Savvy B2B Marketing

Kate

I set goals by working backwards. How many units do we need to move? How many sales meetings do we need to have to make that many sales? How many prospects do we need to talk to to get that many meetings? How many leads do we need to generate to reach that number of prospects? You need to look at the percentages for every phase of the sales cycle.

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can break down marketing activities into very managable chunks and work them with the confidence that you will make your ultimate sales goals.

Michele

To determine marketing goals, I always consider business goals and objectives. What is it that the business is trying to accomplish? All marketing goals needs to support the business in some way.

Here are two questions to consider:

Why is this needed?

Why do you need to do a certain marketing activity? If there is no clear answer other than, "We think it's the right thing to do," or "This is cutting edge," then chances are you don't need to be doing that actvity or you need to reconsider how this activity will really support your business.

How will I measure this?

After you decide that a marketing activity is needed, it's a good idea to figure out how you will measure its success. By knowing this from the outset, you can have the right metrics in place, and the team will be able to make good decisions on how to change the program in teh future.

Jamie

Get Specific:

Skip the "vision" goals and go straight for the jugular with hard numbers. It's not enough to say you want people to register for your webinar. How many people do you want registered? How many more than last time? What percentage of the people you target?

Do the Math:

Like Kate said, once you've got your base numbers, you've got to work them. If you want 50 new sales, use your conversion rate to figure out how many leads you need to land. Then figure out how many people need to see your offer in order to get those leads, and so on. It's less like throwing darts (a common goal-setting practice in many businesses) and more like a building a pyramid - each layer supporting the next.

Define Tests:

There's more than one way to meet your goals, so - whenever possible - test. Subject lines, user flows, page layouts - mix it up to find out what works best and then optimize, optimize, optimize.

Be Realistic:

Don't hog tie your marketing team and then expect them to deliver miracles. Make sure your budget and resources are ample enough to meet the needs of the campaign.

Wendy

Setting Marketing Goals:

• Identify what it is you want to achieve, what your goal is – get down to specifics, amount of units sold, amount of people signing up for your newsletter, number of new clients?

• Figure out your message – if you had to put it on a billboard, what is your concise pitch?

• Figure out the number of people you want to reach, would you be happy with 1,000 good prospects, 10,000?

• Ways you want to reach them (blog, website, ebooks, press releases, publications)

• Develop ways to attract your audience to you – what it is of value that you can offer them to solve their problems?

• Keep your message and product newsworthy by creating ongoing stories – remembering that it is all about the your audience first and selling your product second

• Figure out a way to measure your impact on your audience and how much success you've made toward your goal

• Adjust as needed.  

Stephanie

Focus on the Details...and the Big Picture

When it comes to setting and reaching goals, marketers need to consider both the macro and the micro. In addition to validating the effectiveness of every marketing initiative, you need to illustrate that your efforts are helping the company achieve its overall objectives.

Numerous activities likely take place between the time people become aware of your offering and the time they decide to make a purchase. Ideally you want to measure the effectiveness of your efforts in moving prospects along that path to purchase. Marketing automation tools can help with this measurement. If you aren't using marketing automation, consider services such as those offered by Predictive Marketing. In addition to being able to tie marketing's contribution to revenues generated -- an increasingly important capability -- you'll be able to better fine-tune your activities and efforts going forward.