Creating a Marketing Strategy with Revenue Goals

John Nicol

Setting clear, actionable goals is a fundamental part of any successful marketing strategy. One of the most effective frameworks for goal setting is the SMART method, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely goals. However, while these principles are essential, it’s equally important to ensure that your marketing goals are revenue-focused. After all, the ultimate aim of any marketing effort is to strengthen your brand and drive revenue growth.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to create a marketing strategy with revenue goals at its core, using a process that involves determining, identifying, and implementing key steps within an inbound marketing framework.

1. Determine Your Target Revenue

The first step in creating a revenue-focused marketing strategy is to establish your target revenue growth from various marketing efforts. This involves setting specific revenue goals for each channel or campaign. For example, you might set a target of $250,000 in revenue from inbound marketing efforts and an additional $100,000 from events such as trade shows.

To make these targets actionable, break them down further by determining the number of sales needed to reach these revenue goals. For instance, if your average sale is $5,000, you would need to close 50 deals to meet a $250,000 target. This approach helps you focus on the specific actions required to achieve your revenue objectives.

2. Identify Traffic and Lead Requirements

Once you have your revenue targets in place, the next step is to identify how much traffic and how many leads are needed to achieve those targets. This involves analyzing key metrics like sales qualified leads (SQLs) and marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

SQLs are leads that are ready to be handed off to your sales team, while MQLs are leads that still need nurturing before they’re ready for a sales conversation.
By calculating your current traffic-to-lead conversion rate, you can estimate how many website visitors you’ll need to generate the necessary leads.

For example, if you need 100 SQLs to meet your revenue goal and your website’s conversion rate from visitor to lead is 2%, you would need to attract 5,000 visitors to generate those 100 leads. These insights allow you to set realistic traffic and lead generation goals aligned with your revenue targets.

3. Implement Benchmarks and Budgets

To ensure that your marketing strategy remains on track, it’s crucial to establish benchmarks and budgets. These help you measure progress and make adjustments as needed to stay aligned with your revenue goals.

Benchmarks: Set quarterly benchmarks to evaluate your progress towards your revenue goals. This allows you to assess whether your marketing efforts are on target or if adjustments are needed.
Budgets: Implementing a budget is essential to ensure that your marketing goals are financially feasible. Allocate resources to different marketing activities based on their potential return on investment (ROI) and adjust as necessary to optimize results.

Additionally, consider aligning your marketing goals with other key business objectives, such as increasing customer retention, boosting revenue from existing customers, and promoting high-conversion offers. This holistic approach ensures that your marketing strategy is not only revenue-focused but also supports broader business goals.

Let our inbound marketing experts help you achieve your revenue goals with a strategic approach tailored to your unique needs.