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You are here:   Home Blog How to Create Marketing Goals (and Why They Impact Your Content)

How to Create Marketing Goals (and Why They Impact Your Content)

July 26, 2018 by Katie Mitchell

Goals are a good thing, right? We set them for everything from our health to our finances to our free time, and for many of us it’s the goals that drive our motivation to succeed.

In this post, I’ll talk about marketing goals, how they work and how content can help your business achieve them.

Why Are Marketing Goals Important?

It’s a familiar question: If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?

The same could be asked of your marketing plan. If you don’t define what you want your marketing to achieve, how will you know if your marketing is effective? The answer is marketing goals.

Marketing goals are a benchmark for measuring your success. They’re also the “building blocks” with which you can build a marketing plan. When your marketing goals are aligned with your business goals, you and your team will know exactly what you’re working toward, and it’ll be clear whether you’re taking your brand in the right direction.

As content creators, we need marketing goals to guide our work. They’re like signposts, reminding us where the destination lies. Every piece of content you create should be working toward one or more marketing goals in some way.

Marketing Goals Examples

It’s a safe bet that just about any business wants to bring in more money and repeat customers. But these ideals are too broad to be true marketing goals.

Another goal that’s probably too broad is “I want to rank in Google’s first page of the search results.” While this is a good branding goal, it’s not detailed enough to direct everyday marketing. Instead, larger business goals and data should inform a specific goal, such as:

“I aim to rank in Position 5 or higher for the keyword term “healthcare security software” by the end of this year because it should bring about 500 more monthly website visitors.” You know exactly where you want to rank and why, which will make it far easier to implement a detailed plan and measure how well it works.

How to Develop Marketing Goals

The first step in developing marketing goals is knowing your overall business goals – they should drive your marketing strategy. As I mentioned earlier, marketing goals need to be aligned with business goals to keep everyone on the team moving in the same, productive direction.

If you start listing ideal scenarios for your business, you might discover you have a lot of goals and could get very specific on all of them. However, be careful not to set too many marketing goals. Distill your list into a handful that is realistic, but demands a little bit of stretch from the team.

Your marketing goals can be either small and short-term (new social media followers within the quarter) or big and long-term (total sales revenue for the year). Either way, they should get as specific with numbers and dates as possible.

For more detail, check out this step-by-step marketing goal development plan from Impact:

  1. Determine how much revenue your inbound marketing must generate, taking into consideration any business goals for growth.
  2. Figure out how many sales and customers it will take to hit that revenue goal.
  3. Know how many opportunities you’ll need to secure the sales/customer goals of the last step (notice the pattern of working backwards).
  4. Identify how many sales qualified leads (SQLs, vetted by the sales and marketing teams) you need.
  5. Identify how many marketing qualified leads (MQLs, requiring a bit more marketing before being sales ready) you need.
  6. Identify how many visitors you need who have already converted on one of your offers. Of these leads, enough of them need to be qualified (see the last two steps) to ensure you meet your goals.
  7. Figured out how much traffic you need to meet your lead goals.
  8. Revisit overall business goals to see what you can bring in and implement, such as sales for a certain product or customer retention rates.
  9. Set quarterly benchmarks that allow you togain traction as time goes by.

In fact, plan on tweaking your goals at the end of each quarter. New experience and data will indicate what you need to change to keep working toward your goals.

Content and Marketing Goals

Content creators might not always deal directly with leads and sales, but the information they create on behalf of the company drives those leads for the marketing and sales teams. If you know about the MLQs – leads who need some more marketing before being sales-ready – you can create content that is attractive to them and more likely to boost the conversion rate.

So content creators should pay attention to the goals the sales and marketing teams set, as well as the goals of the overall business. Then that goal knowledge should be coupled with an understanding of personas. Personas are target consumer archetypes based on factors like demographics, challenges faced and available budget for your services. These clear pictures of your target audience (and what matters to them) should be referred to whenever you create new content so you can ask yourself if it’s addressing their particular needs.

Then, identify the channels you can create content for and use your knowledge to create the right content for the right personas in the right channels. Will you focus on white papers and case studies to open in-depth discussions on problems and solutions? Or will you incorporate more original video into your social media posts for enhanced engagement? Maybe you’ll concentrate on increasing blog posts and making them more targeted at a specific persona to highlight a particular product or service.

Finally, be sure to track it all with metrics that matter to the overall goals. Most major platforms, from Google to Facebook to Snapchat, have their own analytics tools. You can also select from many third-party options. It’s about finding the tools that provide the answers you need and implementing them effectively.

For more on how to do this and produce content that keeps pace, check out Carrie’s post differentiating content that falls behind from content that achieves its goals.

Just as your marketing goals need to be specific and informed, the content that supports them needs to be informed. It’s the primary communication tool for marketing and sales.

Consider your website, blog, social media and other content and decide which will be the best investment for your marketing goals.

For more on how to make the most of your content, sign up for our mailing list and get instant access to your content strategy blueprint.

How have you used marketing goals to direct your content? Let me know in the comments below!

Katie Mitchell
Katie Mitchell is a content writer for bizbuzzcontent. When she’s not writing, you can find her cooking, traveling, doing yoga, and relaxing with friends and family.

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Jessica leads one of the most professional content agencies I’ve ever worked with. We target a very niche industry, and Jessica and her team were very thoughtful in their approach. From planning thoughtful pieces, to researching and interviewing SMEs, to brainstorming promotion strategies, Jessica and her team maintain a high degree of professionalism and efficiency.

Steven S., Senior Manager, Demand Generation, Rentlytics

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2018-07-31T17:22:53-04:00

Steven S., Senior Manager, Demand Generation, Rentlytics

Jessica leads one of the most professional content agencies I’ve ever worked with. We target a very niche industry, and Jessica and her team were very thoughtful in their approach. From planning thoughtful pieces, to researching and interviewing SMEs, to brainstorming promotion strategies, Jessica and her team maintain a high degree of professionalism and efficiency.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/professional-content-agency/

Tailor-made content strategies

Jessica dedicated her time as a pro-bono volunteer with VolunteerMatch to help us with some key content marketing needs. What impressed me most about working with Jessica was the way she tailored her approach to accommodate the needs of our nonprofit with the resource constraints of our team. Jessica developed personas, one-pagers, case studies and website content that has resulted in an increase in traffic to our site and improved our ability to communicate to our key audiences.

Bree v.F., Director of Marketing and Engagement, VolunteerMatch

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2018-07-31T17:22:20-04:00

Bree v.F., Director of Marketing and Engagement, VolunteerMatch

Jessica dedicated her time as a pro-bono volunteer with VolunteerMatch to help us with some key content marketing needs. What impressed me most about working with Jessica was the way she tailored her approach to accommodate the needs of our nonprofit with the resource constraints of our team. Jessica developed personas, one-pagers, case studies and website content that has resulted in an increase in traffic to our site and improved our ability to communicate to our key audiences.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/tailor-made-content-strategies/

Highly targeted and relevant content

I've worked with Jessica at her company bizbuzzcontent for years. It's my go-to provider whenever my team is looking for high-quality content. What differentiates bizbuzzcontent is that they not only have superior writing skills but a rare ability to completely understand our industry, our company positioning, brand voice and tone, and customers. This just makes the content highly targeted and relevant, and goes a long way in achieving our marketing goals.

Nag P., Sr. Manager, Product Marketing, Salesforce

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2018-07-31T17:22:31-04:00

Nag P., Sr. Manager, Product Marketing, Salesforce

I've worked with Jessica at her company bizbuzzcontent for years. It's my go-to provider whenever my team is looking for high-quality content. What differentiates bizbuzzcontent is that they not only have superior writing skills but a rare ability to completely understand our industry, our company positioning, brand voice and tone, and customers. This just makes the content highly targeted and relevant, and goes a long way in achieving our marketing goals.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/highly-targeted-and-relevant-content/

Compelling content that drives results

I love Jessica and the team over at bizbuzzcontent. Within just a matter of a few interactions, she was able to understand, in depth, our complex solution and business model. Since then, she's been critical to us in driving compelling, engaging content via our blogs and white papers. She's a wonderful, thoughtful person to work with, and the work she's done has been a key factor in increasing our conversion rates.

Collin S., Angel Investor and Technology Executive

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2018-07-31T17:22:41-04:00

Collin S., Angel Investor and Technology Executive

I love Jessica and the team over at bizbuzzcontent. Within just a matter of a few interactions, she was able to understand, in depth, our complex solution and business model. Since then, she's been critical to us in driving compelling, engaging content via our blogs and white papers. She's a wonderful, thoughtful person to work with, and the work she's done has been a key factor in increasing our conversion rates.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/compelling-content-that-drives-results/

Outstanding process

bizbuzzcontent helps me efficiently leverage my own subject-matter expertise to create original content on timely topics. Together, we are able to distill complex topics into client-friendly articles that I can use across multiple platforms. I especially appreciate bizzbuzz’s super-efficient process because it keeps me on track for timely production of new content. Jessica Lee is a pleasure to work with, and I rely on her to bring a strategic eye to my publication efforts.

Priya H., Partner, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

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2018-07-31T17:23:04-04:00

Priya H., Partner, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

bizbuzzcontent helps me efficiently leverage my own subject-matter expertise to create original content on timely topics. Together, we are able to distill complex topics into client-friendly articles that I can use across multiple platforms. I especially appreciate bizzbuzz’s super-efficient process because it keeps me on track for timely production of new content. Jessica Lee is a pleasure to work with, and I rely on her to bring a strategic eye to my publication efforts.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/outstanding-process/

Strong content values

Jessica is a great content creator, writer, reporter and partner to work with. Highly articulate with strong content values and work ethos, Jessica adds great value to all projects she works on. I would happily recommend Jessica to people who wish to scale their content marketing efforts.

Andy B., C-Level Marketing and Strategy Consultant

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2018-07-31T17:23:14-04:00

Andy B., C-Level Marketing and Strategy Consultant

Jessica is a great content creator, writer, reporter and partner to work with. Highly articulate with strong content values and work ethos, Jessica adds great value to all projects she works on. I would happily recommend Jessica to people who wish to scale their content marketing efforts.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/strong-content-values-highly-recommended/

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Jessica is a guest speaker of Microsoft internal training program. She made an awesome presentation of how to create marketable web ages to Microsoft Bing Ads product team and services team. Attendees found Jessica very engaging during the presentation. Microsoft Bing Ads is eager to apply the learning in our daily works, and look forward to partnering with Jessica to bring more value to digital advertising community.

Ping J., Product Manager, Microsoft Bing Ads

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2018-07-31T17:21:44-04:00

Ping J., Product Manager, Microsoft Bing Ads

Jessica is a guest speaker of Microsoft internal training program. She made an awesome presentation of how to create marketable web ages to Microsoft Bing Ads product team and services team. Attendees found Jessica very engaging during the presentation. Microsoft Bing Ads is eager to apply the learning in our daily works, and look forward to partnering with Jessica to bring more value to digital advertising community.
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Critical extension of the marketing team

Jessica has been instrumental in building our content strategy from ground up, educating our stakeholders and increasing our exposure across all lines of insurance. I can say with confidence that she has been a critical extension of the marketing team, always producing timely deliverable. She has always been enthusiastic about creating new formats for us and new vehicles of information to help the marketing team raise awareness and drive internal adoption. Her most impressive feat from my perspective is how quickly and seamlessly she dived into our 12 lines of insurance. The dexterity and the level of expertise she demonstrated although she had never worked with insurance B2B client was absolutely incredible.

Stephanie M., VP Marketing Communications, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

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Stephanie M., VP Marketing Communications, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

Jessica has been instrumental in building our content strategy from ground up, educating our stakeholders and increasing our exposure across all lines of insurance. I can say with confidence that she has been a critical extension of the marketing team, always producing timely deliverable. She has always been enthusiastic about creating new formats for us and new vehicles of information to help the marketing team raise awareness and drive internal adoption. Her most impressive feat from my perspective is how quickly and seamlessly she dived into our 12 lines of insurance. The dexterity and the level of expertise she demonstrated although she had never worked with insurance B2B client was absolutely incredible.
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/critical-extension-of-the-marketing-team/

Excellent content program

We can't imagine how we managed without bizbuzzcontent before! Working with Jessica Lee is a dream. She is very creative and understands new concepts quickly. The content creation process at bizbuzzcontent is the most efficient we have come across in our many years of working with other writers and agencies. If you want an excellent content program and a company that goes above and beyond, hire bizbuzzcontent today!

Pauline J., CEO, Group Twenty Seven

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2018-07-31T17:21:10-04:00

Pauline J., CEO, Group Twenty Seven

We can't imagine how we managed without bizbuzzcontent before! Working with Jessica Lee is a dream. She is very creative and understands new concepts quickly. The content creation process at bizbuzzcontent is the most efficient we have come across in our many years of working with other writers and agencies. If you want an excellent content program and a company that goes above and beyond, hire bizbuzzcontent today!
https://www.bizbuzzcontent.com/blog/testimonials/excellent-content-program/

Trusted partner for years

Jessica and her team at bizbuzzcontent have been a trusted partner for years, and have helped us with our blog, web copy and email marketing, in addition to providing lots of guidance on other content projects. The team is able to quickly get up to speed on any content project's requirements and create quality content that's on target. Over the years, they've helped us educate, drive brand awareness and website traffic. I would definitely recommend bizbuzzcontent for content services.

Ashley G., Digital Ad Management, SearchForce

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2018-07-31T17:18:31-04:00

Ashley G., Digital Ad Management, SearchForce

Jessica and her team at bizbuzzcontent have been a trusted partner for years, and have helped us with our blog, web copy and email marketing, in addition to providing lots of guidance on other content projects. The team is able to quickly get up to speed on any content project's requirements and create quality content that's on target. Over the years, they've helped us educate, drive brand awareness and website traffic. I would definitely recommend bizbuzzcontent for content services.
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