Goal Setting and Marketing Planning

Need a jump start to your goal setting? Want to be more effective with your marketing plans? Goal setting and marketing planning are part of an organization’s on-going processes. If it is time for a spring refresher, ask yourself these five questions to achieve goal success.

High Five Yourself to Goal Success

1) Why is it important to set goals?

In the words of Yogi Berra: “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Without clear goals in mind, it is difficult to know the plan you should take, what the intermediate plans are, or even if success has been obtained.

2) Where are you now?

One of the key steps in developing a marketing plan is to determine where you are now:

• Review the current economic and competitive environment of your industry. Consider completing a SWOT Analysis (identify your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
• Establish your current marketing mix, including your products, service quality, pricing, distribution channels, promotional channels, and communication both online and off-line.
• Know your market segments, your target market, and how your customers contribute to your bottom line. CRM Tools (Customer Relationship Management) can assist you with this as these systems provide client information and can help identify sales patterns, ROI from marketing efforts, and show relationship patterns between the organization and your customers.

3) Where do you want to be? And Why?

Set clear goals by using brainstorming. Mind Mapping tools help you organize and map out your thoughts, paths, and plans.

4) How will you get there?

Once you’ve got your goals in place, you’ll need to establish your action plan, and define strategies, and tactics, budgets, and deadlines.

5) How will you know you’ve achieved your goals?

When you establish your goal, ensure that they’re SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound). Then, you’re able to determine if, when, and how you’ve achieved your goals.

For more information on developing your goals and marketing plan, take a look at SmallBizTrends for a few quick one-page marketing plan templates on their site.  Other good resources for marketing plan advice are: The Marketing Donut, Marketing Profs, and Entrepreneur.

The above content is reblogged from Zircon’s Marketing ToolBox. Circle Dot Marketing creates engaging content for our clients. To learn more about ways we can build your brand, please contact us today or visit @circledotmktg.