OUR BLOG

By Craig Trout, Owner & President

For more than a decade, Alpha Dog Advertising has helped clients in a variety of industries build better revenue. I’ve noticed a common trend in that time:

There is a lack of clarity in how to achieve success through a marketing plan that’s grounded in actionable goals, objectives, and strategy.

To produce measurable results, it’s important to know not only what to do but also the difference in definitions between these terms so that you and your team are on the same page.

1) Goals

First, every burst of business growth starts with a defined goal. A goal is the broad outcome of what you want to achieve. For example, you want your brand to increase sales by 10 percent this year.

2) Objectives

The next step is to create objectives. An objective is a concrete deliverable that helps to achieve your goal. Objectives are often milestones you track to help you measure whether you will reach your goal.

To continue with our earlier example, an objective that supports increasing your sales by 10 percent is deciding to focus on an underserved territory or target as a potential new market.

3) Strategy

The final step is to develop a strategy. A strategy is an approach that will help you implement your objective and ultimately achieve your goal. Strategy is drilled down from your determined objectives and typically is a methodology or idea for helping to reach them.

With so many teams using these terms interchangeably, it’s easy to get confused and lose sight of what you were trying to do in the first place.

Here is a real-world example of how Alpha Dog Advertising helped our client Penn State Health with a recruitment challenge.

Penn State Health Recruitment Marketing Strategy

Penn State Health is a well-respected healthcare institution headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The location, surrounded by farm country, faces heavy competition with major metropolitan areas like Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta when recruiting new physicians and surgeons.

The Challenge

How do we convince advanced healthcare professionals to strongly consider a career at Penn State Health versus another established institution?

The Goal

Increase the rate of acceptance for physicians and surgeons at Penn State Health.

Objective #1

Increase the acceptance rate by 30 percent, from an average of three confirmations to four.

Objective #2

Develop a multi-point communication and recruitment process that is easily repeatable and is easily used by multiple recruiters to increase efficiency.

Strategy

Develop a marketing communication plan targeted toward the physician’s or surgeon’s significant other.

The Influence of a Well-Developed Marketing Strategy

The idea behind Penn State Health’s strategy is that when most high-earning professionals consider a career move that relocates them and their families, significant others are involved in the decision process. By developing touch points that speak directly to them in the marketing campaign, we can help influence the decision to a favorable result for Penn State Health.

The resulting campaign Alpha Dog created led to an increase in both qualified candidates and acceptance rate. You can read more about how we approached this challenge here.

By clearly defining the goals, objectives, and strategy with the client, we both had the same roadmap to follow to achieve success. If you could use some outside perspective to help your team achieve better revenue, give us a shout today!