How to Create Well-Defined Goals for your Digital Marketing Strategy

In my short time spent as a business development specialist at Online Optimism I have noticed a few consistencies among potential clients. One of these consistencies is that business owners need help defining better goals and managing realistic expectations for what a digital marketing strategy can accomplish for their company. I have seen potential clients on both ends of the spectrum; never having thought about their goals and setting outrageously unachievable goals. The purpose of this post is to help you, the business owner, create a well defined set of goals for your digital marketing strategy that are measurable, actionable, and relevant to your business.

Without a well defined goal for your digital marketing strategy it may appear that none of the new tactics you implement are working. When coming up with your digital marketing strategy goals, keep in mind that your company goals and the marketing strategy goals should not be the same. For instance, the goals for your company could be increasing revenue but this can’t always be tied directly to your marketing tactics.

Primary Goals for your digital marketing strategy are always the same, no matter what industry you are in or what services or products you produce or sell to your customers, increase sales and increase attention. Increased sales and attention can not be the only goals because everyone and their grandmother are looking for that.

Secondary Goals are not directly tied to ROI or your bottom line as a company. These goals are more milestone based, for instance having a more complete and consistent digital presence for your company. Something as simple as having the same version of your logo for the profile pictures on all of your social media accounts could be a secondary goal.

• • Specific, a well focused goal to aim for.
  • Measurable, use metrics to define what success looks like.
  • Actionable, steps that can help achieve this goal.
  • Relevant, accomplishing this goal has to produce a positive result.
  • Time-bound, a deadline for this goal to be assessed.

One of the values that we have at Online Optimism is to “Always Optimize.” Creating goals helps us do just that, and they can do the same for you. Not every marketing campaign will work, but by setting SMART objectives, and working toward them, you’ll be able to make more intelligent decisions that help grow your business.