Turn Marketing Goals Into Wins for Your Business

Three strategies to help you convert business goals into substantive marketing goals

If your company achieved one million social media impressions, was featured twice in “The New York Times,” and earned a new celebrity endorsement last month, you might think your marketing campaign was a tremendous success.

However, if your marketing goals aren’t linked to your overall business goals, all of these numbers are actually more about vanity and less about growth. They sound good, but ring hollow in terms of forwarding your organization’s goals and priorities. Your marketing department will best support business strategy when working in concert with the company’s leadership team and business objectives. Still, when the two remain siloed, even the flashiest figures won’t support your company’s goals.

For instance, if your aim is to expand from $100 million to $1 billion in annual revenue, a strategic planning process that engages marketing and company leadership can help you develop alignment and achieve your high-level goals.

You likely won’t be surprised to learn that specific, measurable and attainable goals are critical to any sound marketing strategy. To accomplish this, businesses first must avoid these common traps:

• Your corporate cake is missing a layer. If company leadership identifies a year-end goal of “grow sales by 20 percent,” but the marketing team can’t decipher what actually needs to take place to make that happen, you are missing a strategic layer between leadership and marketing. A strategic planner or chief marketing officer can provide the additional layer needed to help your goals rise to the top.
• Everyone assumes that business and marketing goals are the same. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Subgoals can help your company determine what marketing can influence and how.
• Goals and tactics are tossed into the same blender. Tactics, such as PR campaigns, paid advertising, social media marketing and email outreach, are different than goals, such as business expansion. While they work together, they aren’t one in the same and should be treated as separate components of your strategic plan.

Once your teams are headed in the same direction, the following three strategies will help you successfully translate business goals into substantive marketing goals.

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