Goals and opportunities for successful marketing

£50? Why not go for £100!

This week, despite the fact that I look forward to the prospect of going for a run about as much as I look forward to going to the dentist, I signed up for Race for Life.

I got swept along through a sequence of coincidences which included hearing about a friend who just lost her father to cancer, picking up a magazine with a supplement all about training for Race for Life, and seeing a friend on facebook encouraging us all to join her in the local Race for Life event. (Plus, if I’m honest, carrying an extra pound or two due to the Christmas excesses – I’m sure the timing was well planned by the organisers!)

It seemed there were just too many cues to ignore, so off I went to the website to sign up. Now I didn’t really do it to raise money. I’m doing it because it will give me something to aim towards, rather than just thinking that I might go for a run one day, and it will be sociable to train with others.

Targets mean action!

Part of the process is to set up your fundraising page – it’s easy, seamless and most of the work is done for you. It asks you for your fundraising target (a mandatory inclusion). Well I didn’t have one, so I just put £50. But that didn’t look enough so I changed it to £100. All of a sudden, I have a £100 target! It’s visible to everyone who visits my page and there is a very visual representation of how well you are doing against your target. There’s nothing like a bit of pressure is there?

How does this relate to your business?

If you apply the same principle to your marketing activity, as soon as you have something to aim for it all becomes a bit clearer.
For instance, I now have 2 very clear goals:
1. To raise £100 by July 2011
2. To be able to run 5k by July 2011

Exposure to the message

The other important point is that I saw this message several times in different ways. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard of Race for Life – it’s been well promoted for many years. But this time I took action because I had several timely and relevant prompts from a variety of sources.

What many businesses do is completely random. They take an advert in the local paper, or go crazy collecting as many LinkedIn connections as they can. They get offered a good deal on some leaflets so get a few hundred printed and post them round the neighbourhood. Perhaps they decide the website needs updating or they set up an email newsletter. Sadly, without a goal this is meaningless activity.

So here’s what to do …

Keep your goal (or goals) simple, but specific. Make sure they’re achievable and don’t forget the deadline. Write out your goals and put them somewhere visible, and ask yourself whether the marketing you are doing will help you achieve at least one of those goals. Carry out a campaign, using different communication methods to send the same message in a variety of ways.

Give yourself a target and watch what happens (and maybe I’ll see you on the running track.)

If you need some help getting focused, give me a call on 01628 675584