Marketing management is essential to any business that wants to succeed. It is a comprehensive approach to marketing, one that includes strategic planning, financial tools, advertising approaches, and personal communications. Marketing plan is a framework that enables an organization to focus its limited resources on those highest possible opportunities to improve sales and reach a sustained competitive edge. The key is to know what your specific goals are, how you will measure those goals, and in developing a system for achieving those goals. If you want to see the most effective results from your marketing efforts, you must also put a lot of thought and effort into evaluating and revising your marketing methods and tactics on a regular basis.
Being Realistic
One of the key components of a well balanced marketing plans is setting and achieving realistic short, medium and long term objectives. Achieving long term objectives usually take longer and tend to be more detailed than short term goals, especially if the objectives are to increase sales. Achieving short term objectives is more flexible and often involves the implementation of strategies in the shortest possible time, while long term ones generally require more research and analysis before taking action.
Short Term Goals
Short term marketing goals tend to be about increasing brand awareness or building new customer loyalty. Some examples of short-term marketing goals are improving product or service quality, closing a lead, increasing the conversion rate of existing leads into sign ups or referrals, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty or getting new customers to join a network or buying club. Longer-term marketing goals, on the other hand, are about increasing profitability, reducing cost and expanding customer base.
Variety Is Key To Success
A smart marketing objective should have the ability to serve a wide variety of objectives. Examples of such objectives include increasing sales, decreasing cost, increasing customer penetration, increasing company profits, increasing customer satisfaction or reducing customer churn rate. Smart marketing objectives should be designed in a way that takes into consideration the overall goals and objectives of the business. Marketing objectives should be reviewed periodically to ensure that they are still relevant and useful to the business and to the stakeholders. Below is an example of a marketing objective that would fit into this category.
To set objectives, first identify the goals that your company would like to achieve. These should be clearly defined, measurable, easily achievable, relevant to the business, and can be changed once they are achieved. For example, if you plan to increase the number of sign ups during rush season, your key results objective would need to be, ‘To increase the number of people who sign up during the rush season for our new customers.’ This objective is measurable since it can be checked against specific dates. Another example: if you plan to sell more of your handmade t-shirts, your goal is to ‘sell more t-shirts’.
Next, set realistic objectives to achieve each goal. These objectives should be both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative objectives should be based on past performance. These should be quantitative in nature and measurable, such as the number of leads or customer satisfaction metrics that were achieved. Qualitative objectives on the other hand, must be stated in terms that are meaningful to the customer, such as the number of prospects that are contacted by phone or email.
Set a timeline for each objective. A timeline shows how many goals will have to be met within a certain period of time. A company has to stay on track, so there is need for a timeline. It helps maintain focus, as well as keep everyone in the organization accountable for their role in achieving the marketing objectives. A good marketing strategy should also be aligned with the company’s strategy. This means that one cannot move forward without the others being in the same boat.
Lastly, set clear and detailed goals. Make sure that these objectives are measurable as well as relevant to the company. They also need to be easily attainable, as well as quantifiable. Remember that goals in marketing plans can also be quantitative and qualitative. These are used to determine whether the objectives have been met and to measure progress towards them over time.
Read More: The Four Ps of Marketing
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