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MKT 229 - Integrated Marketing Communications: Blog 3-1

What is the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics?

The difference between a goal, strategy, and tactic is the plans, execution, and revisions to your overall marketing strategy.
A goal is an objective that you and/or your team want to achieve. It is your vision of where you want to go.
A strategy is an action plan that helps you achieve your goal.
A tactic is a planned action to achieve your end goal. It is specific actions that lead you closer to your destination. (Grinnell, 2020)

What is the importance of setting SMART goals when creating a marketing campaign?

The importance of setting SMART goals when creating a marketing campaign is crucial and keeps you and your business accountable. By organizing your ideas and SMART goals together, the easier it is to properly allocate your time and resources efficiently. Without it, your goals and objectives may seem more far-fetched and unattainable because it's not broken down into actionable steps.

What questions should be considered?

How can I solve this problem?
Brainstorm, make a pros and cons list, and make a mind map. Get all your information written down so you have a visual in front of you.
What is the timeline needed to achieve this goal?
Be specific with your time by creating deadlines to keep you focused and on track.
Are my goals achievable, relevant, and realistic?
Keep it sweet and simple with the timeline that you created for your goals.
What metrics will be used to prove my progress is working?
Be as specific as possible for each goal per metric.
What metrics will be used to show/quantify that my action is successful?
Everyone has a different definition of what success is and what it looks like to them and their business. Be specific in your metrics.
When is my deadline that I should complete this action?
This will create a sense of urgency and also another way to prepare for contingencies and any other surprises.

Then you can get to more specific questions like:

What is the right social media channel to use for my business?
Who is my target audience? What are they like?
How much money can I spend on digital marketing?
How much time do I want to spend doing certain tasks? Or can I delegate this task to someone else who is better at it than me?

Provide examples to portray how marketing tactics align to strategies in order to support set goals.

Some examples are:

Leah is the Marketing Manager of a Pet Food and Supplies company. She wants to increase her sales by 25% by the end of the year for all of their products. She has not done any online ads as everything has been word of mouth or in-store purchases and print marketing.

Leah can invest in spending money on online ads such as Facebook and Google Ads and use social media to drive traffic to their e-commerce website. By tracking everything carefully, Leah will be able to test by trial and error to see what is working and what can be improved. This also increases your customer base who is purchasing online if you market and sell outside of your store mile radius.

Marty is the Marketing and Communications Coordinator at a luxury hotel and spa and is in competition with 5 other major hotels in his city. He wants to get more customer feedback and reviews. This enables more content that the hotel can share on social media and build trust with new potential customers and be at the top of mind for vacations.

Marty can send emails to customers who booked at their hotel and ask for their feedback in an online survey. To spruce it up some more, Marty can run a promotion or contest to get customers enticed to write a positive review about their experiences. With all of the information collected, Marty will have plenty of data to use for social media such as Google My Business, website reviews, and social media content that can be recycled. This is a visual representation that allows the hotel to rank higher than its competitors.

How can you ensure that your SMART goals are met using key performance indicators (KPIs)? Explain using examples to support your rationale.

To ensure that your SMART goals are met using KPS, you have to be as specific as possible.

Leah at the Pet Food and Supplies company will have to add keywords and make their website SEO-friendly so that each product can collect data on how many items were bought, where the customer came from online, and what promotions or coupons were used. Once data has been collected, Leah will be able to compare and contrast on which items are successfully selling well and which are less popular. With this information, more time, resources, and marketing can be prioritized for the less popular products to boost their sales. Leah will monitor each product and product category weekly, monthly, and quarterly to make data-driven decisions.

Marty at the luxury hotel will automatically schedule reminder emails to each customer that stayed at their hotel. There will be two emails sent out as a reminder to write a review. For this to be successful, Marty has to ensure that all his email marketing and customer lists are organized and scheduled correctly. He has to ensure that the website forms and the hotel CRM systems all work together so that he can automate this task.

References:

Grinnell, C. (2020, August 28). Council post: From strategy to action: Five tips for Smarter Marketing. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/31/from-strategy-to-action-five-tips-for-smarter-marketing/?sh=38dba94468c8

Marketing Campaigns and SMART Goals