What should you be trying to accomplish with your new business website or online marketing strategy? This is a simple question, but one that a lot of business owners and executives can’t answer in a meaningful way.
The specific answers matter, though, if only because they force you to plan and prioritize your internet marketing activities. In some cases, they can even help you to decide whether the payoff for a new web design project makes it worth the investment of time and money.
We suspect most business owners and executives have trouble setting firm and realistic goals for their websites because they’ve never seen a good template that helps them to refine their thinking. That’s exactly what we want to give you today. Let’s look at a simple and proven format you can follow to set good online marketing goals…
Begin with Big Picture Outcomes
The first step towards identifying your goals can be a simple brainstorming session. Get together with your creative team, or perhaps a few key employees and advisors, and think about what you want the future of your business to look like. Don’t worry about deciding on numbers at this stage; just consider what would have to happen you feel like your web design and online marketing project was a “win.”
Turn Your Goals Into Measurable Targets
Once you have a sense of where you want to take your business and how a new website can help, it’s time to get a little more specific. This is the point where you can begin thinking in terms of new leads generated, new sales won, or fresh accounts gained. Try to go beyond the biggest figures (like revenue targets) and move into more specific amounts and percentages (like weekly sales, for instance), if possible.
Break Your Targets Into Regular, Repeatable Campaigns or Activities
Next, stop and consider what would have to happen on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis for you to achieve those targets. How many posts would you have to write to gain search traffic, or how many ads might you have to run to attract your desired number of new leads? Play with the figures a bit to determine whether the goals you have set for yourself and your team seem reasonable.
Create an Actionable Plan and Schedule You Can Follow
Finally, once you know what kind of activity you need to keep up in order to hit your realistic and measurable targets, start putting things into schedules and calendars. Figure out what you can do on your own, which employees or vendors can help, and who will be responsible for overseeing the various parts of the project. This is where the rubber meets the road, and it’s a step many business owners and executives never follow through with. It also happens to be the most important piece of the puzzle.
Follow Your Web Metrics to Completion
As you begin working toward your goals, track your progress using your web analytics program to see whether you’re on track or not. You don’t want to overreact to small variations in things like web traffic or search engine positioning, but neither do you want to keep plugging forward if results aren’t trending in the right direction.
Need Help Setting Your Online Marketing Goals or Bringing Them to Life?
Setting firm online marketing goals doesn’t have to be an impossible task, but it can be difficult if you haven’t gone through the process before and seen the good and bad along the way. Why not let proven lead generation experts help you to find the answers and strategies you need? Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and get started.
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