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Inbound Marketing Insights

5 Tips to Set Goals for Your Marketing Automation Campaigns

Posted by Prism Global Marketing Solutions | 3 Minutes to Read

Businesses starting their marketing automation need to set clear goals on what they want to achieve through email automation. Setting your goals and launching your marketing automation campaign should go hand in hand. You cannot determine the best strategies to use without knowing what you want to achieve. In addition, using marketing automation as a business strategy should also guide you on what targets to set. Let's review how you can set goals for your marketing automation campaigns.  

1. Set SMART Goals
This is basic. Any goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Here's an example: Increase online sales by 15% in Q4 by launching an email marketing campaign. It's specific in that you have clearly defined what you want to achieve by the end of Q4. It's measurable because you have a metric, which is online sales, and you have a specified percentage, which is 15%. Therefore, if your online sales in Q3 are $100,000, your Q4 target is $115,000.

Ask yourself if you have the means to achieve it. If you would like to increase your online sales, you would need to spend more time and resources to hit your target. Meanwhile, consider if your goal is aligned with your business and strategies that you can execute. In this case, you would like to increase online sales by applying email marketing. It's relevant because you are doing marketing automation. Lastly, set a deadline. It can help you create a timeline where you can implement your program within a certain period. You don't have forever to achieve your goals.

2. Align Sales and Marketing Goals
Sales and marketing are two inseparable concepts. You can't create goals for one without considering the other. So, when you set your goals, think about both needs. If you want more leads to boost your sales, find a way to improve your processes, such as streamlining communication between sales and marketing. Ask your sales team about customer feedback to strengthen your marketing strategies that directly influence sales.

3. Develop a Clear Marketing Process
With marketing automation, it's easier to design better processes and workflows that can nurture your leads to the sales funnel using data and analytics. You can study your customer behavior by looking at your analytics. You can set up behavioral triggers from here, for instance, each time a customer clicks a link or shows interest in a particular offer. Or, you can segment a more defined list to ensure you are targeting appropriately.

4. Study the Metrics
You can only see the big picture if you review your metrics. Each metric is related to another. If you target higher sales figures, you don't just look at your leads. You also check your list growth and unsubscribe rates, which can affect your conversion rate. Also, review your open rate, click-through rate, and other metrics. Looking at these can help you evaluate your strategies and set reasonable goals.

5. Test. Analyze. Repeat
Once all your goals are set, and your marketing automation strategies are final, implement them accordingly. However, you cannot just sit back and wait for results. You should test which methods are working and which are not so you can perform the necessary adjustments. There are a variety of tests you can do.

  • One is regular A/B testing, in which you divide your recipients into two groups. Each group will receive different versions of your email. After testing, check which email gives you higher results, and stick to that.
  • Another test is the automation split, wherein you only send two versions of your email to limited recipients. From there, you analyze which version gives you higher metrics such as open rate, response rate, click-through rate, and more. This will help you decide which email version to send to other customers.
  • You can also execute an A/B test via API. You can create new tests and evaluate your results using the software. Set protocols so you don’t have to keep reviewing your emails.
  • It is not necessary to do all types of A/B tests. Choose the one you are comfortable and capable of doing. What’s important is that you analyze your performance, drop the ineffective ones, and repeat strategies that give you positive results.


Creating your goals does not have to be painful. However, it should be data-driven and well-informed. This is where the importance of your analytics becomes more pronounced.
By looking at your analytics, you can gain better insights, which can guide your goal setting. You would see which metrics to improve and which can directly impact your overall business goal. This is much easier if your marketing automation provider offers real-time analytics.

Need help getting started with automation? We invite you to schedule an inbound marketing consultation.

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Topics: Inbound Marketing

Prism Global Marketing Solutions

Posted by Prism Global Marketing Solutions

Prism Global Marketing Solutions is a HubSpot Platinum Partner based in Phoenix, Arizona helping businesses maximize their marketing investment with a strategic approach to inbound marketing.