How To Set Realistic Expectations From Marketing Campaigns

Understanding Marketing Expectations

For any brand, the launch of a new marketing campaign can be extremely exciting.

While it’s normal to have expectations from a marketing campaign, all too often, there’s a world of a difference between the expectation and reality and this can result in making you feel extremely disheartened.

Like the game of Jenga, only realistic expectations (a solid foundation) and only certain bricks (tactics) can keep the campaign strong while having unrealistic expectations can result in the whole tower (campaign) toppling.  

Does that mean you should have absolutely no expectations from a campaign? No, that’s not what we mean.

As marketers, we are not asking you to lower your expectations or suppress your ambition. Marketing goals should be aggressive but at the same time, they should be achievable based on your business’s current position.

When you are communicating with your marketer, make sure to address the following questions:

• What does my audience want to hear and see from my brand?
• How many times do they want to see my brand?
• How should I work with my marketer to make sure I give my audience what they want to hear and see?
  

Tips to Set Demanding yet Realistic Marketing Goals

• Base marketing goals on your business goals: Even before formulating a marketing strategy, spend some time evaluating the current position of your company. If you are a new brand with relatively low awareness, embrace the opportunities your position provides. Instead of setting big, lofty goals, pair smaller accomplishments with ambitious timelines. Once you start checking off smaller goals, your team too will feel reassured rather than defeated.
• Set goals that are specific and attainable: The goals you set for your brand must be specific and not vague. You cannot run a marketing campaign and expect your Facebook numbers to skyrocket the very next day. Instead, something more specific would be checking the analytics, evaluating past campaigns and how it’s affected growth. These numbers combined with the available resources and planned initiatives can help you set realistic goals. Your goals must match your initiatives.
• Set measurable goals: Most brands today are looking to increase awareness and growth. That again is a vague goal. Ensuring specificity in your goal makes it more measurable. For example, telling a marketer you set a goal to attain 100 new Facebook followers by the end of June is something more realistic.
• Goals should align with overall strategy: Even if you have a goal of gaining a certain number of followers on Facebook in a certain time period, it’s not necessarily that important. More important than impressions and reach is that the goals should be measured in end engagements and purchases rather than just followers and likes.

Setting realistic yet demanding goals will not just take some of the anxiety out of the marketing campaign but also turn it into an exciting and energising activity. It will also make it easier to reach the finishing line you are working towards.

If you have certain marketing expectations in mind and want to achieve them, let’s talk?