Almost every business owner I speak to wants more customers. That’s a good starting point, but it isn’t a goal yet. Without a number, you can’t tell whether your marketing is working, how much to spend on it, or when to change course.
This step turns your answer to question 2, what do you want to achieve?, into something you can measure.
Start with the business, not the marketing
The easiest way to set a marketing goal is to work backwards from what the business needs. Here’s a worked example. The numbers are made up, so swap in your own.
- What extra revenue do you want each month? Say $10,000.
- What’s a typical sale or job worth? Say $500. That means you need 20 extra sales a month ($10,000 ÷ $500).
- How many enquiries turn into sales? If roughly 1 in 3 enquiries becomes a customer, you need about 60 enquiries a month (20 × 3).
Now you have a marketing goal: about 60 enquiries a month. That’s far more useful than “more customers”, because you can count it, and you can check each marketing activity against it.
If you don’t know how many of your enquiries turn into sales, that’s fine. Make an honest guess for now, and start counting (more on that below).
A good goal has four parts
- What you’re counting, for example enquiries, booked jobs, sales or followers.
- How many, for example 60.
- By when, for example each month from 31 March.
- How you’ll count it, for example in a simple enquiry log or in Google Analytics.
Put together, it reads like this: “Get 60 phone and website enquiries a month by 31 March, counted in our enquiry log.”
Early signs versus results
Some numbers are early signs that things are moving: website visits, followers, likes and how many people see your posts. Others are results: enquiries, customers and revenue. Early signs are useful for spotting problems quickly, but judge your marketing on results. A thousand new followers who never buy don’t pay the bills.
That said, sometimes an early sign is the right goal. If you’re brand new and nobody knows you exist, “grow to 1,000 followers in our local area” can be a sensible first step, as long as you know how it leads to customers later.
Common traps
- Too many goals. Pick one main goal. Two at most.
- No date. Without a deadline, a goal quietly becomes a wish again.
- No way to count. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
- Unrealistic jumps. Doubling enquiries in a month is rare. Set a stretch goal that’s still believable.
If you don’t know your numbers yet
Start counting today. A simple spreadsheet with four columns is enough: the date, the person’s name, how they found you, and whether they became a customer. Ask every new enquiry, “How did you hear about us?” After a month or two, you’ll know your real numbers, and your goals will get sharper.
Your turn
Go back to the paper from step 1 and rewrite your answer to question 2 using the four parts: what, how many, by when, and how you’ll count it.
Previous step: What is marketing, really?
Next step: Who are your customers, and where do they look?