B2B Marketing Objectives

Part #1

Introduction

Marketing objectives (and goals) are a common starting point when it comes to crafting a B2B marketing strategy. This is for good reason, as previously explained, by defining early on what you are trying to achieve, you can ensure that the broader marketing strategy has purpose and complete guidance. If at any time you are in doubt, just refer to your objectives to remind yourself as to why you are doing what you are doing.

Now, this isn’t as simple as just identifying what you want to do in terms of the marketing function and hoping that in the event of achieving the objective, the value derived helps the business. In fact, the very first thing you should do when setting your marketing objectives is gathering key stakeholders of your business together, and carefully understanding what the broader vision and goals of the business are for the coming year (or a specific time period). Then, and only then, should you start developing your marketing objectives and goals – meaning that there is true alignment between what the marketing function is trying to achieve and what the business wants it to achieve. If you fail to create this ‘business/marketing’ alignment early on, you face an uphill task maximising the value and impact of your marketing activities.

Simply put, your marketing objective setting should primarily be focussed on how you can help the broader business achieve its key goals. The closer the alignment, the greater effectiveness and value your marketing strategy will have.

As you can see from this model, there are three key levels that all need to be considered within this component – with each relating to an individual entity. All three levels are discussed in greater depth below, but at a high level this is what these relate to:

Level 1: The broader vision/goals of the business.
Level 2: The goals of the marketing function (that enable and support the Level 1 vision/goals).
Level 3: The objectives of the marketing team (that enable and support the Level 2 goals).

1. Level 1 – Business Vision/Goal

This is the overarching vision and goal (or set of goals) that have been outlined by the business to be achieved over a set time period. These goals will set the underlying foundation for most activities and initiatives across all areas and departments within the business, including the marketing function.

For the purposes of building your marketing objectives as part of your B2B marketing strategy, your role here is based more on collecting and understanding what these Level 1 goals are for the business you operate within. You may of course be a stakeholder within this Level 1 vision setting process, but if not, just be sure to gather the required stakeholders to fully understand the core vision of the business for a specific time period.

2. Level 2 – Marketing Function Goals

Once you have uncovered the Level 1 goals and vision, now it’s time to craft your marketing function goals – which can be viewed as mini but broad statements of how the ‘marketing function’ will enable and support the business key vision for a specific time period.

It’s easy here to get caught up in detail and to end up with an oversized collection of goals – many of which won’t be achievable. The trick is to ensure that you develop enough coverage in that Level 1 goals can be supported, whilst remaining realistic as to what can actually be achieved with the resources you have at your disposal.

To guide your thinking process, there are six core categories that the majority of marketing goals fall under, so by focussing on these core themes you should be able to ideate a complete set of goals that act as the guiding principles for the broader marketing function.

2.1 – Core Goal Categories

By using these categories as a guide, you will be able to craft several key goals that form the foundation for your marketing team’s objectives.

Brand: Goals based around optimising, building or redeveloping your brand and identity within the marketplace. Typical goals include: Improve brand awareness & Increase brand engagement.
Product/Service: Goals based around the refinement, launch or quality of your product or service. Typical goals include: Launch new product/service & Improve product/service.
Customer: Goals based around new or existing customers. Typical goals include: Improve customer loyalty & Improve customer experience.
Market: Goals based around the logistics and dynamics of the markets you are currently, or aim to compete in. Typical goals include: Enter new market & Increase market share.
Demand: Goals based around your ability to drive revenue. Typical goals include: Increase lead-generation & Increase repeat purchase.
Logistics: Goals typically focussed on the internal marketing function. Typical goals include: Increase efficiency & reduce costs.

It’s important to note that due to the ‘broader’ nature of these Level 2 goals, they don’t all necessarily need to follow the SMART framework.

3. Level 3 – Marketing Team Objectives

Now you have listed your Level 2 marketing function goals, now it’s time to detail your marketing team objectives – which can be viewed as focussed declarations of how the ‘marketing team’ will enable and support the marketing function’s key goals for a specific time period.

These will directly relate to whatever the Level 2 goal(s) are, and essentially dovetail into your broader strategy. This means that these objectives may be viewed as mini strategies, which when accomplished, enable the completion of the Level 2 goal.

3.1 – SMART Framework

When setting these marketing objectives, its important you implement the SMART framework. These need no introduction and are still the gold standard for approaching your objective setting – specifically at Level 3 in the above model (Level 1 business goals will be set by the broader business during a different process and Level 2 are less-specific in nature).

Specific: Detail exactly what you are planning to do or what it is you are trying to achieve.
Measurable: Provide a quantifiable metric or figure that can be used in the measurement process, which simply means you’ll be able to identify when it has been achieved.
Achievable: Ensure that this goal is achievable within your scope and with the resource you have at your disposal. In this instance, resource can include time, budget and skillset.
Relevant: It’s critical that these objectives are directly correlated to your goals – they must contain total relevance to maintain alignment.
Timebound: Assign a date in which you are aiming to complete these objectives by, which again should consider the marketing function goals at Level 2 and business goal/vision at Level 1.

4. Practical Example

As you can see then, it all starts with understanding the key business vision and goal. After that, you set the marketing goals that pertain to the marketing function, then you set the objectives that associate to the marketing team.

To help bring this model to life, the below illustrates a simple example.

Level 1: The broader vision/goal of the business relates to revenue, with a clearly defined figure of $10m and the year in which to achieve it.
Level 2: The key goal of the marketing function here (to enable and support Level 1) is to improve lead-gen capacity by driving 8% more opportunities during the same time period. This is a fairly broad goal (which it should be) in a sense that there are many ways to achieve it.
Level 3: The objectives of the marketing team (to enable and support Level 2) are more specific and offer more detail, which in this case is generating 250 inbound leads per month and executing 2 integrated campaigns per month, converting 5% of targets into SQL’s.

When all three levels align, you have the basis to start crafting the rest of your marketing strategy including the tactics and execution plans for achieving your Level 3 objectives (which will directly impact the achievement of Level 2).