How to Translate Business Goals to Marketing Goals

by Jessica Miller, Marketing Manager

General Marketing

Business goals drive initiatives in many departments, including product development, customer service and marketing, so it makes sense that many business goals start as broad, high-level statements such as “increase revenue.”

But it’s important for goals to be SMART, too.

To make the broad business goal of “increase revenue” SMART, make it more specific, add metrics and assign a timeline. The SMART goal might look like this:

Increase revenue 15% by year-end 2021

Achievability and Relevance – the A and R in SMART – come into play as you fine-tune your goal to guide the people who will be working to meet it.

That fine-tuning begins by asking questions about why the goal is important and what problems you’re trying to solve. For instance…

Q: Why do we need to increase revenue?

A: Revenue has declined over the last two years.

Q: Which customer segments are showing stagnant growth or declining sales trends?

A: Sales to existing customers have remained steady, but we’ve seen a fall-off in new customer acquisition.

Q: How does the competitive landscape look?

A: Emerging competition in the marketplace has led to increased marketing and branding activity from existing competitors. We’ve noticed an increase in media coverage and social conversations related to our competitors, but not our brand.

Q: Where can we expand our market presence demographically and geographically?

A: About 75% of our current customers are women, aged 35-55, living in the Northeast region from Maine to Maryland. We were growing slowly in the Southeast region, but the new competitor has stalled our growth here.

Once you have specific information about the problems the goal is meant to solve, you can provide more insight to the various departments who will be working toward the goal, in this case, your marketing team.

Now it’s time to do some math. Let’s assume you want to generate 15% more in new customer revenue. Start with what you already know about new customer revenue.

Last year’s new customer revenue was $1,000,000
- $1,000,000 + 15% growth = $1,150,000
- You need to generate $150,000 in new customer sales
The average new customer sale is $200
- $150,000 divided by $200 = 750 new customer sales
- You need to acquire 750 new customers
One out of 10 prospects makes a purchase
- That means your conversion rate is 10%
- You need to generate 7,500 prospects to acquire 750 new customers
The buying cycle for new customers is one to two months.

With that information about new customer revenue, you now have a specific goal for your marketing team: Generate 7,500 prospective new customer leads by September 30, 2021.

You’ve narrowed the goal to the point where your marketing team can begin outlining a plan to generate those new leads. The marketing/advertising mix in the plan could include:

Pay-Per-Click advertising
Organic SEO
Direct mail
Display advertising
Promotions
Print advertising
Email marketing

Each of those elements has its own conversion rate and acquisition cycle, so we use forecasts and projection models to set specific goals for each platform strategy, optimize our budget allocations, monitor campaign performance, and reallocate spending to higher-performing platforms.

It’s possible to improve conversion rates for each medium, which is why it’s important to strategize with a team to help you get the most out of your marketing investments and achieve your business goals.

Ready to make a game plan? Contact us.

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How to Translate Business Goals to Marketing Goals

General Marketing

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