Whether you’re in the process of creating a new organization or your business is already up and running, it’s vital for you to build a strong online presence. Did you know that your customers learn about your local business online more than anywhere else?
As a small business owner, you need to have your information online (and up to date) so your customers have ready access to the information you can provide them. If you don’t have much experience with online marketing, have no fear! It may sound a little intimidating at first, but this guide will help you understand what you need to do (and why you need to do it) so you can set goals and track your successes using an all-in-one platform.
Marketing Goals for Small Business: Why It’s Important to Set Goals
Why is it important to set goals? Well, there are actually quite a few reasons. For starters, you won’t know how well you’re doing unless you acknowledge your baselines (where you’re at now) and a metric that you want to achieve. As your campaigns get underway, you can then begin to assess your successes and opportunities so you can make adjustments as needed. Here are a few other reasons you should consider:
You move your business forward
Setting goals helps you plan for the future. As the old interview question goes, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Just as an interviewee should be able to concisely answer this question, so, too, should you be able to answer this inquiry for your business. When you know where you want to be and what you want to achieve, you can more easily create metrics that help you achieve those ultimate goals so your business can grow and flourish.
You’re able to grow your business at a sustainable pace
Have you ever worked for a company where the sales people were knocking it out of the park, but there weren’t enough people on staff to handle the work? It’s a nightmare! Sure, it’s great that your sales team is bringing in the business, but if you don’t have enough other folks on board to support the new sales, everyone—including your new customers—is likely to become frustrated very quickly.
When you set goals, you can hire staff accordingly and keep track of your growth initiatives in ways that allow you to grow your business at a sustainable pace.
You stay focused on what matters most
It can be pretty easy to get derailed when you’re a small business owner. After all, you have a million things to do each day, and sometimes, it feels like you’re never going to catch up. However, when you create goals, you know what you’re going after, and you can dedicate time each day or week to pursue the ultimate objective.
You’re able to provide your customers with an immersive, incredible customer experience
Once you’ve set your goals down on paper, you can work on ways to provide your customers with the best experiences possible. Your goals will guide you toward the best practices and changes you need to make to ensure you’re delivering a customer experience that’s worth repeating when people find your brand.
You build a passionate, energized company culture, which helps you attract the best talent and retain employees
Part of keeping your customers happy is keeping your employees happy. When your staff understands the directions you’re trying to go in, you’ll have greater buy in from your team, which translates to better customer service and happier clientele. In return, when your customers are happy, your team will be more energized and ready to conquer each day with vigor, as they know they’re part of a shared vision to make your brand better.
Marketing Goals for Small Business: Goals to Consider
Now that you know some of the benefits that can be obtained from setting goals, let’s look a little more at some goals you might want to put in place for your organization. Here are a few to get you started:
Building Awareness
Building awareness (both online and offline) will help you attract new customers, as well as retain those with whom you’ve already worked. Brand awareness happens when people recognize your colors, logo, or business name as a reputable resource for the products and services you offer.
Generating More Leads
It’s imperative to continually bring new people into your sales funnel. With goals in place, you’ll be able to generate more high-quality leads because your marketing campaigns will target audiences who are most likely to pay attention to the messages you’re sending them.
Getting More Customers
Going along with the points above, one of your goals should be to get more customers. Leads are great, but if they don’t convert into paying customers, they’re not making you any money. (In fact, they could actually be costing you money if they found you via PPC campaigns!)
Growing Your Business Profitability
As a business, you need to make money. How are you measuring your returns on investment and ensuring that you’re making a profit on every transaction? If you don’t have goals set up, you might be making money, but you won’t be able to easily reference how much more you need to shoot for when you review your balance sheets if you don’t know what the ultimate target is.
Improving Your Online Visibility
One essential way of attracting new customers these days is to improve and enhance your online visibility. Have you looked at the platforms that feature your brand lately? Is your business information accurate and up to date? Are there pages on sites like Google My Business or Yelp that haven’t yet been claimed by your company? If so, you should make it a goal to claim these pages and clean up the information that’s being displayed to people.
Getting More Online Reviews
It’s no secret that people check reviews before they decide to work with companies. You should always be striving to get new positive reviews that help sway people towards your brand.
Reducing Your Marketing Expenses
Look for tools that can help you consolidate as many marketing tasks as possible into one unified platform so you can free up your staff’s time to do other things.
Reducing Your Customer Acquisition Costs
The more money you spend to get a customer, the less money goes in your pocket. Find ways to acquire new customers without breaking the bank.
Improving Your Internal Processes and Systems
Always be on the lookout for tools that can make your life easier. Technology is ever-evolving, and if you fall behind, you might find yourself wasting valuable resources—both time and money—on things you could have handled more efficiently.
Track Performance with an All-in-One Platform
While you could look for individual tools and agencies to help you manage all of this, it’s wise and cost-effective to find an all-in-one solution that can help you consolidate all of your marketing and digital tools into one place. This effort will help you save time, money, and stress in the long run.
If you find a tool like the Surefire Local Marketing Platform, you’re able to track, measure, and analyze the following:
- Website traffic (organic, referral, paid, social, and more)
- Number of new leads generated
- Cost per lead and cost per click
- Total average star rating across all review sites
- Reviews, with the ability to request and respond to them all in one place
- Location optimization of your website with content and structured data
- Creating, scheduling, and publishing of content to your blog, social media profiles, and local business directories
- Social engagement metrics
- Google My Business actions (website visits, phone calls, direction requests, and photo views)
- Email marketing (creating new campaigns and viewing engagement metrics, such as opens, clicks, and lists of contacts who have engaged with your emails)
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
An all-in-one marketing intelligence platform that turns you into a superhero at your business is just what you need, and Surefire Local is here to deliver the goods. We provide you with the software to take control of your online visibility, but we guide you every step of the way with our experienced digital marketing experts, online training sessions, videos, and tips.
Grow your business with an all-in-one platform that combines all of your digital tools in one place, which can be accessed everywhere—across devices and browsers—to attract new customers and grow profits efficiently.