Examples of marketing goals

In other words: What do you want to achieve with your business that can be achieved through marketing?

The most basic examples of marketing goals are the famous: “know, like, and trust” goals.

We will look at these and then take them a step further for health pros and CEOs.

Then, we’ll go over how to make those goals come true with a plan.

Imagine how much stress disappears when you have goals and a plan. Imagine how many goals you will achieve when you get clear.

Let’s go over some examples of marketing goals!

Quick overview: Examples of marketing goals

First, think about your vision for your business. What do you want it to accomplish? Who do you want to help? What is your main message? How do you want your business to support your life?

As the CEO, your business vision should drive your marketing goals.

The most basic examples of marketing goals are to get more ideal clients to: “know, like, and trust” you and your brand. This is a very simple way of listing goals to grow the number of people who know you, like you, and trust you. And these three marketing goals represent three phases of your client’s journey.

First, they need to know that you exist and what you can do to help them. Then once they know you, they need to like you enough to be interested in what you say and offer to them. Finally, it’s only when they trust you enough will they buy anything from you or invest in your products, programs, and services.

You can break these three fundamental goals down even further. Examples of deeper-level marketing goals you may have may be to increase:

Know

• Brand awareness—getting in front of more people so they’re aware of your brand, content, expertise, and offers

Like

• Engagement—getting more people to consume, “like,” share, and reply to your content
• Lead generation—getting more people to register or subscribe to your content, or book free “discovery calls” with you

Trust

• Sales—getting more people to invest in your products, programs, and services in small or large amounts
• Client loyalty/retention—getting more people to come back to you for future help and refer new clients to you
• Upsell/cross-sell—getting customers to invest in larger ticket items (e.g., VIP packages) or purchase several items at a time (e.g., bulk purchases)

Once you have one or two of these more specific marketing goals, the next step is to figure out how to reach them.

Using your marketing goals to create a strategic plan

Now that you have seen examples of marketing goals, choose one or two to work on for the next few months or so and then find the best tools to help you reach those goals in a way that feels right for you.

For example, if you want to increase brand awareness (“like”) then one tool you can choose from is by using content. This means publishing consistent, valuable content whether it’s on your site (blog/vlog/podcast) or on another site (Instagram/Facebook).

After you publish the content, make sure that it gets more people to become aware of you, so you can push it out further using several unique social media posts that may be boosted, pay for advertising, or draw potential ideal clients to you by being findable in search engines via SEO.

Using content to reach your ideal clients is called content marketing.

Now that you have marketing goals (to increase brand awareness) and some tools (content on your blog/vlog/podcast and social media), you can start to create your strategic marketing plan. In other words, create a plan to reach your marketing goals so that you can achieve your business vision.

It’s this strategic marketing plan (or editorial calendar) where you figure out how to make your content marketing goals come to life.

To make your strategic marketing plan ask yourself: How are you going to reach your ideal clients? What are you going to publish and when? What reason are you going to give that person to move on to the next step of their journey with you (e.g., to engage with you or become a “lead”)?

According to Jon Morrow of Smartblogger,

The purpose of content is to create influence.
The purpose of marketing is to convert influence into action.(ref)

Hence, “content marketing.”

Content marketing institute defines content marketing” as:

Creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

For example, by consistently creating high-quality niche-specific content you are increasing:

• Your brand’s authority and credibility, so you stand out and become a thought leader and the go-to expert
• Your “know, like, and trust” factor with your targeted audience
• The number of audience members that subscribe to your email list
• The number of subscribers that purchase from you by nurturing them and “warming” them up to your upcoming launches

None of these happen quite as quickly if your content is low quality or generic.

HOT TIP: Ditch the low-quality generic content, friends, because that ship has sailed! Now, it’s all about showing the world how awesome you really are, and making sure that everything you publish reflects your unique awesomeness (even if you publish half as often)! High-quality, niche-specific content is more important now than it has ever been. When there is so much noise online, excellence is the only way to stand out!

Before you start planning your marketing (editorial) calendar, you need a blog strategy. Your editorial calendar is your “how.” How are you going to execute your strategic marketing goals?

In other words, your content marketing strategy is your direction and goals, and your marketing (editorial) calendar contains the regular daily/weekly/monthly steps you’re going to take to reach those goals.

And the best part?

When we talk about planning your content, you really can focus on your blog/vlog/podcast. That’s because you can use your blog on your site that you own as the foundation for your entire digital strategy—including your social media and email newsletter. Those social media posts and newsletters can flow from what you publish on your website. They come after you publish your newest piece on your website (and there is a super simple way to make your email newsletter and social media happen).

Yes, it’s that simple!

Let’s go through an analogy for you if you run a health practice:

Example: Your marketing goals are just like your clients’ health goals

Let’s say you have a new client and her goal is to fit back into her pre-pandemic jeans before her vacation that is booked in two months. And she wants to do this in a healthy, sustainable way by eating more whole foods, fewer desserts, and incorporating exercise. She’s not interested in “too good to be true” supplements (and neither are we!).

Health goals are like the marketing goals

These are her vision & goals . . . her health strategy.

• Fit into her pre-pandemic jeans
• In two months
• By eating more whole foods and fewer desserts
• And incorporating exercise

These are achievement/outcome goals. They’re what she wants and when she wants it. They’re high-level goals without the nitty-gritty of the daily work that will have to go into achieving them (that comes next in the plan).

These goals are also how success will be measured. At the end of two months, will she fit into her pre-pandemic jeans and have solid exercise habits? Will her goals be achieved?

Goals inform your strategy

As a professional, how do you help her execute her goals/strategy?

With a plan.

A health plan is like a marketing plan (editorial calendar)

Here’s where you come in as her health professional.

Your first question when helping to create a plan is to understand the parameters:

• What’s her budget in terms of time, money, and motivation?

The answer to this question will help you advise whether her goals are realistic, and which path to take to reach them. Then, you create a plan to help her achieve her goals within these parameters.

What daily actions does she need to take to reach her goals? What foods should she eat more/less of? How often? Which recipes and exercises?

Her goals will be achieved with a plan of actionable recommendations, for example:

• Eat # servings of vegetables using recommended recipes and/or meal plans, 3-5 times per day
• Eat # g of protein chosen from your list with every meal, 3 times per day
• Make homemade desserts using recommended recipes and recommended serving sizes, only eat once every other day
• Do your recommended exercises for 20 minutes, every other day

This is her actionable plan to reach her goals; the specific steps you recommend doing on a regular basis.

All of these steps put together in a logical time frame are like the marketing plan (editorial calendar).

Back to your health practice: How to create your marketing goals (strategy)

Your marketing strategy is based on your goals. To clarify your marketing goals and document your strategy, write down your answers to these questions:

• Who is your ideal client? Who do you want to help?
• What are their pain points and goals?
• How do you help them (e.g., expertise/modalities, coaching/programs/products)?
• What makes you different from your competitors? What’s your brand position and perspective? What niche do you want to be the credible go-to expert in?
• What type of content do they want and care about (e.g., educational, how-to’s, inspirational, entertaining, etc.)?
• What format will you use (i.e., long/short, written/video/audio, etc.)?
• How do you want to categorize your content? Do you have/want specific categories?
• In the next few months:
  • What are your achievement/outcome goals? For example, traffic/views, likes/shares, email subscribers, or sales?
  • Do you want to be featured in or contribute to other magazines, blogs/vlogs/podcasts?
  • How will you know if it’s working? How will you measure success?

NOTE: I said “achievement” goals, not “actionable” goals. This means that you’re strategizing achievements/outcomes, not planning step-by-step how to achieve these just yet. Don’t worry, in the marketing plan (editorial calendar), we’ll plug in the actionable steps that will help you achieve your marketing goals.

I like to summarize a marketing strategy into a mission statement like this:

“The health content I publish helps (my business) accomplish (mission) by providing (frequency) (length) (type) (format) content in (categories) that helps (audience) feel (emotion) and (do action) so they can (eliminate pain point).”

Once you have your marketing goals and strategy, you can create your marketing plan (calendar) to achieve your goals.

By having a marketing strategy based on your goals, you are visualizing and documenting the direction you want to take your business and marketing. These will help you to keep on track to where you want to go, and not get side-tracked when something new comes up.

How to create your marketing plan (editorial calendar)

Now it’s time to get real and see how to make your vision come to life. We will plan how things are going to get done, when they’re going to get done, and who is going to create your content.

Here are things to consider when creating your editorial calendar to support your marketing strategy.

Just as in the health plan example above, your first editorial calendar question is:

• What’s your budget in terms of time, money, and motivation?

How much time, money, and motivation do you have to create your main content (i.e., your blog/vlog/podcast)? Don’t forget your newsletter and social media are so simple once your main content is published.

Now, to create your content marketing editorial calendar, you need to answer:

• What days will you publish content on your own blog and other blogs (i.e., guest posting, being interviewed)?
• How will you balance out content for your different categories? Different formats? Different types?
• What “calls to action” will you use to achieve your strategic goals (e.g., email opt-in incentives, promotions within posts, purely promotional posts, etc.)?
• What topics will support your upcoming important days? E.g., birthday/anniversary, holidays, health/food-themed days, new product/service launches? Remember to nurture along the buyer’s journey, i.e., “warm” up your audience to upcoming offerings.
• What are your most/least popular posts? How can you maximize them? What’s trending on Google and social media?
• What content do you already have that you can update, re-publish in another format, or repurpose in some way?
• How are you going to find your audience, and how are they going to find you (e.g., guest posting, interviews, social media, boosting, advertising, SEO, etc.)?

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For example, some actionable plans to include in your marketing calendar are:

• Blogging/podcasting/vlogging weekly
• Pitching interviews and guest posts weekly
• Getting interviewed and/or guest posting monthly
• Creating a new opt-in incentive quarterly

You’ll notice that these plans are things you have full control over and can tick off your list. That’s what makes them actionable as part of your marketing calendar. You literally schedule them in.

Once you have your marketing calendar planned out, it just needs to get done.

And the best news is that you don’t have to do it all yourself! For example, do you want to accept guest posts? Do you want to outsource to a professional content manager and ghostwriter? Do you want to use and customize “done for you” content?

And, when you’ve decided which pieces you’re creating yourself, it’s SO SIMPLE to batch them together and create them all at once because you have a plan!

NOTE: Your marketing calendar is NEVER carved in stone! There may be a number of things that are non-negotiable and must be done on a certain date. For example special dates like your birthday/business anniversary, your launch dates, seasonal dates, or established heath/food dates. However, the rest will have some flexibility and you may be able to move them around if a new or exciting opportunity or viral health article that you HAVE to comment on comes up unexpectedly. Your editorial calendar is as flexible as you want it to be and will help you meet your content strategy goals as much as you want to.

With all of these in mind, go ahead and download a free template of my content strategy editorial calendar here:

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aELiS83pgSslw5K6FpJzrz-B_dHJKFFyOhYileQACig/edit?usp=sharing

Conclusion

Your business and marketing goals drive all that you do. With high-quality, niche-specific content on your blog/vlog/podcast, you will build a targeted audience (get more people to know you), email subscribers (get more people to like you), and ultimately, customers and clients (get more people to trust you).

Your marketing goals (strategy) are the foundation for your editorial calendar. They’re the goals you want to achieve.

Your marketing calendar (plan) is your step-by-step plan to achieve those goals. This can be via your blog, vlog, or podcast, as well as how you share these to reach your audience via your newsletter, social media, advertising, etc.

Signing off and toasting: To choosing the best examples of marketing goals to grow your biz.

Over to you

What do you think? Do you have marketing goals and a strategy? Do you have an up-to-date plan/calendar that supports your strategy? Do you want them?

I’d love to know (in the comments below)!