Following right on from our Marketing Planning Introduction the first step in the PIMMS process (and in any marketing initiative) is to set objectives.What, exactly, are you trying to achieve? If you don’t know this, how can you know whether you are gettiung anywhere!?
Objectives are not just for the business – particularly for your own, SME business:
- Set your personal objectives
- Set your business objectives
- Set your marketing communication objectives
Personal objectives
In most small businesses, the success of the business is significantly influenced by the motivation of those running it, so understanding why you are doing it is key. Why do you get up every day and go into the office? What are you wanting to get out of your business PERSONALLY. A clear understanding of this will significantly influence your business objectives (the next step) and your motivation to make them happen.
Business Objectives
Once you have established what you are trying to achieve personally, the next step is to establish what you are trying to achieve as a business. This would usually be around Turnover/Profit or business direction. For example:
- To increase turnover by 50%
- To improve gross profitability by 30%
Again, these objectives will inform your thinking when considering Marketing Objectives
Marketing Objectives
Once you are clear what you are trying to achieve from a business perspective, you can start top consider your marketing objectives, as these should be 100% driven by the objectives of the business.
To take the examples above:
If your objective is to increase turnover by 50%, where will this come from:
- Selling more to existing customers
- Widening your customer base
- Increasing your prices
- or someting else
If your objective is to increase profitability by 30%, then how will you achieve this:
- Increasing prices
- Reducing costs
In reality ity is likely to be a mixture of things, but what marketing you consider undertaking will be driven by the answers to these questions.
For all objective setting the SMART test is useful. For the uninitiated a good objective is a SMART objective:
Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely
If you want to know more, a quick Google for SMART Objectives will give you plenty of bed time reading.