The foundation of an excellent marketing strategy is having clear, actionable goals. Think of it like going on a trip. How would you know that you’ve arrived if you don’t even know where you’re going? Not only would you be traveling aimlessly, you’d also get lost along the way.
If you’re creating an escape room business, you can’t expect to just post on social media whenever you feel like it, and wonder why more people aren’t lining up at your establishment. To generate real results and hit your targets, you need to have a clear plan that’s backed by data.
But where do you even get started? And how do you align them with your escape room business plan? It all starts with figuring out your escape room marketing aims and objectives.
In this article, we provide some tips and tricks on how to set effective marketing goals.
The importance of setting marketing goals
A marketing goal is a well-defined destination that you work towards. Perhaps you want to increase brand awareness, establish yourself as a leader in the industry, grow your social media presence, or generate customer leads through email marketing. These are all examples of marketing goals.
But as we previously discussed on The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Escape Room Business in 2022, effective goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound — S.M.A.R.T., for short. Let’s break them down again.
- Specific – Your escape room marketing aims should connect to a concrete aspect of your business and focus on defined metrics.
- Measurable – You must have a way to measure the success of your marketing strategies, and have quantifiable metrics to benchmark your progress.
- Attainable – Far too often do businesses set themselves up for failure because their goals aren’t realistic, whether it’s due to budget or resource constraints. Therefore, it’s critical that you stick to goals that are feasible for your company.
- Relevant – Once you’ve got your goals, think about why you’re setting them and what their importance is to your business.
- Time-bound – Of course, you also need a feasible timeline to keep yourselves on track and monitor your progress.
With these factors in mind, you and your team will know exactly how impactful every task is, and understand which efforts are worth your time and resources. Having marketing goals will also tell you when you’ve crossed the finish line and become a successful escape room business.
Understanding the goals of your escape room business
In marketing, activities or productivity don’t dictate the value of your efforts. It all depends on the results. For your escape room marketing campaign to be impactful, it has to connect to your overall escape room business plan.
For instance, boosting Instagram engagement is definitely great, but how exactly does this help your escape room business? As we outlined above, boosting Instagram engagement can help generate more brand awareness, build community relationships, and translate to more customers.
Another example of a possible marketing goal is to improve your website and double your online traffic by publishing 5 optimized blog posts every month within Q2 of 2022. This goal impacts your business because it can also boost brand awareness, establish your business as an industry authority, and help you reach new customers organically. (To learn how you can optimize your escape room website, check out our guide ‘35 Point Checklist of A High Converting Escape Room Website’.)
The bottom line is, your escape room marketing aims need to drive business results. It’s not enough to churn out numbers that look good on paper, but don’t actually matter to your business in the bigger picture.
Connecting your marketing goals to your escape room business objectives
Often times, business objectives aren’t usually set by the marketing team. You may need to collaborate with the rest of your team, so you can see what your company wants to achieve and direct your marketing resources accordingly.
Let’s say your company wants to tap a new escape room target market to promote your new themed game. You might be using Facebook to target Millennials, but now you’d like to expand to younger consumers.
With studies showing that TikTok is one of the best direct marketing paths to Gen Z, you could consider creating targeted content on the platform and aiming for 10,000 followers by the end of Q1 in 2022.
You’ll be reaching your desired audience and generating more leads. Now that’s a good marketing goal with direct impact on your business objectives.
Setting your escape room marketing goals
Determining your marketing goals doesn’t have to be complicated. Below is a simple template to help you out.
[Desired outcome + metrics] by [main strategy] by [deadline].
Be sure to tie it back to your business objectives and how it will benefit your company as a whole. And most importantly, remember to keep it S.M.A.R.T. Here’s an example of a marketing goal using the given template:
Increase Instagram engagement by 10% by publishing 20 high-quality photos and/or videos every month by Q1 of 2022. Because customers tend to find new experiences on social media, increasing Instagram engagement can help generate more brand awareness, build community relationships, and translate to more customers.
Never forget that the purpose of your marketing plan is to create strategies and initiatives that drive customer action. Lastly, don’t expect your goals to be perfect. Goals change and escape room market trends evolve, prepare to constantly revisit and adjust your objectives. It’s necessary to keep you and your escape room business moving forward.
Need help refining your escape room marketing strategy? You’ve come to the right place. At SEO ORB, not only will we help define your goals and set you up for success, we’ll walk you to the finish line with our tried-and-tested growth acceleration framework.