Setting Your 2023 Marketing Goals: A Guide

Setting the right goal is the backbone of an effective inbound marketing strategy. It can provide a foundation for how you develop your marketing approach. It can also help you identify milestones to track as you make progress toward important business objectives. 

While business leaders and marketing managers recognize the importance of setting marketing goals, defining them is often easier said than done. Where do you start? Which goals will truly help you move the needle? How much should you stretch while still identifying SMART marketing goals that are attainable? These aren’t easy questions to answer.  

7 Steps to Identify The Right Marketing Goals for 2023

After hundreds of conversations over the years, we’ve discovered a few best practices that can help you set marketing goals that align with your overall business objectives. Whether you’re just starting the process of defining your goals or finalizing your marketing plan, here are a few helpful steps to ensure you set the right marketing goals for the year: 

Step #1: Evaluate and Analyze This Year’s Goals 

Taking time to reflect on your experience over the past year is the best place to start. What were your goals at the beginning of the year? Were they helpful in moving you toward your ultimate business goals? Were you too ambitious in some areas? Were there certain obstacles that kept you from achieving your goals? Which goals would you keep and which would you jettison?

These are all incredibly helpful questions to help you develop smarter marketing goals for the following year. At Green Apple, we often encourage our clients to include other stakeholders in the process of evaluating goals. Whether it’s capturing anecdotal feedback or conducting a thorough SWOT analysis, it’s important to approach the conversation with honesty and candor.  

You won’t be able to improve if you don’t take the time to identify your current reality. This leads to the next step. 

Step #2: Define Your Current Position and Barriers to Growth

Defining the proper marketing goals requires an accurate understanding of your current reality. It’s important to consider your current growth level. You shouldn’t expect to grow by double digits (without a significant shift in budget or strategy) if you’ve averaged 2-3% growth. This also means making an honest assessment of your limitations. Every marketing tactic requires time, energy, and resources. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to set audacious marketing goals without the ability to make the necessary investment to achieve them. 

Step #3: Incorporate Your Business Goals and Initiatives into Your Marketing Goals 

One of the best ways for your marketing efforts to impact your business is to ensure your goal supports the overall direction of your company. This is an often overlooked but essential step in setting your marketing goals. As we partner with clients to develop their marketing strategy, we take time to identify any business objectives marketing should support. Often, this requires collaboration between the C-suite, marketing team, business development team, and even customer service and operations. 

The point is to understand what your company is trying to achieve so that you know where to invest your marketing budget.

Step #4: Identify Your Priorities

If you could only focus on three or four marketing goals for the year, what would they be? If you could only focus on one, what would it be? Asking these two questions can help you define your priorities. Biting off more than you can chew is a common mistake when it comes to setting the right marketing goals. 

Ranking your priorities can ensure you focus on what’s most important. It can also provide clarity if you’re forced to make budget cuts or other business decisions that might impact your overall marketing campaign. 

Step #5: Set Clear, Written Objectives and Key Results 

Based on the insights you gain from the first four steps, you’re ready to define your marketing goals. Writing your goals down is also important. According to research from CoSchedule, marketers who write down their goals are 376% more likely to report success than those who don’t. 

It’s important to have a timeline for each goal or objective. For example, 

  • Goal: Grow our social media following
  • Objective: Increase social media audience by 30% by April 1, 2023
Step #6: Detail Your Milestones and Metrics for Success

The best way to drive your results and keep your team motivated is to break down your annual goals into quarterly and monthly milestones. This can also be helpful if you work in an industry where certain times of year are busier than others. 

For example, if you have a Q2 sales goal that’s higher than normal, you might want to set a Q1 lead generation goal that can support it. 

Step #7: Determine How to Translate Metrics into Actionable Insights 

If you want to achieve your end goal, it’s important to be able to translate your marketing results into actionable insights. This shift in the way you approach marketing metrics can make a huge difference.  

If you’re struggling to identify the right marketing goals for your business, you’re not alone. We’ve worked with businesses in a variety of industries, and each has its own unique set of challenges when it comes to setting the right goals. 

Let Us Help You Achieve Your Goals

If you need help setting the right goals or designing a marketing strategy to help you achieve your business goals, our team is here to help. 

Hit the Mark: How to Align Your Marketing Goals with the Big Picture

pen and coffee

Setting annual marketing goals can often feel like a game of darts in the dark. You might have a general idea of where you want to aim, but without a clear understanding of the big picture, it’s easy to miss the mark. For many small to mid-size businesses, identifying the right goals is challenging. Goals might not align with overall business objectives, or silos between departments leave marketing disconnected from the company’s bigger picture.

At Green Apple, we believe that effective marketing goal-setting requires a holistic approach: evaluating what’s worked before, collaborating with key stakeholders, and aligning your goals with broader business strategies. The following secrets will help ensure your annual marketing plan stays focused and realistic.

Pro Tips for Building Smart Marketing Goals

1. Get a Clear Understanding of the Previous Year

Reflecting on the previous year is essential. Start with a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to review which campaigns performed well and where there were gaps. Use data and performance metrics to understand what drove success—and more importantly—what didn’t. This will help you avoid mistakes and double down on what worked.

For example, if email marketing campaigns generated the highest ROI, you’ll want to incorporate them into your updated strategy. If social media ads fell short, dig into why. Was it the platform, targeting, or creative? Reflection is key to building smarter goals.

2. Make Sure You Understand the Big Picture

Marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum—every part of your business affects (and is affected by) your marketing efforts. Your marketing goals need to align with key business objectives in order to be successful. Think about how marketing connects with operations, customer service, and product development. For example, if the business aims to scale operations, marketing needs to focus on lead generation or brand awareness campaigns in a way that can support sustainable growth.

It’s essential to align your marketing goals with what’s happening across departments. When marketing, operations, and customer service are in sync, it’s easier to ensure a seamless customer experience and create a brand that customers love.

3. Review Your Mission and Vision Statements

Everything you do should reflect who you are as a company. Ask your team and yourself questions like, “What do we value?” “What differentiates us from the competition?” or “Why do we exist?” It can be easy to get caught up in following trends, but don’t forget about what makes you stand out from the competition. Your annual plan should always incorporate concepts that demonstrate your differentiators. 

4. Get All Stakeholders Involved in the Process

You don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen, but it’s critical to involve the right people when setting marketing goals. Collaborate with decision-makers who can offer input on key priorities. This includes leaders from other departments—like sales, operations, or customer support—who can inform your strategy.

Additionally, make sure you have buy-in from the leadership team. It’s frustrating to finalize a marketing plan only to discover the CEO’s vision wasn’t factored in. Involving stakeholders from the start ensures alignment and makes it easier to execute your plan with confidence.

5. Set Realistic, Achievable Goals

Ambitious goals are great, but it’s essential to be mindful of your resources—such as team size, budget, and time. A single marketing person wearing multiple hats won’t be able to launch a robust, multi-channel campaign without proper support.

Set specific, measurable marketing goals that stretch your team without overwhelming them. Use the SMART framework—goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A good example might be, “Increase website traffic by 15% in Q1 through targeted content marketing efforts.”

6. Think Beyond Sales—Focus on Engagement and Brand Awareness

While revenue is often the end goal, not all marketing campaigns need to focus on immediate sales. Some of the most effective strategies aim to build brand awareness or increase customer engagement. If your business is planning to enter a new market or launch a product, creating awareness might be more important than direct conversions.

Consider how marketing efforts like thought leadership, social media presence, or community involvement can contribute to long-term success. These types of campaigns build trust and loyalty, which will ultimately drive future sales.

7. Stay Flexible and Adapt Throughout the Year

No matter how well you plan, things will change. Market trends shift, new opportunities arise, and unexpected challenges can disrupt even the best-laid strategies. Build flexibility into your plan so you can pivot when needed.

One way to stay agile is by setting quarterly check-ins to evaluate your progress and make adjustments. If a campaign isn’t delivering the results you expected, don’t hesitate to tweak it or try a different approach. Flexibility ensures your goals remain aligned with both business needs and market conditions.

Five Questions to Fine-Tune Your Marketing Goals

Here are some questions to help you align your marketing goals with the big picture:

  • What worked well last year and what didn’t?
  • How do your marketing goals align with the company’s broader business objectives?
  • Are there any operational or customer service challenges that marketing can support?
  • Which stakeholders need to be involved to ensure alignment and buy-in?
  • What metrics will you track to measure success throughout the year?

These questions will help you identify gaps, refine your goals, and ensure that your marketing efforts support your company’s larger goals.

Closing the Gap Between Marketing and Strategy

Setting annual marketing goals that align with your business strategy doesn’t have to feel like guesswork. With thoughtful reflection, collaboration, and a focus on realistic, actionable goals, you can build a marketing plan that supports both short-term wins and long-term growth.

Need help aligning your marketing efforts with the big picture? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to learn how our strategic planning services can help your business grow and thrive. Let’s work together to build a plan that makes next year the best one yet!

 

5 Books to Read When Looking for Your “Why” in Marketing

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Discovering your why when marketing your business should always be step one. It’s the foundation upon which you can build your entire brand—because people don’t create a business without a reason. They create a business because they are passionate about providing something to their audience or solving a problem. 

This is especially important for your marketing strategy because when you fully understand what drives you and your company, you can explain it to others. Marketing is primarily storytelling, and you need a story to share with your audience. So, when you’re discovering your why, especially as you inform your marketing direction, where do you start? If you’re a bibliophile, we recommend these five books to find the true drive behind your company’s efforts.

1. Robots Make Bad Fundraisers: How Nonprofits Can Maintain the Heart in the Digital Age

For the nonprofit organizations that live on fundraising, your why is essential. People give their time and their money because they feel good about where those resources are going, and they want to make a difference. By discovering the heart of your organization and telling that story in the strongest way possible, you can insight passion in others and boost your fundraising goals. 

In Steven Shattuck’s book, Robots Make Bad Fundraisers: How Nonprofits Can Maintain the Heart in the Digital Age, he ventures to answer an important question: Has technology actually gotten in the way of building a personal connection with our supporters?

He would argue that, yes, the more digital our world becomes, the less our hearts are in it, and the further we stray from our purpose. We rely on these technologies to fuel our growth, but, in reality, they are allowing us to lose focus, and we aren’t telling the passionate story of purpose these organizations were founded on. This nonprofit-focused marketing book actually has an interesting lesson to teach us all, even in the for-profit sector—how to keep the donors you have, inspire new donors to give, and maintain your team members’ sanity.

2. Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story

A business’s purpose always circles back around to the most important person: the customer. We build these businesses because we want to help our audience overcome a challenge or feel a certain way. It’s only right, then, that we keep our customer at the heart of the brand story. Miri Rodriguez’s book, Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story, helps us do just that. 

Rodriguez guides the reader to use storytelling to trigger the emotions that humans are driven by. She explains how to analyze, pull apart, and rebuild your brand’s story in a way that focuses the business as the “sidekick,” putting the control in the customer’s hands, allowing them to be the key influencer.

3. This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See

“Great marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem; they use marketing to solve other people’s problems,” says Seth Goldin, Author of This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See. This book description could stop here, as that’s the perfect way to describe what it means to discover the reason behind why you do what you do. 

Goldin draws upon his many years in marketing to explain how marketers can make the world a better place through powerful marketing elements: empathy, generosity, and emotional labor. He walks the reader through identifying their viable audience, drawing on the signals to position their offering, building trust, telling a meaningful story, and giving people what they need to achieve their goals. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Right?

4. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

Does your message matter if your audience isn’t listening? In his book Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, author Donald Miller shares his method for connecting with customers—helping them understand the benefits of using a brand’s products, ideas, or services. By simplifying your brand message, your audience will grasp it more quickly and be motivated to move forward. Miller helps readers do this through seven universal story points that all humans respond to. 

When building our messages, we must keep our messages clear and engaging. And where does that message begin? You guessed it: your why. Your understanding of your purpose allows you to build a clear message. Miller can help you get there.

5. Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers

We search for our why because we want to matter to our customers. That moment when you think, “I have this great service. Why is no one taking advantage of it?” It’s because you know how great it is, and your audience doesn’t. In her book, Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers, Bernadette Jiwa explains that we “have no shortage of ideas, but we struggle to tell the story of how they are going to be useful in the world.” We couldn’t agree more. By posing a series of thought-provoking questions, Jiwa helps the reader dive into what about their brand will resonate and how to craft a message that will matter. 

Are you looking to take your marketing to the next level? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.