Forget marketing goals. Set business goals marketing can drive

Another year, another round of targets and sales quotas.

… and then, someone turns to marketing and says, "So... we need more leads from you!"

Here's the thing:

• "More leads" isn't a goal. It's baseless wishful thinking.
• Also, a goal without a plan is just a number.

With everything moving so fast (and getting faster with each passing minute), you need a strategic foundation. Of course, you'll adjust and refine as you go, but you need that direction first. Your team needs it. Your stakeholders need it. Hell, you need it so you can explain what you're doing and why it matters.

But before we talk marketing goals, let's talk business (shocking, I know).

Know your business goals inside out

You can't set meaningful marketing goals without understanding what the business is actually trying to achieve.

• What kind of growth are we chasing this year?
• How should marketing contribute to that goal?

But don't stop there. You need to understand the WHY(s) behind the numbers. How did leadership land on these targets?

Smart companies base their goals on actual market analysis:

• competitor positioning,
• market share data,
• historical performance,
• realistic projections.

In short, they've done the homework.

Unfortunately, we see too many companies pull numbers out of thin air over dinner and call it strategy.

What matters more is understanding how the C-suite plans to hit these targets.

• New business or existing accounts?
• Organic growth or acquisitions?

The clearer you are on the business strategy, the better equipped you are to build a marketing plan that actually supports it.

Setting marketing goals that actually mean something

If someone tells you setting marketing goals is easy ... they're probably missing something (or setting the wrong goals).

"More SQLs" sounds like a goal, but it's useless if you can't measure it properly.

You need to think deeply about what you're trying to achieve this year, based on the business objectives we just discussed.

Real goals are measurable and specific:

• €200,000 in marketing-sourced revenue,
• 150 qualified opportunities,
• 30% conversion rate improvement.

But even that's not enough.

Break your goals into milestones

Great goals have checkpoints built in.

Let’s take an example.

• “By end of Q1, we've generated €30,000 in revenue”

Why bother with milestones?

Because they tell you whether you're on the right path or heading off a cliff.

It's easy to look back after a year and declare victory or defeat. It's much harder (but more valuable) to check in quarterly and course-correct when you still have time to make adjustments.

Take that revenue goal example. If marketing is to generate €200,000 in revenue, how will we achieve this?

• Healthier pipeline for sales?
• Converting freemium users to paid?

You need to understand the mechanics behind the number.

Chase metrics that matter

Select one primary metric to track, then add a few supporting metrics.

To do this right, you need to understand your funnel and recognize that it likely doesn’t resemble any other.

This is why we typically choose a framework that fits your business as a foundation (like SaaS metrics 2.0, customer success journey, the pirate funnel (AAARRR), or any other that makes sense for your business).

Let’s illustrate this.

Let's say you're focused on converting freemium users to paid customers.

While your primary metric might be revenue from those conversions, it’s important to look beyond just the linear funnel.

Supporting metrics such as

• the number of conversions needed,
• the volume of activated users,
• and upstream traffic

… are useful, but they don’t tell the full story.

Instead of only mapping drop-offs to find bottlenecks, combine funnel data with product usage insights, retention metrics, and user feedback. This helps you understand not just where users fall off, but why. You might find that improving onboarding, driving engagement, or increasing long-term retention has a greater impact on sustainable growth than simply nudging more users toward checkout.

From goals to actual plans

Now comes the fun part.

Figuring out how you'll actually achieve these goals.

Your plan doesn't need to be exhaustively detailed at this stage, but it should have clear focus areas and specific tactics or campaigns under each one.

Here's where wisdom separates itself from busy work: choose one to three focus areas and commit to them. You'll get better results concentrating your efforts than scattering them across a dozen half-baked initiatives.

The beauty of this framework is that you can experiment with different approaches while staying within your strategic boundaries. You have a structure with flexibility built in.

Tell the story internally

As marketers, we're good at storytelling. Use that skill internally. When you present one to three clear focus areas, you're giving your team a roadmap they can understand and operate within.

Under each focus area, you'll have multiple tactics. Just make sure those tactics genuinely serve the focus area and connect back to your goals.

Don’t plan in a vacuum

Don't just dream up a plan in isolation.

Work with sales.

Work with customer success.

And most importantly, talk to customers.

Debate with your team. Do the research. You need defensible reasons for why this particular approach will work.

For instance, with some of our SaaS customers, we may plan around three focus areas:

• testing new pricing models,
• repackaging products differently,
• optimizing freemium-to-paid conversion.

Whatever your focus areas are, make them clear.

Then nest your tactics under those focus areas. This keeps everyone aligned on what each experiment or campaign is trying to improve. It makes the story easier to convey internally, which makes buy-in much easier to obtain.

The budget conversation

Marketing and finance are closely intertwined, whether we like it or not.

Sometimes you get to set your own budget. More often than not, it's handed to you with expectations attached. To understand what you can actually accomplish with any budget, you need to understand the numbers behind your tactics.

Map your commitments

Some spending is already locked in: martech stack, events, agency partnerships. That's your baseline.

Understanding these financial guardrails defines your "zone of possibility."

Of course, fitting everything into a budget is never easy. However, a budget is meaningless without goals, without knowing who you're targeting, and without those top three priorities we just discussed.

When you understand these unit economics, you can actually defend your budget requests. More importantly, you can push back on unrealistic expectations about what marketing can deliver with a given budget.

If your goal and budget are pre-set and non-negotiable, this analysis becomes your tool for honest conversation.

• Where do things stand?
• Is this achievable or not?
• What would actually be required to hit the target? 
• And, if things get more challenging, what can you deprioritize?

However, here's the opportunity: when you have clearly defined goals and a compelling plan that you can articulate effectively, you may unlock more budget.

Turn it into a picture

The final piece of the puzzle: visualize your plan on a single page.

People understand and remember things better when they can see them.

For instance, when presenting AB2B's core services, we typically show a single slide that explains what we do.

Of course, we have ready material to dive into each and every one of those if and when relevant, but if you start too complicated, your audience may miss the big picture, thus damaging your entire proposal.

And so, my recommendation to you is to try to make everything more accessible, especially for C-suite executives who aren't bogged down in the monthly details.

Marketing doesn't exist to serve marketing   

The more connected you are across the company, the easier it becomes to set and achieve your goals.

Marketing doesn't exist to serve marketing. Marketing is a tool in your stack to drive growth, and you can either use it ‘smart’ or let it become a cost center.

We believe that marketing exists to

• make it easier to buy from you,
• delight customers,
• and drive the business forward.

The more aligned you are with sales, the better.

Join their meetings. Regularly communicate with product and customer success teams.  Talk to your customers.

Lastly, communicate your plan to everyone, especially sales. You're both chasing revenue. Sales needs to understand your strategy and its origins.

And so, ensure you're aligned on who's responsible for what between marketing and sales, and ensure you speak the same language. Such clarity will prevent countless problems down the line.