Imagine starting a major home renovation without a blueprint. You might know that you want a bigger kitchen or more natural light, but without a plan, you’d quickly run into problems. What’s your budget? What’s realistic with the space you have? Are you tackling too much at once? Without answers to these questions, your project will likely go over budget, take too long, or fail to meet your needs.
Have you seen The Money Pit? In the ’80s classic, Tom Hanks and Shelley Long take on a home renovation that spirals out of control—and the harder they try to fix things, the worse it gets.
Marketing without a clear plan is just like that: frustrating, expensive, and a recipe for chaos. It’s easy to throw money at ads, update your website, or post on social media, hoping for results. But without specific, measurable goals, you’re operating without a blueprint—leading to wasted time, resources, and missed opportunities for growth.
Does Your Marketing Lack Direction? If So, Check Your Goals
If you’re feeling stuck or frustrated with your marketing efforts, you’re not alone. Many CEOs of small to medium-sized B2B companies invest in marketing but feel like they’re spinning their wheels. Campaigns aren’t working, leads aren’t coming in, and it’s hard to know where to focus next.
At Wayfind Marketing, we understand that frustration. That’s why we created the GUIDE™ Marketing Assessment and Framework, a proven process to help business owners like you turn confusion into clarity. A key first step in this framework is ensuring you have a written marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals.
When you take the time to set actionable, measurable goals, you’re giving your business major advantages, such as clarity, alignment, and confidence. The right goals transform your marketing from scattered to strategic.
Why B2B Marketing Goals Are the Cornerstone of Success
Your business is too important to rely on guesswork. A vague aspiration like “we want more leads” or “we want better brand awareness” might feel like a step forward, but it’s not enough. Clear, well-defined goals are what give your marketing efforts focus.
Imagine this: If your sales team doesn’t know whether they’re aiming for 10 new clients or 100, how will they know if they’re succeeding? The same is true for marketing. Your B2B marketing goals are the bridge between effort and results.
What’s at Stake?
Without marketing goals and objectives in a marketing plan, you are literally flying blind. When you don’t take the time to clarify your marketing goals, you risk:
- Wasting resources on campaigns that don’t move the needle.
- Confusing your marketing team (or your one-person department) about what success looks like.
- Missing opportunities to achieve real growth because your efforts aren’t aligned with your business objectives.
These marketing mistakes are common but completely avoidable. On the flip side, setting clear, actionable goals creates alignment, accountability, and momentum. And when that happens, everyone—from the CEO to the marketing coordinator—is rowing in the same direction.
How to Set SMART Goals for Marketing Success
One of the best frameworks for goal-setting is the SMART goals method, which stands for:
- Specific: Define exactly what you want to achieve.
- Measurable: Use numbers or milestones to track progress.
- Achievable: Ensure the goal is realistic based on your resources and timeline.
- Relevant: Align the goal with broader business objectives.
- Time-bound: Set a deadline to create urgency and focus.
Using this method ensures your B2B marketing goals are clear, actionable, and effective.
SMART Marketing Goals Examples (Do This, Not That)
When setting marketing goals, vague aspirations like “we want more clients” or “we need better visibility” just won’t cut it. Let’s look at an example of how an accounting firm might set SMART marketing goals—and what to avoid.
Do This:
- Goal: Increase website traffic by 20% over the next three months by publishing two blog posts per week optimized for specific accounting-related keywords.
- Why It Works: This goal is specific, measurable, and tied to a clear timeline. It’s also relevant because driving traffic supports the broader business goal of generating leads.
Not That:
- Goal: Write more blogs and get more website visitors.
- Why It Fails: This goal is vague and lacks a timeline, metrics, or connection to a specific business outcome.
By setting S.M.A.R.T. marketing goals, you give your team a clear target to aim for, and you’ll be able to measure success at every step.
Read More: Struggling with Marketing Results? Here’s How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency That Delivers
Setting Goals for Small Marketing Teams
If you’re a small B2B business owner, managing a lean marketing team—or even just one marketing manager—can feel like a juggling act. Your marketing manager might be fantastic at social media but struggle with SEO or email campaigns. It’s not realistic to expect one person to excel in every area of marketing. This is where setting realistic marketing department goals becomes vital.
1. Start with Your Business Objectives
The key is to focus on your biggest business priorities and work backward. What does success look like for your company? Then, break those objectives into actionable, specific goals that play to your team’s strengths.
2. Set Marketing Manager Goals
If your top business goal is to generate 15 qualified leads per month, a realistic goal for your marketing manager might be to create two high-quality blog posts and one case study each month to attract and nurture leads. Meanwhile, tasks, like paid ad management or technical SEO, could be outsourced to lighten their load and ensure those areas don’t get neglected.
3. Hire a Marketing Coach
Here’s the truth: marketing is a constantly evolving field, and even the most capable marketing manager can’t be expected to know it all. That’s why many successful CEOs invest in coaching—not just for themselves but for their marketing teams.
A marketing coach can be a game changer, providing expert guidance and a fresh perspective while helping your team sharpen their skills. Whether it’s mentoring a junior marketing manager or helping your team strategize for growth, a coach equips them to perform at a higher level.
Think of it like hiring a personal trainer at the gym. You or your team might already have some strengths, but with the right coaching, you can unlock potential you didn’t even realize was there. By providing that extra layer of support, you’re not just investing in your team—you’re investing in the future success of your business.
Read More: Digital Marketing Coach vs. Marketing Agency: Which is Right for You?
How to Align Marketing Goals with Business Objectives
Your marketing goals don’t exist in a vacuum—they should serve your larger business goals. When your marketing efforts align with your priorities, they become a powerful driver of growth.
Here’s the kind of alignment that resonates with the growth-minded business owners we work with:
- Revenue Growth: If your business objective is to grow revenue, your marketing goal could focus on generating 50 qualified leads per month through a targeted email campaign and optimized landing pages.
- Breaking into New Markets: Expanding into a new region or industry might require goals like increasing brand awareness. Marketing could support this with hyper-targeted ad campaigns, industry-specific thought leadership content, or LinkedIn engagement strategies.
- Scaling with Limited Resources: For smaller B2B businesses, a smart goal might be to reduce your customer acquisition cost (CAC) while maintaining or increasing lead volume by prioritizing organic search or referral programs.
- Customer Retention and Upselling: To retain existing clients and grow their accounts, marketing goals could include launching a customer success newsletter or developing case studies that highlight additional services.
Read More: How to Create a B2B Marketing Strategy That Actually Works
Ready to Get Clear on Your Marketing Goals?
If your marketing efforts feel scattered or you’re not sure where to focus next, it’s time to step back and get clarity. At Wayfind Marketing, we help CEOs and business owners like you cut through the noise, define actionable B2B marketing goals, and build a strategy that delivers real results.
We’ve created a simple, step-by-step tool to help you get started:
Take our free Marketing Assessment to evaluate where you stand today and uncover opportunities for growth. When you complete the assessment, you’ll also get access to our exclusive guide that unpacks it all—including how to align your goals with your business objectives and empower your marketing team for success.
Your time is valuable, and you deserve a clear roadmap to marketing success. That’s why we use the GUIDE™ Marketing Framework—our proven approach to help businesses like yours set the right goals, create a winning strategy, and execute with confidence.
FAQs About B2B Marketing Goals
1. What’s the GUIDE™ Marketing Framework?
The GUIDE™ Marketing Framework is the proven process we use at Wayfind Marketing to help businesses clarify their goals, build strategic marketing plans, and execute with precision. It’s designed to align your marketing efforts with your business objectives and provide a clear path to success.
2. How do I know if my marketing goals are aligned with my business objectives?
Start by asking: Does achieving this marketing goal directly support a key business priority? For example, if your business objective is to grow revenue, your marketing goal might focus on generating more qualified leads or increasing conversion rates.
3. Why is setting goals important for a small B2B business?
Clear goals provide direction, focus, and measurable benchmarks for success. Without them, it’s easy to waste time and resources on efforts that don’t drive results.
4. What if I don’t have a marketing team or my team is small?
Even if your team is lean, you can still achieve great results by setting realistic, focused goals that align with your strengths. Consider hiring a marketing coach to fill in the gaps, provide expert guidance, and help your team achieve more with less.
5. What’s included in the Marketing Assessment and free guide?
Our Marketing Assessment will help you identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas of opportunity in your current efforts. The free guide provides actionable steps for setting SMART goals, aligning them with business objectives, and creating a marketing roadmap for success.
Ready to take action? Take the free Marketing Assessment and start your journey to marketing clarity and success.