In this post we will show you how to create target scenarios for your business. Included in the post you can find;

1. Why benchmarking matters
2. Example target scenarios
3. Worksheet download

As we approach the endgame of our Growth Mapper framework, we’ve built a complete picture of your business, your competitors, and your customers. We’ve also positioned your messaging, content themes, and lead magnets. 

Armed with this info, the next step on our journey is to determine a revenue goal and map out the traffic and conversion rate objectives required to achieve it.  

That’s why, in this short post, we’re sharing our aptly named Growth Mapping exercise — a way for you to plot realistic revenue goals against the backdrop of everything we’ve discussed so far.    

Here, you’ll learn:

• Why benchmarking matters when it comes to goal setting;

• How to plot your goals with our Growth Mapping exercise;

• And how doing so can lay the foundations for bottom-line-boosting digital marketing.

Plus, at the end of the post, you’ll find a free worksheet download to help you map your own revenue goals. 

Ready? Let’s go.

Trying to achieve growth without first setting clear growth targets is a bit like driving blindfolded. You might get to where you want to go, but it’s more likely you’ll veer off in the wrong direction (and, ultimately, crash). 

Benchmarking your data and performance removes that blindfold and gives you a roadmap to follow as you chase down your goals. Benchmarking lets you:

• Spot internal and external trends: Using traffic and engagement data, for example, you can identify the areas you need to focus on to achieve your goals.

• Get to grips with your current position: By understanding the strengths, weaknesses, and threats surrounding your business, you can plan your growth activities accordingly.

• Identify growth opportunities: See where you stand and pick out the opportunities for substantial business growth.

In short, benchmarking and goal setting go hand-in-hand. Comparing your data and performance – either internally or externally – gives you the insights you need to set SMART goals. 

So, instead of simply saying, “I want more sales,” you can develop a specific and measurable goal that’s both achievable and realistic, and set against a certain timeframe. A goal like:

“I want to add £100,000 of new sales within the next 12 months.”

And in the following exercise, we show you how you can plot a path towards a goal like that. 

In the above graphic, you’ll see a blank flowchart. Starting with your revenue goal at the top, we work our way down to pinpoint real (and achievable) digital growth targets at key stages of the customer journey, based on your current metrics. 

Let’s take a look at this exercise in action below.  

As an example, let’s suppose your company is currently turning over £2m in sales. You want to grow by 20% to £2.2m in the next 12 months, with £100,000 of that revenue coming through digital channels. So, we have our revenue goal: £100,000.

Here’s how we map out your growth targets:

• Based on our internal benchmarking, we know that your Average Order Value is £5,000, meaning we need to achieve 20 sales to meet your revenue target.

• We also know that your conversion rate of sales-qualified leads (SQLs) is 50%, meaning we need 40 leads to achieve those 20 sales.

• Likewise, your conversion rate of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) is 50%, meaning we need 80 interested prospects who can be converted to an SQL further down the funnel.

• And finally, we know that you’re converting enquiries at a rate of 50%, so to get the number of MQLs we need, our target stands at 160 enquiries.

The bottom line: To hit our revenue target of £100,000 within 12-months, we need to land 160 extra enquiries and convert them at a rate of 50% at each stage of the sales funnel. 

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Let’s say your website gets 5,000 visitors a month, and you’re converting them to enquiries at a rate of 1%. That means you’re currently getting 50 enquiries per month. We want to land an extra 160 enquiries over the next year, which means adding 14 new enquiries every month.

This information can now inform your approach to the channels and tactics required to hit your growth targets. For instance, by maintaining your conversion rate at 1% and adding an extra 1,400 visitors a month, you’ll bump your enquiries from 50 to 64. Or you could focus on maintaining your traffic at 5,000 and instead improve your conversion rate from 1% to 1.3%, giving you 65 enquiries a month from the same visitor numbers.  

Key Takeaway: This simple exercise gives you a clearly defined path towards your goal, with targets and milestones laid out along the way. But as with many destinations, there’s often more than one way to get there. 

Once you understand the steps you need to take to achieve your goal (for example, increasing traffic or improving conversion rate), you can point your marketing efforts and investment in the right direction.

Head over to our Resources Area to access the Profit Workbook, and discover a whole range of resources to implement in your business. Or, if you’re ahead of the game, book a call in with our Growth Experts.

We’ve designed each section of our Growth Mapper framework around a critical part of your business growth. We start with the basics and drill down into the details, giving you a clear picture of the opportunities and challenges moving forward.