Common Marketing Objectives and the Differences Between Them

No successful marketing strategy can exist without first giving it one or more clear objectives. These play a crucial role in both the direction, as well as the ROI that approach will have. It is, however, essential to make the distinction between them and your overall goals.

The reason for this is that, while the purpose of your marketing goals may change along the way, your marketing objectives keep the same, identical principles, regardless of the situation. In other words, all of your marketing goals need to be specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound. One such example could be something along the lines of “Achieve 15% online revenue contribution within 18 months.”

The 4Ps of Marketing

When you design your marketing strategy, you need to look at it from all angles. It will allow you to identify and define your objectives clearly. One good way of doing this is by dividing your marketing objectives into the so-called 4Ps of Marketing. Also known as the Marketing Mix, these 4Ps stands for Product, Price, Place, and, Promotion. 

Product – Within the product column, your goals should be focused on products and services. Marketers do, however, need to know the product’s lifecycle and how to deal with it at every stage of this cycle.

Price – As their name would suggest, price objectives revolve around the cost consumers will pay for the product. Here, marketers need to make the connection between the product price with both its real and perceived value. Furthermore, they need to take into consideration the supply costs, competitors’ prices, as well as any discounts. The product’s price, for instance, can be raised to make the product seem more luxurious. Alternatively, you can be lower it to attract more people into trying it.

Place – This set of objectives dictates the direction you follow to get your product to clients. In other words, these will outline where a business will sell its product and how it will deliver it to the market. Product placement may refer to the physical placement in stores or on display, or it can also mean where it will appear on a web page or in movies, TV shows, etc.

Promotion – Promotional objectives imply brand recognition as well as the desired level of product or service awareness. This category can also include public relations, advertising, and promotional strategy.

SMART Marketing Objectives

When setting your objectives, it’s useful that you filter it through the aforementioned SMART criteria. So, for a marketing objective to pass this filtration, it first needs to be specific. It means that the goal is sufficiently detailed so it can measure problems and opportunities.

Second, the objective needs to be measurable by applying it a quantitative or qualitative attribute. It does, however, need to improve performance by being actionable and it needs to be relevant to be applied to a specific problem. Lastly, the objective has to be time-bound as a means of determining its success rate.

Conclusion

Setting proper and well-defined marketing objectives will help you steer your strategy in the right direction and always keep it on track. For more information on social media marketing, feel free to visit our website or contact us directly.