In 🎉this article, I’ll set you up for goal-setting success by sharing:

• How to set well-defined goals.
• A step-by-step plan for setting marketing goals based on business goals.

By setting SMART goals — that is, goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound, you and your team will know exactly what you are working toward — with no questions. 

Here’s how to begin.

How to set well-defined goals

It is often said that a goal without a plan is just a wish🌳 — but a plan withou🌳t a goal is equally incomplete.

To move your business 𒁏forward, you need b🌊oth: goals that are well-defined — and the plans to get you there.

Examples of poorly defined marketing goals

H🏅ere are some marke🌞ting goal examples that need more work:

• I want more website visitors, leads, and sales
• We need to generate a larger email list
• Our goal is to rank higher in Google
• We want to use more AI in our marketing

You can see that these are vague.

It's easy to say that you want to generate more leads, but how many more leads do you need to achieve your goal? 10 more? 100 more? Thousands more? How many contacts do you w🏅ant on your mailing list? What do you want to rank in Google for? How will you use AI?

Without a clear goal, it's hard t🏅o define success.

Examples of well-defined marketing goals

Here are the same goals turned into well-defined marketing goals. What’s more, these marketing goals ♔are based on the overall goals of the business.

• We need 20,000 visitors, 500 leads, and 12 customers within the next 12 months from our inbound marketing efforts to achieve our revenue goal of $600,000 from inbound marketing.

• We would like to generate two customers from our current client list using 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:email marketing. We would also like to add all qualified leads to our mailing list, allowing us to keep these leads warm for future sales.

• We want to rank No. 1 for the keyword term "Reliable snow removal in Denver,” since we estimate that it will generate 300 visitors to our website per month.
• We want to use AI to speed up our content creation process by 💯20%.

When it comes to marketing goals, spe꧅cifics are your friend. It’s better to start out with numbers in mind, even if🅘 you have to adjust them over time.

At IMPACT, ౠwe set goals and then determine a range of outcomes, and we regularly update these along the way.

Red means we were way below our target.

Yellow is closer, but not actually on target.

Green means we reached our goal.

Super green means we surpassed it.

How to set marketing goals based on business goals (in 7 steps)

Beloওw are seven 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 digital marketing efforts

This is easy, but it’s a critical first step. Say your business did $2 million in sales last year. Your CEO just said he wants to grow t♑he business by 30% next year.

You know you already have $1.8 million on the books for next year and expect another $200,000 from other marketing efforts, ⭕such as trade shows and events.

That leaves you with a gap of $600,000 that 🐻you need to clos🤡e 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 t🌟he value of your a💦verage sale. For example, if the revenue needed is $600,000 and your average sale is $50,000, then you need 12 new customers to achieve your goal.

If your average sal👍e is $500, then you need 1,200 sales.

But for now, let'ꦓs stick with the 12 for the sake of our example.

3. Identify your closing rate and how many opportunities you need

Continue working backwardܫ to identify how many opportunities you need. Say that your close rate is 25%. So, if you need 12 new customers, you’ll need 48 opportunities (or 'ops' for short).

4. Identify how many SQLs you need

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that is ready to be passed to your sales ꦅteam. Some will become ops, some will not.

If this is something you haven't tracked before, you may not know this number. Take your best estimate. I often find that 50% is a good number to start with. In other words, half of all SQLs that you pass over to sales will become legitimate opportunities. Your number might be higher💜 or lower, so start with 50% and adjust it over time.

For our example, we can estimate that we ꧅need to pass 96 S꧑QLs to our sales team in order to get 48 opportunities (and 12 customers).

5. Identify how many MQLs you need

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead that is qualified, but not sales-ready. MQLs need more education before they’re ready to talk to sales. Maybe they get enrolled in a lead nurturing campaign to learn more about your offerings so theꦑy become sales-ready over time. Or, they might opt out, seeing that t♔hey’re a bad fit to do business with you.

So, how many will be ready to become SQLs? Again, 50% is a safe number to a🤪ssume. If you have no experience with digital marketing, start with 50%. You can always adjust this later.

To continue with our example, we'll need to generate 192 MQLs wiꦉthin the next 12 months, which will turn into 96 SQLs that enter the sales process.

6. Identify how many leads you need

We define a lead as a visitor who has 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:converted on one of your offers. Remember, not all of your leads will be MQLs. Some will be too early in their buyerᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ’s journey, others may just be gathering information. So, when it comes to estimating the number of leads you need, keep all of this in mi🦩nd.

First off, how are visitors converting on your site? What are you offering them in exchange for their contac🍬t information?

The more attractive your content is for your qualified leads, the higher your conv🃏ersion rate from lead to MQL will be. To generate our 192 MQLs, in this example, I would estimate that we’ll need to generate 50�🌜�0 leads.

As you get started, monitor these numbers closely and make the necessa♔ry adjustments over time.

7. Identify how much traffic you need to achieve your goals

How much traffic will you need to capture 500 leads? Based on our experience, we would estimate a traffic-to-le♓ad-conversion rate of 2.5% over the next 12 months.

At first, this rate will be lower as content gets created and rolled out. Then, it will climb as r𒁏ankings i♐mprove.

In our example, you'll need 20,000 website visit🌳ors within the next 12 months.

Now put it all together

And there you have it: 20,000 website visitors will turn into 500 leads, who will become 192 MQLs, who will become 96 SQLs, who 𝔉will become 48 ops, who w༒ill become 12 customers, who will spend an average of $50,000 and bring in $600,000 to your company.

Obviously it’s not always a perfect science. But you can see how a rev🉐enue goal can translate into a marketing goal, as long as you go backward and take it step by step.

Next, set quarterly benchmarks

As you're just getting started, remember that results will take some time. You'll get a lot more traction in the fourth quarter than you did in the first. Set your benchmarks for th♔e fourth quarter much higher than your benchmarks for the first quarter. For our example, our quarterly benchmarks may include generating 1,000 visitors in the first quarter and 8,000 visitors in the fourth quarter.

Set benchmarks for every metric you’re tracki🎶ng, from traffic all the way down to new customers. This way, you can continually tweak and make updates to your formula. If you’re struggling to hit a benchma👍rk, don’t panic. Work with your team to figure out ways to improve.

Make 🥀sure you include metrics for your other key business goals as well.

Remember to implement your other key business goals

These goals are not supposed to be an exhaustive list. Most likely, what we’ve spelled out above will represent only one aspect of your business. Don’t forget to set up similar formulas for other goals you may be tra♔cking. For example:

• Sales for a particular product line
• Revenue from existing customers
• Retention rates from current customers
• Number of job applicants (which may be important if your business is growing)
• Downloads of a high lead-to-customer converting offer

As with the example above, make sure you clearly define these goals and make them SMART. Then, work back🦹ward to deꦯtermine the steps to take to get yourself there.

Take the first step and get started

In his book , author Verne Harnish recommends focusing your business around what he calls a big hairy audacious goal (or “BHAG” for short). This is sort of a “where do you want to be in 10 years?” type thing. Your BHAG might seem far-fetched today, but that’s okay. It’s going to take a long𒅌 time to get there.

Any goal you set will remain forever in the distance if you don’t plan the steps that will get you there. Whether you’re talking about a goal that’s 10 weeks or 10 years away, break it into🔴 smaller chunks so you know how to move forward.

Remember, your goals will not be perfect.

Don't waste hours upon hours tweaking numbers and then never getting started. Gather accurate data about previous time periods, define the capabilities of your team, and ಞmake smart decisions on where you want to go with your marketing.

Then, get started and begin tracking your progress. You can always cour🦋se-correct along the w🧜ay.

Build your marketing strategy around these goals, and after one quarter ends, take a step back with your new data. Adjusting goals (whether you overshot or undershot)♉ shouldn't be perceived as negative — it's something that's completely necessary to keep moving forward.

You can do this — but you don't have to do it a🐎lone.

A business coach can help you plan goals and track 𒊎progress. Here at IMPACT, we've helped hundreds of business꧙es in dozens of industries.

You can speak to one of our experts to see how w𒊎e can help you set goals to build a more profitable future.