5 Tips for Goal-Setting in Digital Marketing

If you asked everyone in your marketing department to name his or her top goals for the company, would the answers match up? I’m going to go out on a heavily reinforced steel limb and say, probably not. And that’s OK. In marketing, that highly sought-after “same songbook” is not always the only one worth singing from. When everyone is focused on the same goal, it can be easy to miss opportunities outside the field of vision.

Sometimes, digital marketers—clients and agencies alike—become fixated on a single goal at the expense of other opportunities. With that in mind, here are 5 tips for more effective goal-setting in digital marketing:

1. Set goals, but don’t be afraid to re-evaluate — Goals should be taken seriously but not at the expense of business growth. With business moving at the speed of light, goal-setting should be flexible, fluid.

2. Define goals in business terms — It sounds obvious, but it doesn’t always happen. If your goal is to increase leads from paid search by 40%, how much is each lead worth? What does it cost to process a lead? Working together to better define goals, clients and agencies can identify new and potentially more cost-efficient ways to achieve desired results.

3. Recognize different goals for different roles — Even if your primary goal is adopted company-wide, recognize that secondary objectives can vary greatly within your organization. What matters to the CMO may not matter to IT, while both are heavily invested in your online efforts. Your digital marketing agency should work with you to understand these nuances and build a holistic strategy designed to address the objectives of all key stakeholders.

4. Consider quantitative and qualitative goals — Quantitative goals are great for the bottom line but they don’t necessarily mean anything for your brand. Understanding how to grow up and knowing what you want to be when you grow up are two different things. Consider both when setting goals.

5. Set goals like a startup — Think like a startup and approach goal-setting with an open mind, understanding that your definition of success shouldn’t be limited to simply improving on last year’s results. In aiming to improve, strive to make business as usual anything but business as usual.

What do you keep in mind when setting goals for digital marketing campaigns?