Once you have created your marketing plan, and analyzed your business, your customers, and your competition, you must define your objectives. Unfortunately advertisers fail to define their objectives and, as a result, their business suffers.
Objectives need to be specific. Distinguish a couple of areas of your business you would like to see your business improve. For example, would you like to see younger customers, or increased spending amount per customer? With this information, we can help you develop a customized plan to meet your expectations.
Your objectives should also be measurable. If you would like to see an increase in the average dollar amount a customer spends each time they frequent your business, by what percentage would you like to see it increase? At the same time, if you choose a 10% increase over a 4% increase, you should expect to spend more on advertising in order to generate the larger increase.
Objectives should also be realistic. Base your objectives on sensible criteria that will be within your realm of possibilities. Setting high goals may be setting yourself up for disappointment, and setting goals too low may result in lack of motivation to increase your business.
Examples of valuable objectives for advertising:
- Increase store traffic for the month of May by 5%, compared to the previous May.
- Sustain the December per-store sales average at $3000/day.
- Increase our reach to males, ages 18-24 by 6%.
- Expand the sale of window treatments to 50% of the total sales by the end of year.
