Action Plans that Drive Business Part 1: Creating Goals

By Kelly Coulter

Keep the Customer Response in Mind

Call me crazy, but I believe there are only 3 reasons for marketing your company: to grow, to reduce costs by creating volume, or in preparation to sell the company. In other words, you are not Coke-a-Cola. You are not creating ‘brand awareness.’ 99% of leaders reading this are looking to gain more sales, donations, or participation.

For example:

• Market a new product to gain more sales.
• A charity wants more donations or participation.
• A company looking for investments or considering selling wants to create more participation in order to prove a higher value to potential investors/buyers.
• You are planning a large event. Participation equals success.

Each week in this 6 part series we will examine a step in creating Marketing Action Plans that drive business. The first step is goal setting. Know where you are going and don’t ever forget it.

Here’s the thing about modern marketing – everything IS measurable. That’s good news for companies AND marketing departments. When we focus on marketing in ways that are tied to results then the marketing department becomes a revenue center. Even print ad results can be measured when they generate a response via phone or online.

That doesn’t mean that every marketing action can be tied directly to resulting goal behaviors. Certainly there are times when the sale, donation, or participation is the result of a multi-step nurturing process. That’s why its important to define an engagement funnel – it will outline the path from stranger to customer for each priority audience. We’ll talk more about that later in the series.

The over-arching goal for all ads/campaigns, however, will be a measurable increase in sales, donations, or participation. In other words, the goal for a specific ad may be brand awareness, but your goal for the campaign is the measurable increase.

You want the viewer to take notice of your message and DO SOMETHING. And you want that something to move the needle on sales, donations, or participation numbers.

Your Marketing Action Plan goal should state 3 things:

• The behavior you seek from viewers
• An attainable measurement for that behavior
• Any applicable dates or timelines

The first step in creating your Marketing Action Plan: Spend some time thinking about your revenue, resources, and plans. Consider ways your company currently generates revenue, and evaluate your plans the future. Also consider your current resources and strengths. Bring your company’s leadership or trusted advisors in, and take their input.

Then, create a document titled “Marketing Action Plan.” Write a short (less than 3 sentences) goal on the first page of your document. Save it somewhere so it will be easy to find. We will continue soon…

Complete this first step as soon as you can. My next article will talk about priority audiences. Knowing your audience helps you understand where to market, what to say, and what to expect.

In the meantime, send me your questions at [email protected]. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

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Kelly Coulter (Kelly Coulter and Associates – KellyCoulter.com) does strategy, social media, and search optimization for companies ready to invest in online marketing. Located in Columbia, they plan customer-focused, data-driven marketing programs using web, social, email, and search for companies across the country. More information and articles by Kelly can be found at KellyCoulter.com.