Whether you have a plan to grow business in 2024, missed last year’s ambitious goals, or just set resolutions in the new year, everyone wants to get traction and achieve their goals. Still, as the days drag on it can be difficult to stay on track with Internet marketing goals because of the layered nature of acquiring customers online. If you want to drive the attention, get the clicks, capture the leads, and ultimately sell more we’ve compiled a few tips to help you there. These are the pillars of the campaigns that we’ve used to 100x order volumes and grow businesses online. Your goals are the glue that holds the year together, when things get crazy, you’re strapped for time, and you’re approaching the 11th hour (or in this case the 364th day). Internet marketing is at least as much of a science as it is an art, and your plan is the scientific framework you’ll use to engineer your success. We created this checklist to get goal planning on track in 2024.
1) Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
S.M.A.R.T. goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. By following this framework, you can walk the balance necessary to get the job done. Your Internet marketing goals need to be concrete, quantitative rather than qualitative, within grasp, and happen at the right time. The smart system allows you to do that. Originally coined in Management Review magazine, this method has been adjusted to meet the needs of many different businesses over time. It has provided the structure necessary to achieve organizational success in too many industries to count, and you’d be wise to follow it. Create a short list of bold goals, with metrics that turn success into a binary yes/no response, that aren’t some pie in the sky, and fit well into the way you get your work done today. Once you have a goal, achievement is just a combination of discipline, productivity, and probably a little luck if we’re all being honest with ourselves. Smart goals help you cut through the fog of indecision and get more done.
2) Plan Your Time
While the first thing that comes to mind might be the 5 “Ps,” proper time management is a goal’s best friend. Consider setting a schedule of tasks you’ll complete in a day, at least if you’re the organized type. If you’re not take some time at the end of every week to simply keep a log of what you achieved and how long it took. Refer back to these notes regularly, and you’ll be able to create sprints of focus followed by periods of reflection. This will allow you to both have a plan and be able to dynamically rewrite it, because we all know no battle plan survives first contact. Yours won’t either, but it will stay standing if it can roll with the punches that come from any busy week. You may be the type that benefits from hourly planning, with time as jealously guarded as the president, or you may just want to set a big picture for your goals over the long term. Each organization needs to take an honest, intimate view of how to best plan their time considering the differences in products, customers, and industries, and for many it might not be the worst idea to temporarily hire a consultant that will help you create these. As you set a plan for your time, don’t forget to at least write down what you intend to achieve with the time. It seems silly to mention that, but putting pen to paper helps solidify and formalize the details.
3) Consider Resources
Companies are really just a collection of people, using resources, to acquire resources. Because of this you’ll need to consider the resources required to complete these Internet marketing goals. First, just make your plan, write it down, and walk away. Later, after its gone from rough to final draft, give it one more look through and consider the resources that you’ll need to efficiently achieve your plan. They may range from staplers to supercomputers, but you’ll need the proper tools to get the job done in place and ready when it’s time to start. The one thing you don’t want is to reinvent the wheel when you need to be racing on it. Envision your plans, but just make sure not to forget that you’ll need the fuel in the tank required to get there. With an effective inventory of resources, you’ll avoid interruptions and material setbacks that slow you down and destroy your productivity. Everything needs to be in place ahead of time, whether turning iron ore to steel or keeping a team of growth marketers awake all night for a hackathon. Include them in your plan, and have them setup and ready for when your team gets started with their work. Little things like this help you turn inches to miles, not to mention assuring your team that you’re putting professionalism first.
4) Master the Funnel
We think it’s crucial to consider the heady stuff like plans, objectives, and visions for the future. Once you’re done with that, though, you need to put your nose to the grindstone. All Internet marketing is a funnel; people see your ads, take an action, and may end up becoming happy customers. To get more orders from online marketing you need to understand the mechanics of how these impressions, clicks, leads, orders, and longterm customers grow your business. First, you need a reliable source of traffic— that is, a way to get attention in your target market. Next, you need creatives that convert that traffic into a signup. Once people sign up, you need them to start sharing their money with your compelling offers and diligent followup. At each stage you need to be not only watching key performance indicators (volume and conversion rates), but actively experimenting to improve them. Mastering the funnel is everything you do in the trenches to make your internet marketing work… and in a discussion about goal setting you’re wise to never forget the hustle. The fun part of mastering the funnel is when you win. If you believe in your products as many people as possible should see them. It’s fun when you see a funnel succeed and convince people to take time out of their busy days and buy. We’re not going to lie, it makes you feel a bit like a powerful magician.
5) Monitor Progress
It can be easy to lose your path when setting ambitious Internet marketing goals. It’s a complex process, and the details of the funnel and all the resources required to manage them take so much focus that it’s possible to lose the forrest for the trees. Because of that you need regular check-ins, with yourself and your team, to make sure you stay on track. In weekly meetings, for example, you can evaluate progress on the sprints I mentioned above: how close did each team member come to achieving their weekly plans, and what objectives did they miss? Did you reach weekly goals for traffic, leads, and orders, or do you have some catching up to do next week in order to reach monthly goals.As the weeks turn into a month, consider how weekly results effect your goals for the year. Do you need to lower your expectations? Do you need to increase man-hours or efficiency to reach those goals for the year? Whichever fork in that road you take, by monitoring progress you’ll have the insight you need to be proud of and reap the fruits of your achievements by the end of the year.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any list that will make it easier to achieve your internet marketing goals. And certainly, there isn’t any blog post that will do the work for you. Yearly planning seems to be about two main things— knowing your goals, and finding your way in the fog of war. As campaigns try and fail in experimentation, which most probably will, planning is the map. And even if the map is not the territory, you’re better off with a map. If you can follow the steps in this post you’ll perhaps be only missing only one thing; a spark of inspiration. You need to be inspired to wake up a little earlier every day and achieve your goals. In order to maintain that spark, don’t forget to celebrate your victories. The battles win the war, and you need to maintain a positive mental attitude on your path. It won’t be easy, but we thoroughly believe most businesses can benefit greatly from setting goals for themselves. Everyone knows you need new customers to stay afloat, and there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in the hunt! Mastering your plans is a source of compounding power, in that the more you do it the more you want to do it again. And it’s one of the healthiest addictions you can have! You got this!