You have your formulation, your packaging and your brand ready for retail shelves, but what about your goal setting strategy? Goal setting gives a gauge for assessing your brand’s advancement. Below, we’ll go over the actions and game plans you and your team should think about when setting goals, how you should determine where to start in your unique goal setting process, and what these strategies can mean for brand success.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is a necessary process for brands in all stages to give you and your team a good idea of where to focus your sales, marketing, product and partnership efforts in order to drive your business forward. To start, consider the current stage of your business. This consideration is going to help determine where to start in your goal setting process as well as assess top priorities for your team.
Do you have a product in mind and need assistance with your formulation? Creating a goal centered around getting your formulation and packaging created would be a great place to start.
Is your formulation perfected and you’re now in need of a manufacturer to produce the amount of units you need for distribution? Focus on connecting with a manufacturer to generate the units you need to fulfill orders.
Are you hoping to create more brand awareness? Connect with a vendor who can build go-to-market strategies and opportunities to help you develop advertising, public relations and other product distribution channels.
Understanding the current stage of your business will help determine the goals and milestones you should put in place and assist with drawing out a successful strategy to support these goals day-in and day-out.
Do you have a pen? Write down a few attainable goals. When doing this, acknowledge the resources and time that will go into reaching these goals successfully. For instance, in Sales we have a revenue goal that we want to reach by the end of the year. We track this by breaking out smaller goals on a monthly or quarterly basis and calculate just how much marketing outreach we’ll need to help us achieve these goals.
Strategizing
This brings us to our tactics — brainstorm every tactic you think will help you achieve your goal. It doesn’t matter what they are, write them all down now, let them sit, and revisit them in a day or two to narrow them down. Tackle low hanging fruit and easy implementations first, giving yourself more time to strategize and build out the bigger tasks that take a little longer to execute. This exercise will help you establish a roadmap, inching you closer to the path to success and further connecting with your target consumers.
What You Know And Who You Know
Your Consumers
Understanding your consumer is crucial when developing your goal setting and digital marketing strategy. Consider how consumer needs shift and how your product makes their routine less difficult. What problem are you solving? Satisfying your target audience gives you a higher likelihood of attracting retail partners and a broader consumer audience, some of which you may have been losing to competitors previously.
Your Competitors
Have you researched your competitors lately? Keeping an eye out for brands that are similar to yours in the market is a great way to:
Control brand relevance
Progress as a diverse brand
Remain aware of what’s currently trending in your industry
Gather knowledge of how competitors respond to consumer shifts
With these new insights you and your team will gain the understanding of why consumers you’re missing out on gravitate towards competing brands. As you continually conduct this analysis you will hone in on your Sales, Marketing and Product programs, identifying potential gaps in your business plan and ultimately put your brand in a better position to reach missed sales opportunities.
Marketing
Now more than ever consumers are drawn to authentic brands that tell their story. Your ‘About Us’ page on your website is the perfect place to dive into the details of the faces behind your unique brand, the causes you support and how you convey this support through brand packaging and certifications. These strategies ultimately build brand trust with retailers and consumers alike.
Another way to build brand trust is by way of testimonials. What are retailers and consumers saying about your brand? Typically, product reviews encourage sales by 18%. Sharing product reviews on your website gives likely customers more assurance in their buying decisions, reduces confusion, and helps enhance your brand’s trustworthiness and dependability.
Sales
Sales and Marketing go hand-in-hand. You can join these efforts for new customers and increased sales by sharing clear details around what retail buyers and target consumers can expect when experiencing the use of your products (i.e. transformation, sustainability, health and wellness).
Earlier, we mentioned tapping into a consumer base you may have been missing out on previously. You have the opportunity to further grasp the attention of new and current customers with markdowns and value packages. This strategy will boost the possibility that first-time customers will choose to buy from your brand in addition to increasing your short term business with ongoing customers.
In Sales, our goal is to generate new sales and keep current customers coming back. Sharing detailed product information online (such as ingredients and product benefits) helps guide shopper’s expectations and decreases product returns as they know exactly what they’re purchasing and can expect throughout the use of your product.
Partnerships
Do you have a team you can rely on? Building strong partnerships where there is absence in brand and business development, graphic design, marketing, contract manufacturing, or sales to improve the awareness of your brand. By identifying where you’re lacking in resources in your business and assigning responsibilities for these operations to specialists, you make yourself more available to focus on other parts of your business plan.
We’ve determined our goals, strategized sales, marketing and partnership plans, gone over consumers and competitors. United, these strategies will guide you in building a plan toward accomplishing your business goals and keeping you on the path to brand success.
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