Why is goal setting important to inbound marketing?

There are several benefits of setting goals when doing an inbound marketing. The inbound marketers that are successful set goals because goal setting is the first step to achieving business objectives. In business, the main reason why your customers are your customers is that you solve their concerns. Inbound marketing is basically the process of helping potential customers find your business or company.

The goal of inbound marketing is to create quality content that meets the demands of your target audience as well as sustain long-term client connections. Therefore, setting goals in inbound marketing will help you know what is expected of you and will enable you to go all the way to achieve these goals. This is why goal setting is important to inbound marketing because it gives you something to work towards.

However, before we dive into why goal setting is important to inbound marketing, it’s best we understand what inbound marketing is all about.

Inbound marketing forms the connection your audience is looking for and solves the problems they already have. This process usually happens before the customer is even ready to make a purchase decision because making contact early with customers can turn into brand preference and, ultimately, revenue and leads.

Inbound marketing is a definite contrast to outbound marketing. The former focuses on visibility in order to attract potential buyers, whereas the latter seeks out customers and interrupts your audience with content they don’t always want.

Outbound marketing involves the use of traditional methods, which consists of outsourced telemarketing, trade shows, and seminar series, but when employing inbound marketing, businesses and companies focus on new methods that are geared toward building awareness of their brand among the masses, generating leads, and developing relationships.

How does it work?

A solid inbound marketing strategy comprises four steps, which include attract (awareness), convert (interest), close (action), and delight (return customers).

Inbound marketing strategy steps

1. Attract: The goal in this stage is to attract online users who have never heard about your brand or its offerings.
2. Convert: The next crucial step after attracting prospects is to nurture them towards making a purchase. In inbound marketing, this task is termed converting leads.
3. Close: This is the stage where leads convert into loyal customers.
4. Delight: Prospects that have become customers would have a massive potential to become the brand’s evangelists.

Inbound marketing provides content that is educational, entertaining, and welcomed by customers. With the right approach, it can deliver better results than traditional marketing, which usually disrupts potential customers rather than giving them an open invitation to engage.

This marketing approach consists of entirely organic leads and therefore relies on brains rather than budget. It has the powerful ability to connect your business with people that are genuinely interested in what you have to say. The advantageous results that come with inbound marketing include lead conversions and customer retention. More so, it increases your social media shares, brand awareness, and search engine optimization efforts.

Reasons why you need inbound marketing

1. Inbound marketing generates more sales
2. More qualified leads are generated through inbound marketing
3. You can increase revenue and sales.
4. This marketing approach allows you to concentrate on promoting your brand’s image
5. It helps to build trust and relationships between the brand/business/ company and the customers
6. Inbound marketing has a better return on investment (ROI)
7. It can save you time
8. This method provides precise measurements that show you what is working

Why is goal setting important to inbound marketing?

1. Setting goals help develop inbound marketing tactics to drive revenue
2. Goal setting helps focus your inbound marketing efforts
3. Setting goals can motivate the sales and marketing teams
4. Goal setting helps evaluate the success of the inbound marketing strategy

Having your goals set out helps you know exactly what you want and how to go about it. Once you have a strategy in place, you will be able to be more precise when analyzing and monitoring your ability to achieve your goals. It also helps you stay on track.

The secret to creating great inbound marketing goals is to establish specific and realistic goals that meet the company or business objectives. Goals need to be defined and set out so that one doesn’t waste time on things that are of irrelevance to one’s purpose, be it in business or in life. Hence, in inbound marketing, setting goals is very important and a must-do step. Here are some basic reasons why goal setting is important in inbound marketing:

Setting goals help develop inbound marketing tactics to drive revenue

Setting inbound marketing goals helps develop tactics to drive revenue in the business. When clear goals are defined for inbound marketing activities, the needed actions on how to achieve those results will be set in motion. In marketing practice, setting your company goals for the year ahead is very vital and should be done at least once a year. Once the plan is updated, it will help define your strategy and improve your approach toward driving revenue for your business. Most importantly, it keeps you accountable to your own business goals.

Goal setting helps focus your inbound marketing efforts

Setting goals helps the company focus its inbound marketing efforts. The inbound marketing efforts of a business will be more focused and effective if specific goals are set. For instance, if the goal set is to boost qualified traffic, the marketing team would know that they would need to raise the amount of content they’re putting out, potentially beef up their paid ad campaigns, and also step up their social media efforts to increase their reach. Goal setting is an integral part of the inbound marketing process that can help you to set specific goals and benchmarks that show you when you’re making an effective effort to achieve your target.

Setting goals can motivate the sales and marketing teams

In inbound marketing, the sales and marketing team can collaborate to identify the kind of leads they want and how many they desire. Then, set goals together to achieve this, with valuable content that they can sell out to the target audience. Defining shared goals between these two teams can greatly impact how they work together to achieve the total revenue target of the company. When sales and marketing teams set goals and work together, they can achieve a lot through inbound marketing. Therefore, setting shared goals can motivate the marketing and sales team to work together to reach the company’s revenue goal.

Goal setting helps evaluate the success of the inbound marketing strategy

Goal setting in inbound marketing is very important because it helps measure success with your inbound marketing strategy. However, the mistake companies make when setting their goals is creating something fluffy and generic. Your goals should be in-depth, realistic and actionable.

Setting your goals for your inbound marketing approach allows you to take stock of the current state of your company. You can make an honest assessment of your current situation and where you want to get to, then establish a plan that has clear deadlines and milestones to enable you to ascertain whether you’ve made real progress towards your desired destination.

Without a set-out goal, it’s going to be impossible to tell if your inbound marketing efforts are generating leads, boosting your bottom line, and closing sales. Hence, at the very start of your inbound marketing process, it is best to set your goals upfront. This will help determine what success will look like after implementing your inbound marketing strategy.

How to create SMART goals for inbound marketing

• S- Specific
• M- Measurable
• A-Actionable
• R- Realistic
• T-Timely

The SMART acronym is a guide on how to set your goals in inbound marketing and the basic features they should have.

S- Specific

In inbound marketing, your goal needs to be specific enough in order for you to ascertain if it has been achieved. Do not set vague goals so that you can have a way of measuring the progress towards achieving the goal.

M- Measurable

Ensure your goal is measurable. There should be some way of measuring the progress towards achieving the goal. For instance, making an increase in sales compared to the previous year’s result for one product in one region.

A-Actionable

The goal set should be actionable, meaning an individual can take steps towards achieving the goal by themselves without having others do the work for them. A goal is not actionable if an individual doesn’t have control or authority over all the aspects of the task needed to achieve the goal.

R- Realistic

When it comes to inbound marketing, it is important to set realistic goals. Set goals in areas where you may have at least been able to see others succeed with similar efforts or in areas where you have had success in the past. This will help you set a target that is attainable and reasonable instead of setting goals that are too lofty or unattainable.

T-Timely

It is best to set goals that are timely in order to keep your marketing on track. This will help you stay focused and keep your priorities straight. The timeframe enables you to determine when your marketing efforts start and finish, as well as to measure the success of your efforts. When you make your goals time-bound, you put pressure on yourself to execute them in a timely manner so that they are completed on time.