What goals have you set yourself this year? Being a coach, consultant or trainer, you understand the need for realistic goals more than most. But did you know that goals are also an essential element of your marketing?

Because of the work you do, I bet that most of your clients have a vision of where they’re heading; but do you? You probably understand well how goals will help your clients to see what steps they need to take to get there. Do you apply the same thinking to your business?

You may want to create a focused, niche business, so attracting the right target audience is essential. Or perhaps you want to grow your business, so you need to find the right people with whom to collaborate. Maybe you’re heading towards retirement and want to find people to take over your business, providing you with an income? Whatever your long-term goals, the first step is to decide what they are!

Your goals will clarify where you’re heading; without them you can’t set the strategy that shows you how you will achieve them.

On a recent Marketing Mondays call, Sharon asked me how she could best use her hundreds of LinkedIn recommendations. I could have just talked about the tactics of what she could do with them. However when someone asks me a tactical marketing question, I encourage them to think strategically first.

A great question is: “What’s your goal for the year?”

As a speaker and a coach, Sharon replied that she wanted to deliver 10 well-paid talks by the end of the year. More speaking and less coaching. That’s a really clear goal. With this in mind, I suggested that she look through her recommendations and only share those that are specifically about speaking. Posts saying “This is what I’m doing at the moment …” or “Here’s what a happy client, who booked me to speak, said …” can help her promote her speaking.

This strategy focuses on Sharon’s medium-term goal (by the end of this year) of speaking. Her long-term goal (3-5 years) could be that she will stop coaching all together and become known as a world-class professional speaker. Being clear on her goals will help Sharon to work out how best to use her excellent LinkedIn recommendations most effectively.

Choose your Social Media Platforms Carefully

As you weave your goals into your marketing strategy, consider where your marketing efforts will be spent. Make sure your strategy covers a wide enough base without stretching your time. In my 21 years of experience, I have seen email newsletters, networking and referrals work really well.

Social media can be a good and usually free source of marketing visibility. However, be careful where you put your time and effort. Don’t jump on the latest fad or gimmick. Platforms like Instagram and Twitter can be really distracting. They’re not the right places to promote businesses that provide a service, such as coaching or speaking. This is because it’s very hard to build up trust in one image or 280 characters. People won’t buy from you there or invest in your services. All you’ll achieve are some ‘likes’ that won’t pay the bills!

I tell my clients not to waste time creating pretty posts for Instagram and Twitter. One client told me that as soon as she switched allegiance to LinkedIn, she received far more positive responses and a new client. Need I say more?

Remember – ‘likes’ do not turn into £5k clients!

If you need any guidance on goal setting for successful marketing, please get in touch. You may also benefit from some marketing coaching specifically for coaches wishing to grow your business.

Intrigued? Then get in touch and I’ll spill the beans!