Do you ever feel like you're grasping at straws, trying to decide what to do next for marketing your business? Not sure if your marketing efforts are supporting your business goals?  Or, maybe, you’re not sure what the difference between a business goal and marketing goal is?

Even if you have goals, if your marketing isn't providing the results you want there is likely a mis-alignment between the two.  Having clarity on your business plan, including goals, will guide your marketing, making it so much easier to know what to do daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to drive your business forward.

Business Plan - a.k.a. What You Want To Achieve

• Sets overall vision for business: mission & goals (financial)
• Often used as a financial tool to drive your budget
• Reviewed annually

Marketing Plan - a.k.a. Actions You’ll Take

• Explains how you’ll achieve those goals
• Is a section within your business plan
• Reviewed quarterly

While our business plan is the WHAT, and marketing is the ACTION, they are interdependent and must be consistent.  

Question #1:  What Are You Going To Sell?

Decide what to sell, and for how much, then review this each year for opportunities to grow your business. Will you add a new product or service in order to increase the revenue in your business?  Will you make edits to a product or service to increase the price?

If you have multiple products or services, prioritize them and answer the next two questions for EACH of them.  You might prioritize them by seasons, or by what you expect to drive the most sales. 

How this connects to your marketing strategy:

When business (and life) gets crazy, you'll be happy to have already decided which one should get more attention and which ones you can give yourself more grace on. 

You also want to be sure to set a different marketing strategy for each, so if you have multiple products or services, take the time to answer the next two questions for each one. 

Question #2:  How Much Are You Going To Sell?

You should set two financial goals: one for revenue (how much you’ll sell) and one for profit (how much you’ll keep).

1. Write your profit goal at the bottom of a piece of paper (or a spreadsheet). 
2. Add in all your business expenses above it. 
3. Add it all together. That’s your revenue goal! 

It’s important to be sure the profit goal you wrote down is the same increment of time as your expenses. If you pay annually for your website, but wrote down a monthly profit goal, you’ll need to adjust the expense by dividing it by 12 months.

Now, breakdown the revenue number into how many products or services need to be sold to accomplish that. If you sell one product or service, take your total revenue number and divide it by your price.  That's how many sales you need to achieve your profit goal. If you have multiple products, determine how much of each product you'll sell based on the priority it in the question before.

For example, you want to get 70% of your revenue from one-on-one coaching and 30% from your membership site or online course. 

• Total revenue * 70% = Revenue from Coaching / Price = # of Clients
• Total revenue * 30% = Revenue from Membership / Price = # of Members  

Not sure how to break it out?  Look at where your sales come from today.  

Don't like how it breaks out?  Now's your chance to shift your strategy towards what you want to be the revenue driver in your business.

How this connects to your marketing strategy:

Marketing, ultimately, is a numbers game.  If you know how many people you need to purchase, you can factor in how many people you need to get in front of.  

Question #3:  Who Are You Going To Sell It To?

Prioritize who each product/service is a good fit for.  

• Is it people that are on your list, or following you, who haven't purchased before?  
• Is it an up-level for current customers who could take advantage of another offering?

How this connects to your marketing strategy:

Of the three questions, this one is most vital to driving your marketing strategy.  It helps you know where to spend your efforts.

• Need to get new customers?  Get to building your email list with a new free resource, social traffic and digital ads. 
• Is your best opportunity selling more to current customers? Then add up-sells to the transaction process, have a strong email campaign, or focus on your private Facebook group.

Alright, friends, hopefully this was helpful as we prepare for the new year and new goals.  I’d love to hear what your goals are for next year. Send me a DM @KristinMillerMarketing and let me know!

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