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Setting goals for your digital marketing

Author's avatar By Dave Chaffey 05 Oct, 2020
Essential Essential topic

Set the right goals for digital marketing using the 5Ss

Do your set of goals for online marketing cover all the bases? A good set of digital marketing goals covers a range of different measures to help set, review and control performance across all digital marketing activities.

Digital Marketing GoalsDigital marketing goals through the 5 Ss

PR Smith, my co-author on Emarketing Excellence developed the 5Ss of digital marketing around 2000, and although basic, it's still used by many planning their digital marketing strategy. So I thought I'd share it here by showing how it applies today to ASOS.com, a dynamic online business. To measure the goals suggested, see my post on goal setup in Google Analytics.

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1. Sell - Grow sales

ASOS digital shopping cart

Start with your most important transactions that lead to revenue and profit! That's sales, or if you don't sell online, the leads that your online marketing will deliver which will convert through to sales or donations if you're a not-for-profit.

Notice how ASOS aim to increase sales through boosting trust in the online purchase process and offering free delivery.

Tip. Use a conversion models helps set quantitative targets to hit. Use this Excel digital marketing budgeting spreadsheet we have developed to help set the right goals.

2. Speak - Get closer to customers through dialogue and participation

ASOS inspiration ASOS digital magazine

Digital channels are not only great sales channels, they excel as communications channels to engage your audience through the 6 main digital marketing tools.We recommend creating detailed conversion or budget models which allow you to set goals by channel for reaching and influencing your audience.

Since digital channels work best when joined with other channels, the goals here should also include online visits prompted by traditional offline media.

Although ASOS.com is a pureplay, it's customer magazine is important in building the brand and influencing sales.

3. Serve - Add value

ASOS twitter marketing

The company website and social customer service are a natural place for customers to go to get their questions answers or to complain... Paying attention to the quality of service you offer is also key to support your capability to Sell, Speak, Save and Sizzle.

So you need customer satisfaction goals to assess how you good you are at customer service and then improve it further.

ASOS have invested in a choice of customer service channels as this example shows.

4. Save - Save costs

Less glamorous than the sizzle of building your brand and social media engagement, but you should show the value you gain through using online cost savings to reduce service costs and save on traditional media like print and post.

This is most relevant for a multichannel retailer or service company who can set goals for a number of catalogues downloaded or number of service transactions compared to other channels.

If you're fighting for budget for online channels, the savings you can demonstrate to your finance director or budget holder will improve help your cause.

5. Sizzle - Extending your brand online

ASOS facebook marketing

Putting the Sizzle into your digital marketing will really help your sales and speak goals, but it's not to easy to set goals for and then to track. So what is the "Sizzle in your Sausage"?

Sizzle is about building your brand online. Think about what makes for a positive online brand experience is for your audience and you.

If the experience you create is effective, the benefits of engaging with your digital presence will be clear; the interactions within the site and with other channels will be smooth and the visitor will want to use your online services again, and tell their friends and colleagues about it.

So key sizzle goals are levels of satisfaction and recommendations or advocacy. ASOS have invested heavily in community platforms and social media to deliver the sizzle!

See our ideas on these tools for getting website feedback

Digital Marketing goals across the whole of the 5Ss

The 5Ss of digital marketing is a good, simple starting point to help check you're covering the whole of digital marketing, not just sales!


Source of 5S image: Multimedia Marketing. The 5Ss are introduced in Emarketing Excellence.

Author's avatar

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. Dave is editor of the 100+ templates, ebooks and courses in the digital marketing resource library created by our team of 25+ digital marketing experts. Our resources are used by our Premium members in more than 100 countries to Plan, Manage and Optimize their digital marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is a keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.

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