Setting marketing objectives

Marketing is the lifeline of any business and is essential to making sure the business continues and succeeds in the long run.But marketing can only be a success if it is planned properly and is executed effectively at the same time.Setting good marketing objectives and following through with them will really mean a lot to your business.

Marketing objectives should naturally be tied to the objectives of the company as a whole and reflect the same feelings and culture of the business as a whole.If you don't have any company goals, then that is where you should start.You should also have a more defined goal as a group and a company as a whole and need to have a mission statement and set of company goals for the year.Basing your marketing objectives off of these more general goals is the best way to establish marketing objectives and defining how they will be achieved.You have the option of setting goals at the corporate level and also at the functional level.The corporate level will provide broader goals that can then be expanded upon at lower levels of the business.Corporate level goals tend to be more focused on return on investment figures and operating profit while functional level goals are more geared to building customer databases or reaching certain market share percentages or consumer awareness.

Most people are familiar with the SMART process for setting goals, but this applies specifically to marketing objectives as well.Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time based.The goal needs to be specific and state a quantity that can actually be achieved.It doesn't do any good for anyone to have a goal to `improve sales' because it is not challenging and provides no additional motivation for people to push harder and excel at what they do.The objective needs to state in written form exactly what is going to be achieved and what the real goal is.The goal also needs to be measurable, meaning that it has to have a quantity attached to it even if it is in more obscure terms.It is sometimes difficult to measure how much something like customer satisfaction has increased or what a specific change has produce, but there are ways of determining exactly what the figures are and to quantify the goal.If the goal is measurable then it can also be adapted to meet the current reality of the situation and to meet the needs of the company.Another aspect of any goal, and particularly marketing objectives, is that it must be achievable.This is sometimes a difficult thing to define especially when percentages are the figures being dealt with.These figures need to be based on past performance or at least on a best guess after some significant research and due diligence.It doesn't make sense to have a goal to grow by 100% in a year for a new business or for a business that has typically had lower rates of growth.This can actually be discouraging and make it more difficult for people to excel because they believe the goal is unattainable.

The goal also needs to be relevant to the business and the situation at hand.It only makes sense to define a goal in the terms that people will understand and be able to achieve.The last characteristic of a marketing objective is that it needs to have a timeline.If there is not a particular date or schedule imposed on the goal, then the likelihood that it will linger far past a productive timeline is very likely.When you follow these basic guidelines when setting your marketing objectives, you are much more likely to achieve success and will have a much better time reaching your goals.