3-1 Blog: Marketing Campaigns and SMART Goals
What is the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics?
A digital marketing goal is something you would like to achieve in your marketing campaign. A strategy is a plan you devise to reach that goal. A tactic is the many things you do to achieve the goal through your strategy. With that being said all of these things work together. First, you start by setting your goal, then you come up with a strategy that leads you to your goal, then you initiate tactics that follow your strategy to get to your goal. Goals, strategies, and tactics work together but they are different things that are done.
What is the importance of setting SMART goals when creating a marketing campaign? What questions should be considered?
SMART Goals are essential for setting objectives, measuring progress, and being accountable for success.
Specific – Make your goals specific and narrow for more effective planning.
Measurable – Define what evidence will prove you’re making progress and reevaluate when necessary.
Actionable – Make sure you can reasonably accomplish your goal within a certain timeframe.
Relevant – Your goals should align with your values and long-term objectives.
Time-related – Set a realistic ambitious end-date for task prioritization and motivation.
These are the questions that should be considered in your SMART Goals:
Specific – Can the detail in the information sufficiently pinpoint problems or opportunities?
Measurable – Can a quantitative or qualitative attribute be applied to create a metric?
Actionable – Can the information be used to improve performance?
Relevant – Can the information be applied to the specific problem faced by the manager?
Time-related – Can the information be viewed through time to identify trends?
References:
Charlie Said That (June 16, 2019) Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics – Explaining the Difference https://web.archive.org/web/20200721000344/http://charliesaidthat.com/digital/digital/difference-between-marketing-strategy-vs-tactics-an-example/
Jennifer Herrity (Sept 30, 2022) Guide on How To Write SMART Goals (With Examples) https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-smart-goals
Provide examples to portray how marketing tactics align to strategies in order to support set goals.
Setting goals is important but in order to obtain these goals you have to organize your strategy. Here is an example of how a marketing tactic aligns with a strategy to achieve the set goal:
Goal:
Increase sales revenue by 25% by the End of the Year
Objectives:
1. Increase Awareness of our website to Target Audience (TA) by 100% by the end of the year.
2. Increase Traffic To the Website by 50% compared with last year
3. Increase Repeat Purchases by 10% compared with last year
4. Increase Average Order Value from £50 to £55 this month
Example Strategy:
1. Engage Target Audience at key touch points in their day when receptive to brand messaging
2. Drive traffic from new unique visitors to your website
3. Encourage Repeat Purchases from Existing Customers
4. Increase Average Order Value from within the cart
Example Tactics:
1a. Run TV ads targeted at TA in the middle of day
1b. Run Facebook Advertising at lunchtimes based on similar interests
1c. Acquire Coverage in National Magazines targeted at TA using PR
1d. Run Online Banner Advertising on XYZ sites targeted at TA in the evenings
1e. Sponsor Local Sporting Events
1f. Create content around the shopping and lifestyle needs of your customers
How can you ensure that your SMART goals are met using key performance indicators (KPIs)? Explain using examples to support your rationale.
Quantifiable measurements of a company's performance are called Key Performance Indicators or KPI’s. Marketing KPI’s include website traffic, social media traffic, Converstion rate on call-to-action content, blog articles published per month, and Click-through rates (CTR). These metrics track conversion rates on how often possible customers carry out actions in response to a marketing campaign. They are used to gain a better understanding of how effective the marketing campaigns are running.
For example, if marketers are running a campaign for a client they should first come up with a marketing goal. Once that is established, they will come up with a marketing strategy. Then marketers will carry out the tactics to achieve their goals. Next, they will measure the tactics they have carried out. This is where marketers will measure the KPI’s. So if the tactic is running online banner ads on XYZ websites across the internet, they will measure website traffic. This KPI tracks the number of people who visit certain pages of a company website, how long they are on your website, and if they click on a call-to-action button. Marketers can use this KPI to better understand whether online traffic is being pushed down potential sales channels and if customers are not being funneled appropriately.
References:
Alexandra Twin (May 10, 2023) Key Performance Indicator (KPI): Definition, Types, and Examples https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/kpi.asp
