits of successful marketing.

Mawazo starts all marketing efforts with a clear strategy. Our clients are taken through a series of workshops that result with a clearly defined marketing strategy, and with a marketing plan. Our plan includes clear objectives and tactics to deliver measurable success. Contact us today to find out how we can help your business grow with successful marketing.