Hi there! 👋
We hope you’ve had some well-deserved rest over the holidays and your engines are revved up for 2023!
January is a good month to talk about goal-setting 🎯 if you hadn’t done so already last year. Fret not, there’s always time to set yourself up for growth.
If you’re pressed for time, here are the important takeaways from this month:
🚀 Hang on to your goals, not your resolutions. Start by defining your north star metric.
🚀 Goals with an action plan give you space to pivot and try new ways of doing things without losing sight of the target — pretty much how we like to do growth.
🚀 Resolutions are like pie-crust promises (quote Mary Poppins): easily made, easily broken. They’re tactics without clear goals, thus making it easy to lose track of what you set out to do in the first place.
Focus on your goals, commit to taking actions
Goals are your strategy, and tactics are the actions you take to reach those goals. To figure out your goals, you first need to have your north star metric in place.
You can’t improve what you don’t know
A north star metric is a metric that helps track and measure the success of your business. It is a single metric that captures the overall success or failure of your business.
The purpose of a north star metric is to:
🌟 Keep you and your team focused on the most important aspect of your product or service.
🌟 Measure your progress towards achieving specific goals and gives you a clear target to aim for.
🌟 Serves as a reminder to stay focused and not get distracted by other goals or tasks.
🌟 Track the overall performance of your business, so you can make informed decisions and adapt quickly to changes in the market.
Use your existing data to strategize and take you towards your north star metric. Identify trends, weaknesses, and opportunities in your market to understand your customers better and develop a plan for how to best reach them.
Always (and we can’t say this enough: always, always) track progress towards your goals, so you can measure the impact of your efforts and adjust your strategy as needed.
Use your data to identify key performance indicators that will help you track progress towards your north star metric. For example:
📈 Customer lifetime value
📈 Revenue per customer
📈 Any other metric that is important to your company and product
By combining data analysis with goal setting and an understanding of your market, you can create a strategy that will help you reach your desired results.
Here are some examples for setting marketing goals:
🎯 Generate x leads
🎯 Increase customer lifetime value by x%
🎯 Increase brand awareness by x%
🎯 Increase web traffic by x%
🎯 Increase conversion rate by x%
🎯 Launch x new products/services
🎯 Increase social media followers by x%
Next, create an action plan that outlines the steps you need to take to reach your goals. This should include a budget and timeline.
Some examples of marketing tactics:
🛠️ Run a social media campaign
🛠️ Send out email newsletters
🛠️ Create content marketing campaigns
🛠️ Utilize SEO
🛠️ Develop an affiliate marketing program
🛠️ Launch PPC campaigns
🛠️ Develop a referral program
🛠️ Launch influencer marketing campaigns
Finally, measure and analyze the results of your efforts and adjust your strategy as needed to ensure you’re on the right track.
If something isn’t taking you towards your goals, don’t do it. It’s time to pivot!
What if you don’t have time to comb through data nor a large marketing budget?
There are still plenty of ways to reach your north star metric. The key is to focus on the channels that are most likely to produce the best results for your business.
Additionally, you can partner with other companies in your industry to share resources and costs.
You can always outsource something to a third party so you can focus on setting SMART goals and tracking the progress of your efforts.
To wrap it up 🌯
Your brand is the insurance that carries you through tough times, and it’s more important now than ever to focus on nurturing your brand.
As tough as this year has been and as tempting as it is to shrink your marketing efforts, DON’T. Nothing is permanent, including the hard times. This, too, shall pass.
Take some time to rest, unwind, and replenish some much-needed strength this holiday. Our resilience will carry us through this 💪
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2023 💗
