General Assembly

STUDY GUIDE

OBJECTIVE-FIRST MARKETING
Objective-Driven Marketing
Successful marketing campaigns have always started with effective marketing objectives.

The objective-first framework can help you:

» Use your marketing resources to further the company’s business objectives.

» Structure your activities.
» Determine what data is important.
» Keep track of progress.
» Test, adjust, and optimize campaigns in real time.
» Communicate your plan and results to leadership.

Steps of the Objective-First Framework

» Set Objectives: Come up with a SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-bound)
statement that describes why you are running the campaign.
What customer behavior are you trying to change?
What will that do for the business?

» Define KPIs: Identify metrics you will use to evaluate the success of your campaign.
What are 1-3 metrics that clearly answer the question "Did we reach our objective or not?"

» Design Tactics: Determine the ways you'll reach your target customer (e.g., through SEO, social
campaigns, email marketing, etc.).
Where is your target customer spending time?
What motivates them?

» Execute Campaign: Put your tactics into action in the most effective channels.
What resources do you need to execute this campaign?
Who will do it?

» Measure Outcomes: Measure and analyze your performance as it happens.

What do your metrics tell you about how you can improve performance?

»
» Optimize Results: Adjust your tactics to ensure the best results going forward.
What variables of your campaign can you alter to see if performance improves?

How to Write Strong Objectives

Here are some key principles for crafting effective marketing objectives.

» Connect marketing objectives to business objectives.

Marketing objectives need to support broader company goals.
Make sure you have a thorough understanding of overall business objectives before writing
marketing objectives.

» Align your marketing objectives with the customer journey.

Stay focused on customers' experience.
Keep objectives simple and connected to specific phases of the marketing funnel.

» Make sure your marketing objectives are SMART.

Specific objectives are clear and detailed.
Measurable objectives have an unambiguous standard for success.
Actionable objectives are achievable but challenging.
Realistic objectives can be accomplished with the resources at your disposal.
Time-bound objectives are tied to a concrete time frame.

Beyond Objectives: KPIs and Tactics

Once you’ve defined SMART marketing objectives that relate to your overall business goals, you’re ready
for the next two steps of the framework: defining KPIs and designing tactics.

» Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics that will help you understand if you’re reaching
your objectives.
For each objective, choose 1–3 KPIs you’ll use to track progress.
KPIs are closely tied to the "measurable" part of the SMART framework.

» Tactics are the strategies you use to reach your target customer.
Much of tactics comes down to the channels you focus on.
Email marketing is an effective way to reach current customers, but it isn't ideal for acquiring
new customers