Digital marketing 101: Step 1 – Setting campaign goals

Campaigns have to be set up properly to show real results and run as smoothly as possible. Missing a single step can have a negative impact on your campaign performance.

“A strong digital marketing strategy is the cornerstone of a successful business. While digital marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing methods, it is also a much more powerful tool. The only caveat is that it requires businesses to take a more considered and thoughtful approach when devising a campaign.” – Smart Insights

We will be publishing a series of content pieces throughout 2022 highlighting the steps of running a successful digital marketing campaign to offer our tips, assistance and guidance for running a digital marketing campaign that provides real results.

Step 1: Goal Setting

Goal setting is the most important element of your campaign, and it informs basically every step that follows. Without a goal, a campaign is doomed to fail. Making goals helps to keep us focused and motivated.

At the end of the day, goals are what give you direction. By setting goals for your strategy, you give yourself a target to aim for. With this sense of direction, your strategy stays focused, and you avoid wasting energy shooting aimlessly, ultimately helping you hit your mark and reach your objectives.

At League, we have 10 high-level points to use as a starting point when making a strategy. We go through these points with our clients so that they are defined and have real values attached to them.

We have used the SMART strategy as a basis for our marketing goal setting. It is a well-established method for goal setting dating back to the 1960s. It is an acronym with every letter denoting an element to apply for successful goal setting: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

Specific

1. Ensure your goals are precise

When setting goals, you should make them as accurate and specific as possible to avoid misinterpretation. What do you want to accomplish and why? Which resources are required and who will be involved? Be clear about it so that you can focus your efforts. It has also been shown to be particularly effective to write these goals down.

2. Find agreement

Ensure that from the outset, each role player is on the same page about the goal. So that every person’s part is clear and there can be no dispute down the line.

Measurable

3. Measure your achievements

When your goals are measurable, you can track your progress. This helps to keep you motivated. Monitoring your progress helps to ensure that you are on track to achieve your goals.

❌ Increase visitors to the site.

✔️ The site must get 2 000 visitors a day.

❌ Increase revenue on the site.

✔️ We must increase monthly purchases by at least 10%.

4. Make implementation intentions as opposed to goal intentions

Even excellent goal plans can sometimes fail because of changing requirements and situational cues. That’s why it’s good to focus on implementation over the intention.

❌ We must put the website up by 1 June.

✔️ If the website isn't up by 15 May, we will assess what resources need to be added to the project.

By changing the focus from goal intentions to implementation intentions, there is a clear plan in place if things go wrong.

Attainable

5. Set goals in accordance with your team members' strengths

Make sure your goal challenges you, but it must also be attainable and realistic. Think about how you will attain the goal. Each person in your team has the knowledge and a unique set of skills, so select the appropriate goals for individual people.

6. Focus on learning metrics as well as performance goals

Don't measure success only by the final outcome. Rather, pay attention to how you get there by setting learning goals. This way, you can focus on the process rather than just the final result.

Relevant

7. Ensure that your goals inspire the team

A goal's effectiveness has two sides: the organisation and the individual. For the person performing the action, it is most effective when it speaks to their own set of personal motivations.

8. Keep goals relevant to team members at each stage

Is the goal right for each role player at every stage? Remember, these are not necessarily overarching goals for long-term marketing but rather the current focus.

Time-based

9. Set tangible deadlines

Having tangible goal deadlines keeps you honest and accountable, so you should have a timeline in place and monitor your progress.

❌ Make the "Contact Us" page on a website to demonstrate to the client by tomorrow.

✔️ Make the "Contact Us" page on a website to demonstrate to the client by midday 6/10/2022.

10. Separate operational goals and high business goals

Keeping a separation between the low-level goals you're working on and high-level business goals allows you to keep the big picture in mind.

Putting your marketing goals into place doesn’t have to be scary. We can help you make the whole process quick and easy so you can get your campaign underway. Are you ready to set your project into motion? Get in touch with us and see how we can establish your project with goals, key performance indicators and metrics that follow firm timelines to ensure growth for your business.