Marketing Objectives vs. Goals – What’s the Difference?

Can you easily tell the difference between marketing objectives and marketing goals? If you’re having trouble, you’re not alone.

The two terms have nearly identical definitions in the dictionary, but in marketing, they are two separate steps in the same process towards success.

Good business needs clearly defined goals and objectives. If you’re struggling on where to begin, the good news is you can start right here. We’re marketing experts with over 20 years of experience and we’re sharing what we’ve learned with you in this article.

Read on to learn the differences between marketing goals and objectives and how to set the right ones for your company.

The Difference Between Marketing Objectives and Goals

Some new companies might consider goals and objectives to be interchangeable. Understanding the differences between the two helps businesses strategize growth and determine what the next step to success is.

Marketing Goals

We can start by examining the marketing goals, or the broad, top-level goals. Think of this as how businesses can benefit from certain channels or marketing efforts. (If goals were on a pyramid diagram, they’d go just above objectives.)

The marketing goals are the broad aims that businesses use to craft a marketing strategy, including having a website well optimized for search engines, and there are services that help us with this, tools which can teach how to paraphrase a sentence so the post have good searching results. They can describe really broad aims like how marketing will help grow sales and how the business can save money overall.

Use marketing goals to help give clearer end results and to clearly set up your marketing objectives with defined expectations.

Marketing Objectives

The marketing objectives give clear direction and actions that can be measured to track success. When reviewing goals, businesses will many times set up objectives used to reach them with the famous SMART mnemonic.

Ever heard of SMART objectives?

According to marketing gurus, objectives should be SMART, which is to say they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed.

The top three marketing objectives are to drive sales/leads, engage customers and boost brand awareness. And with the metrics of the SMART method, businesses can quickly determine which ways are working and which aren’t.

Tracking performance is necessary for growth.

Marketing Objectives

Ahead of the marketing objectives are the goals for the business, and behind it are the KPIs and metrics. (We’ll go a little more into KPIs in the next section).

When putting together marketing objectives, consider these tips:

Have a Good Plan 

This sounds rudimentary, but hear me out. A good plan is one that is fleshed out many weeks or months before it’s put into action. Set a plan and goal for each piece of content you intend to market.

All content should have a strong purpose, and most (if not all) should drive consumers forward with a call to action. Why did you create this certain piece of content? How can you alter it for success?

Have a good plan way ahead of time.

Consider Your Audience 

Many businesses get wrapped up in what they want their audience to experience. A better way to ensure you get and retain customers is to think about what the audience wants.

This will ultimately help you create better and more efficient content that speaks to target audiences. Don’t assume that others know as much about the product that you’re selling as yourself. You have to go out and meet them halfway.

Take Control of Your Content

Clean, effective–good content takes a decent amount of time to put together. Instead of upholding objectives by constantly churning out brand new copy, repurpose and reshare the content you already have.

Turn blog posts or press releases into infographics that you can share across social media or through email campaigns. Take a diagram or a fact sheet and turn it into a blog article.

Resharing content on social media helps make sure more people see the good content you’re creating. Maybe you just need to change a title or a color scheme to make it feel fresh again. If it’s good content, keep using it!

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs are key performance indicators that help measure success. Establishing key performance indicators help businesses get rid of ineffective content and tell them which direction to go next.

KPIs can be anything from sales metrics, SEO metrics and financial metrics to social media metrics. They can identify revenue growth rate and inventory turnover.

Researching and determining the indicators for success in your marketing objectives will only help you better understand where you need to go next.

S-M-A-R-T Objectives

SMART objectives allow businesses a fool-proof way of figuring out which objectives work and which need to be reworked in order to succeed. Let’s explore a little.

• Specific – Is the objective very specific? Have you outlined all the different components that make it up, down to specific target audiences and exact resources to be used?
• Measurable – Can you track the success of the objective with a number? Can you see exactly what kind of impact it’s having?
• Achievable – Is the expected outcome of the objective reasonable? Can your business actually achieve the result it’s attempting, or is it being set up for failure?
• Realistic – You understand what you have to do, you have a plan for what you want to do, but can you afford it? Do you actually have enough resources to pull off the objective?
• Timed – Can you put an exact date on when you will achieve the objective?

Ultimately the objectives will carry the business towards its goals. It’s essential, then, that the objectives are carefully considered to make sure there’s at least a fighting chance for success.

Boost Your Marketing With Ravenshoe

Setting up marketing objectives is an essential early step for success. Creating winning campaigns and drawing attention from target audiences first requires a reasonable and detailed plan.

Unsure of where to get started? You’ve come to the right place!

At Ravenshoe Group, our goal is to ensure our clients’ businesses are showcased through our full suite of marketing services. From digital to design to packaging, we’re a full-service marketing team.

We’ve got the resources to take your idea and create all the supporting marketing resources it needs to thrive.

Contact a representative today to learn how we can help!