If you are unsure about how to set marketing goals, this is the blog post for you. Sometimes, setting marketing goals can seem so hard. It feels like you are pulling numbers out of thin air! I have a three-tier approach that should help make it easier to come up with the numbers.

Marketing experts and business coaches (including me) often tell our clients: Set goals for your marketing!

Goals can be helpful in determining if your marketing plan was a success. Think of goals as mileposts on your marketing road map.However, setting goals, especially quantitative ones, can be challenging. What’s the magical number you should pick?

You see, corporations have mounds of data to help them with goal setting. When I worked in healthcare marketing, I could pull years’ worth of data to help me determine a quantitative goal. As solopreneurs, we don’t have access to this information. So, picking a number for a goal feels arbitrary, like you’re picking a number from thin air.

Which leads to this question: How do you pick the magical number for your goal without data to help you?

Picking the right marketing goals

It’s a bit of moving target, right? If you want to sell a new product—and and this is your first time selling a product—you may not know what’s a realistic number of products sold.

That’s why I recommend that you set a set of three goals. Let me break down what this looks like:

• Threshold goal: The “no brainer” number you know you’ll hit
• Target goal: A goal that you have about a 60 percent chance of attaining
• Stretch goal: A goal that you have about a 20 percent chance of attaining

Let’s say you created a new group coaching program and want to set quantitative goals. If you use this three-tier approach, your goals might look like this:

Threshold: Selling two slots in the coaching program (you already have two people interested, so this feels like a “no brainer”)

Target: Selling six slots in the coaching program (this would be the perfect income for you, and it’s a stretch but still realistic)

Stretch: Selling 10 slots in the coaching program (this is definitely a stretch; it would be fantastic to obtain but feels a little “out there”)

Goals and your mindset

Now here’s the sweet thing about this three-tier approach…

As you hit your threshold goal, you are excited. You just smashed a goal! Imagine how awesome you will feel. If you’re a Law of Attraction practitioner like me, you know if you are feeling great, you are vibrating at a higher frequency, which means more good stuff coming your way.

And, if you make your target goal, your excitement level will be through the roof! However, even if you don’t quite make your target goal, you’ll still be excited to have hit your threshold.

Then, as you finish this campaign, archive your data (a spreadsheet works great). That way, when you sell the next group coaching program, you can see how many slots you sold, and use that data to make future goals. (Keep accumulating data, too. It doesn’t have to be fancy—just accessible and easy to understand).

Now you have an effective system for creating quantitative goals! You’ll love the feeling of assigning a range of numbers through threshold, target, and stretch goals. It won’t feel as arbitrary, and you can celebrate as you hit each goal.

More resources

Here are some other resources that will help you with your marketing and mindset:

My book, That First Client, which will teach you how to create an effective marketing system that will always attract clients to your business

My book, Loud Woman, which will inspire you to get Louder in your life and business

Check out my latest blog post about marketing, getting clients, and the Law of Attraction

Virtual Networkers, my global online networking organization for women entrepreneurs

Get More Clients Track, a year-long program that will teach you how the fundamentals of marketing so you’re always attracting clients

Manifest More Clients Track, a year-long program that will teach you how to use the Law of Attraction in your marketing

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