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I'm definitely someone who says "yes" to opportunities and then worries about it afterwards.  A little while ago, I got a call from the local BBC radio station asking if I could do an interview on being a "Mumpreneur".  

 

So, I said yes to this particular interview - only to discover that they wanted to come along at 7.30am!!   Do they have any idea what a house is like at 7.30am with two young children?

 

Anyway, all went well, the interview went out live on a Friday morning, and it made Sam's day (then age 5) having a BBC emblazoned radio car sitting in our driveway.

 

But the experience got me thinking.

 

I was only able to say "yes" because I have a complete focus in my business and what I'm trying to achieve.  I have my list of personal goals, and I have my list of business goals.  But I also have a list of my marketing goals.

 

What are you trying to achieve with your marketing?

 

It's really important that before you start any marketing activity at all that you know what you are trying to achieve with your marketing.  In fact, I would go as far as to say that you should not even attempt to do any marketing activity unless you have written down your goals.

 

Your marketing, after all, is what will achieve your business goals and ultimately your personal goals.

 

If you can't get customers buying your products, or clients to book your service, then how are you going to make sales and therefore an income?

 

The only way you're going to do this is via your marketing.

 

Some examples of ‘SMART’ goals

 

To give you an example of some SMART goals, your goals might look like this:

(SMART, by the way, stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely)

 

· Personal Goal - To retire to the Bahamas in 10 years time on an income of £100K a year (hey, nothing wrong with lying around on a beach in the Bahamas!)

 

· Business Goals (for this year) - to build an income of £20,000 by Dec 31st 20XX and sell 250 blue widgets and 300 red widget by the end of the year.

 

· Marketing Goals (for this year) – to increase my web site traffic from 100 a day to 1000 a day by June 30th 20XX; to attract 100 new people a month by June 30th 20XX signing up for my newsletter; and to increase my online sales conversions to 10% by the end of the year.

 

Now turn this into your marketing plan

 

The next step will obviously be how you do that.  The 'how' becomes your marketing strategy and plan.  The 'how' might be through online forums, advertising in the local press, business networking groups, and so on.  When you put your marketing plan together it needs to have the activities in place to be able to hit your marketing goals.  In this example, your various marketing activities on your marketing plan will be responsible for:

 

· Increasing your web traffic to 1000 visits a day (you’ll have to decide what proportion of those visitors you want to be new ones or returning ones);

· Getting 100 people a month to sign up to your newsletter;

· Increase your online sales conversions to 10% (I assume you know what it is now?!)

 

You see how it all links together?

 

You will have worked out beforehand that achieving these marketing goals will mean that you sell the required quantity of red and blue widgets, and that means that you will hit your income target of £20K for this year.

 

And you're on schedule for the Bahamas.

 

By the way, you will need to have done a bit of maths beforehand to make sure your figures add up...this is just an example, and I like my maths really simple!

 

How often should you set your goals?

 

With marketing goals you can have annual goals, but also 6 monthly and quarterly, and even monthly.  It's up to you - it's your business - but as you keep an eye on your goals, and how you're doing against them in reality, you'll know whether to adjust them or not.

 

A lot of people I know have their personal goals in place (worryingly, with no plan of action of how they might achieve them).

 

A smaller percentage of those have their business goals in place.

 

A tiny proportion of those have marketing goals in place.

 

And the really smart ones track what they're doing - but that's a whole other subject!

 

"The reason most people don't reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable.  Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them."

Denis Waitley