Don't treat your marketing goals the way you treat your New Year's resolutions. Many business owners start out with good marketing intentions but fail to stick with them. In my view they fail because they lack a well-reasoned written marketing strategy. Here is an easy 5-Step Guide to achieving your marketing goals.



1. Set just a single simple goal you can achieve in a year or less

Lots of marketers set too many goals at the same time and impossibly short times for these to be achieved. Soon these plans start to founder and the goals are usually unmet.

Rather set one goal and focus your energy on achieving it. Achieving one goal will give you the confidence to move onto further goals. You may have to simplify your goal to make it achievable in twelve months. I recommend this. Anything that can't be done in a year will most likely not be done at all.

An example of a single simple goal is to increase your business's income by $100 000 in one year. That's pretty clear. Either you have improved your turnover in twelve months by that amount or you haven't.

2. Put your goal in writing and set a reasonable completion date

People who achieve their goals are invariably those who take the time to write them down. In addition, they write down the steps they need to take to achieve such goals. The example above would be written something like this: "I will increase turnover by $100 000 by 31 January 2009 by designing and implementing an effective marketing program."

3. Break down the goal into smaller objectives - with deadlines for each one. Then break these down further into smaller, dated tasks. Write it all down!

Short-term objectives are the tactics in your larger strategy. List of the objectives you need to meet. For instance, if you plan to increase turnover by $100 000 and your average gross revenue per sale is $500, then you know you must add 200 sales in the year. This equates to about 16 additional sales per month, or about four per week.

A list of objectives with their dates and associated tasks might look like this:

OBJECTIVE #1: To implement a strategy to increase sales

Date Due: March 1

Task 1: Develop a prospect gathering plan to garner the names of potential new clients from existing clients.

Date Due: January 23

Task 2: Develop a special offer letter for potential new clients to encourage appointments.

Date Due: January 26

Task 3: Develop a referral reward system

Task 4: Share your plans with others

Share your written goal and objectives with partner, friend, mentor anyone who wishes for your success. Involve them in your subsidiary objectives and deadline dates. This is an important step. If you hide your marketing goals it's easier not to achieve them!

Task 5: Pat yourself on the back

When you achieve an objective, draw a thick line through it on the list. This is a huge psychological booster. Also give yourself a tangible reward: buy yourself a music CD or take yourself for an aromatherapy treatment.