As marketers, setting goals is a big part of the last quarter of the year; we must focus on planning for the year ahead. Setting clear, achievable marketing objectives is essential for driving growth and aligning your team.
We want to share the framework for an effective annual goal-setting process that can occur anytime during the year.
When to Start Planning Your Marketing Objectives
Ideally, the annual planning process starts in the last quarter of the previous year, and it follows these stages:
1: Review & Map
- Review the previous year’s performance and accomplishments.
- Set initial revenue targets.
2: Tactics & Metrics
- Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) to track based on revenue targets.
- Begin resource planning to support goals.
- Engage the department heads for input on tactics and metrics to reach the KPIs.
- Review the plan with the leadership team, unveiling targets and strategic growth areas.
3: Bring it to the Team
- Finalize budgets, headcount, and resource allocation for the year.
- Communicate goals company-wide with a fun retreat.
- Ensure tracking is in place to measure progress by January.
Following these stages is simple and allows ample analysis, discussion, and alignment before launching into the new year. However, it’s not too late if you’re already in January!
You can adapt this process to a condensed timeline. The key is reviewing past performance, setting data-driven targets, mapping KPIs and tactics, planning resources, and communicating the goals widely.
How to Set Revenue Targets
I recommend a three-tiered approach to setting annual revenue goals:
- Conservative target: Consider your best months from the previous year and calculate the whole year using an average.
- Achievable target: Identify your peak revenue month from the past year and use it as a benchmark for your average month of the following year.
- Ambitious target: Start with your achievable revenue target. Then, tack on an aspirational growth percentage tied to your big strategic bets for the year.
Of course, you’ll need to test these targets based on your business and market conditions. But this framework provides a data-driven starting point anchored around your proven performance. From there, layering a growth percentage based on your strategic plans creates an ambitious target to rally the team around.
Identifying Marketing KPIs
With revenue goals established, the next step is selecting the marketing KPIs that will serve as key levers for reaching those numbers. Common high-level marketing KPIs include:
- Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
- Sales qualified leads (SQLs)
- Cost per lead
- Lead to customer conversion rate
- Average customer value
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Customer lifetime value (LTV)
The specific KPIs you focus on will depend on your business model and marketing strategy. For example, if you invest heavily in content marketing, metrics like organic traffic and engagement rates may be critical leading indicators. Monitoring lead progression through the funnel will be essential if you have an inside sales team.
Select no more than 5-6 primary KPIs for your marketing team to rally around. You can always add secondary metrics by department or even individual. But clarifying those vital few will help focus your team’s efforts. Establish targets for each core KPI based on the performance required to hit your revenue goals.
Translating Marketing Objectives Into Tactics
With clear revenue targets and KPIs, you can begin mapping out the tactical plans and projects required to achieve them. Each department should prepare a preliminary plan outlining its proposed focus areas and initiatives for reaching the marketing objectives.
Then, bring your leadership team together to review each department’s plan, spot gaps and overlaps, and align on priorities. This step is crucial for gaining cross-functional buy-in and ensuring accountability. Strive to emerge with:
- Agreement on the 3-5 most essential company-wide priorities.
- Clarity on each department’s top initiatives and metrics.
- Owners assigned to each workstream.
- A shared understanding of how the pieces fit together.
While this may seem like a tall order for one planning session, it pays dividends to hash things out together. You’ll surface issues, generate solutions, and build collective commitment to the mission. Well-invested planning time upfront prevents confusion and misalignment down the road.
Budgets, Resource Planning, and Goal Communication
Finally, it’s time to shore up your budget and resources to set your team up for success. Based on your agreed-upon plans:
- Assign a budget to each significant initiative.
- Determine if you need to hire to fill skill gaps or develop current team members.
- Evaluate your tech stack and tools to support your goals.
- Establish meeting cadences to monitor progress and course-correct.
Most importantly, communicate the marketing objectives far and wide! Share the targets, strategies, and KPIs with the entire company. Provide regular progress updates throughout the year. Celebrate wins and learn from misses. The more you can keep your goals front and center, the more likely you will achieve them.
A Goal-Setting Process to Drive Marketing Success
In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, marketers can’t afford to fly blind. We need clear goals to guide our decisions, strategies, and resource investments. Following this proven framework for annual planning – while customizing it to your business needs – positions you for marketing success in 2025 and beyond.
Remember, the key ingredients are:
- Use data to set realistic yet ambitious revenue targets.
- Focus on a few key metrics that move the needle.
- Align the team with clear priorities and plans.
- Resource properly to bring those plans to life.
- Communicate goals widely and regularly.
Here’s to a purposeful and prosperous 2025! If you need help setting your yearly marketing objectives, schedule a complimentary consultation. Our team will be happy to support with your marketing needs.
