In another reading, you were introduced to examples of job responsibilities in digital marketing

coordinator and e-commerce analyst roles. This reading summarizes other associate or entry-level
roles and responsibilities in digital marketing and e-commerce. At the end of the reading, you’ll find
advice on how you can potentially progress from a starting role to roles with further growth
opportunities.

Associate-level roles in digital marketing

Below are some examples of responsibilities for associate-level roles in digital marketing. These lists
aren't comprehensive but are intended to showcase a variety of responsibilities in each role.

Digital marketing coordinator*

Coordinate marketing activities and initiatives

Identify target audiences through research

Run campaigns

Monitor metrics to evaluate trends

* Also described in another video and reading

Marketing associate

Prepare reports on marketing and sales metrics

Collect and analyze customer behavior metrics, such as web traffic and search rankings

Coordinate with marketing teams to generate digital advertising materials

Assist with ongoing marketing campaigns

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist

Develop optimization strategies to improve search rankings

Implement keywords for SEO

Monitor metrics to understand SEO performance

Update links for optimization of search rankings

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialist

Identify customer personas to enable marketing to identified audiences

Perform research on keywords for SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) ads

Monitor metrics to optimize paid search performance

Identify and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for SEM

Social media specialist

Develop, implement, and manage a social media marketing strategy

Collaborate with sales and marketing teams on social media campaigns

Create content to build customer connections and increase brand awareness

Monitor metrics in social media campaigns for customer engagement and content optimization
insights

Email marketing specialist

Create email marketing campaigns to promote products or services

Create an archive of emails for lead generation

Purge non-deliverable and unsubscribed email addresses

Use metrics to monitor the performance of email campaigns

Associate-level roles in e-commerce

Below are some examples of responsibilities for associate-level roles in e-commerce. These lists
aren't comprehensive but are intended to showcase a variety of responsibilities in each role.

E-commerce analyst*

Implement e-commerce strategies to support business goals

Set e-commerce goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for key attributes like audience,
acquisition, behavior, and conversions

Monitor and analyze e-commerce metrics

Leverage e-commerce data for operational insights

* Also described in another reading

E-commerce specialist

Develop and run campaigns to increase digital sales as part of an overall digital marketing strategy

Optimize paid advertising campaigns using SEO and other tools

Manage an online marketing presence, including social media platforms

Monitor metrics for spikes in website traffic or sales

Advance to roles that further your growth

Starting an entry-level role in marketing or e-commerce is exciting, but after you gain practical
experience and hands-on work using tools in that role, you might be eager to advance your career.

If you’re ready for a new role, below are a few possibilities and a sampling of responsibilities for
each.

Digital marketing manager

Plan and execute digital marketing, including SEO/SEM, email, social media, and display advertising
campaigns

Measure and report performance and return on investment (ROI) for digital marketing

Plan, execute, and evaluate A/B tests and experiments

Evaluate and improve the end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer
touchpoints

Social media strategist

Manage and oversee social media content

Measure the success of social media campaigns

Monitor and analyze metrics to recommend effective content optimization solutions

Network with industry professionals and influencers using social media

Account manager

Build and maintain client relationships

Ensure the timely and successful delivery of advertising solutions based on customer needs and
objectives

Clearly communicate the progress of initiatives to internal and external stakeholders

Forecast and monitor key account metrics

E-commerce product manager

Conduct market research

Develop a product strategy for an e-commerce business based on analytics

Define website and mobile app functionality, and deliver an optimal user experience for both

Understand business objectives and coordinate efforts to increase sales

Key takeaways

Career progression is very individualized. Sometimes it can take less than a year to be ready to
advance to the next level; often it can take a few years. Here are three signs that you could be ready
to progress to the next level.

You consistently meet or exceed job-related performance goals.

You’re assigned tasks associated with a higher-level role.

You recently asked for more work while performing your job.
Keep in mind that your career can advance at a speed that is right for you. Always be ready and open
to new opportunities by demonstrating a positive attitude and a growth mindset in whatever role
you’re in!

Terms and definitions from Course 1, Week 1

Agency: An outside partner that fulfills a company’s digital marketing and advertising
needs

Business-to-business (B2B): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to other

businesses (when businesses purchase from each other)

Business-to-consumer (B2C): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to

consumers (when consumers purchase from businesses)

Consumer-to-business (C2B): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or

services to businesses (when businesses purchase from consumers)

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or

services to other consumers (when consumers purchase from each other)

Digital channel: Any communication method or platform a business can use to reach their
target audience online

Digital marketing: The practice of reaching consumers online through digital channels
with the aim of turning them into customers

E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods or services using the internet

Engagement marketing: (refer to experiential marketing)

Experiential marketing: The process of encouraging consumers to not only purchase a

brand or product, but to experience it

Influencer marketing: The process of enlisting influential people to endorse or mention a

brand or product to their followers on social media

In-house: Within a single company

Social media marketing: The process of creating content for different social media
platforms to drive engagement and promote a business or product

Transferable skills: Skills from other areas that can help someone progress a career in
marketing
Advantages and challenges of digital marketing

Traditional marketing is marketing that isn't online. Marketers reach potential customers through
printed media, television, radio, direct mail, phone calls, or billboards. Digital marketing is marketing
that is exclusively online. Digital marketers focus on potential customers who engage with online
content, including search engine results, email, video, blogs, or social media.

This reading describes the advantages digital marketing has over traditional marketing and some
definite challenges, too.

Digital marketing advantages

Digital marketing has certain advantages over traditional marketing because it:

 Reduces wasteful spending

 Adapts to new technologies

 Reaches target audiences with more precision

Spending

Digital marketing uses content in a variety of formats that can be easily converted from one format
to another, making spending more cost-effective. Digital marketing also reduces wasteful spending.
For example, television or billboard ads are equally seen by those who have an interest in your
company or product and those who don’t. Traditional marketing always wastes some budget on
people who will never buy a product or service. In contrast, digital ads can be selectively shown to
people who are more likely to have an interest in that product or service. Digital marketing that is
more strategically focused on the right people yields a better return on spending.

Technology

Various technologies enable organizations to engage and interact with customers more effectively,
which is a big part of digital marketing. Developing a good online relationship with customers makes
them more likely to find your business, become loyal customers, and even share their
recommendations with others.

Digital marketing tools also enable companies to collect data and measure the results of their
marketing efforts more effectively. When marketers receive data faster, they’re able to change
direction easily if a marketing effort isn’t producing the results expected. Measuring the success of
digital marketing campaigns is key to ensuring that you get the results you want.

Digital marketing adapts to new technologies. There are always new opportunities to reach
customers in different ways, especially compared to traditional marketing.

Target audiences

Digital marketing tools and data enable you to expand your customer reach well beyond that of
traditional marketing. Ad visibility and audience coverage can be tailored to meet your specific
business needs and goals. When you reach the right audiences, you’re more likely to increase sales
and develop sustainable customer loyalty programs.

Digital marketing challenges

Digital marketing also has certain challenges that are associated with spending, technology, and
target audiences. For each advantage previously identified, there are also associated challenges.

Spending

Advantage: Digital content is easier to create.

Challenge: Organizations engage in omnichannel marketing—the integration or synchronization of

content on multiple channels—so customers can have a consistent brand experience. This increases
the amount of content required, so even if it’s easier to create digital content, much more content
needs to be created overall. Furthermore, it’s not just about the amount of content created, but its
quality. Advertising is a crowded space. Content must be distinctive to positively impact customer
awareness and change their behavior.

Advantage: Digital marketing is more cost-effective than traditional marketing.

Challenge: If an organization is working towards an omnichannel presence, the cost for marketing on
all channels adds up quickly. Getting support or buy-in for extra or additional budget to cover the
cost can be difficult.

Technology

Advantage: Digital marketing adapts to new technologies.

Challenge: As a marketer, learning and keeping up with new technologies and tools is a constant
requirement. Marketers must also stay up-to-date with and follow all user privacy and data sharing
regulations worldwide. Omnichannel marketing also makes it more difficult to track where sales
come from. Marketers must rely more heavily on analytics tools to help them do that.

Target audiences

Advantage: Digital marketing tools expand customer reach using specific audiences.

Challenge: The digital space is a crowded field that’s getting even more crowded. It’s harder for
marketers to stand out with their advertising, even when they are targeting the right audiences.

Key takeaways

Various technologies make digital marketing more cost-effective and adaptable than traditional
marketing. Digital marketing tools also enable more advanced and targeted audience selection for
marketing campaigns. However, these benefits come with some challenges. In a digital space that’s
both crowded and noisy, it’s harder for a company’s brand and advertising to stand out. Marketing
professionals must keep up with technological advances and customer behaviors that change
rapidly.
You learned that before a purchase happens, each interaction with a brand during a
customer journey is called a touchpoint. 

Customer journey map with touchpoints, including search, reading reviews, live chat, trial
subscription, email reminder, and purchase.
Touchpoints are important to monitor because they reveal the kinds of decisions
customers are making during their customer journey to purchase your product or service.
Touchpoints occur when a customer engages with your website or mobile app. But they
also include customer interactions on all media channels before a customer discovers
your website. 

This reading explains how to classify touchpoints for media channels, and how to use
these touchpoints to learn more about your customers. 

Touchpoints relate to a specific context or need 

When you identify touchpoints, you may be tempted to list social media or display ads.
These channels may be the mediums in which touchpoints occur, but actual touchpoints
provide much more information. When you identify a touchpoint, think about how the
interaction might satisfy a customer need. 

For example, instead of classifying social media as a touchpoint, classify a customer’s

response to a flash sale announcement on Twitter as a touchpoint. When they click the
link, they are interested in knowing what they can purchase at a discounted price. 

From the example, notice how much contextual information is lost if you simply lump
every social media interaction under a single touchpoint called social media.

Touchpoints have context and reflect customer needs. In the example, the context was
curiosity, and the need was saving money.

Touchpoints are customer-centric

Touchpoints should also be customer-centric. Going back to the previous example,
imagine if you viewed touchpoints from the perspective of the business instead of from
the customer experience. If increasing sales is a business goal, touchpoints can easily
become part of a rolling calculation, like a ratio of touchpoints to purchases. 
 While a ratio of touchpoints to purchases is still informative, notice how a customer-
centric versus a business-centric analysis can provide more insights about buyer
motivations.

Key takeaways
Use touchpoints to your advantage. To get the most from touchpoints, carefully define
them for all media channels. Touchpoints that are customer-centric and relate back to
their needs will yield the most useful data about customer motivations, preferences, and
behaviors.

A marketing funnel is a powerful way for businesses to focus and coordinate their
marketing efforts. To get the most out of a marketing funnel, businesses must optimize
their work at each stage of the funnel to reach desired outcomes.

The marketing funnel video in this course introduced you to a simple and generalized
funnel design with four stages:

 Awareness
 Consideration
 Conversion
 Loyalty
You also learned that there are multiple versions of marketing funnels. Marketing funnels
have been revised over time to reflect changes in business, technology, and even
customer behavior. This reading provides a brief history of the funnel’s evolution.

Evolution of the marketing funnel

How is tofu related to a marketing funnel? Actually, ToFU (not the bean curd product) is
an acronym for Top of Funnel. There’s also MoFU and BoFU which stand for Middle of
Funnel and Bottom of Funnel, respectively. When using any funnel, the aim is to get the
most desirable outcomes for ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU. As you read about different funnel
designs, you can also think about how the desired ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU outcomes for
each are similar or different.

Traditional sales funnel

Funnels probably took shape first as sales funnels. A simple sales funnel has awareness,
interest, decision, and action stages as depicted in the following graphic.
 Desirable outcomes for a sales funnel, like the one shown in the graphic, might be:

 Awareness (ToFU): The customer has a general awareness of your brand, product, or
service.
 Interest (MoFU): Your brand, product, or service comes up as a top choice when the
customer researches, comparison shops, or thinks about options.
 Decision (MoFU): The customer chooses your brand, product, or service over your
competitor’s.
 Action (BoFU): The customer purchases your brand, product, or service.

Combined marketing and sales funnel

Most likely, combined funnels for marketing and sales grew out of sales funnels. One
example is shown below.
 Funnel with Traditional and Digital Marketing inputs at the top of the funnel and Awareness,
Interest, Desire, Action, and Conversion as downward-progressing stages of the funnel.

Desirable outcomes for a combined sales and marketing funnel, like the one shown in the
graphic, might be:

 Awareness (ToFU): The customer has a general awareness of your brand, product, or
service.
 Interest (MoFU): Your brand, product, or service comes up as a top choice when the
customer researches, comparison shops, or thinks about options.
 Desire (MoFU): The customer has motivation or an incentive to purchase your brand,
product, or service.
 Action (BoFU): The customer purchases your brand, product, or service for the first time.
 Conversion (BoFU): The customer makes regular purchases and a customer relationship
is established.

Digital marketing funnel

As business and technology evolved, more specialized funnels were then developed, as in
the case of a funnel entirely dedicated to digital marketing. An example of a specialized
digital marketing funnel is shown below. Note that the Remarketing stage of the funnel is
only for customers who engaged with your brand, product, or service at least once before
and didn’t previously convert. New customers can proceed directly from the
Consideration stage to the Conversion stage.
 Funnel with Awareness and Engagement, Consideration, Remarketing, Conversion, and Retention as
downward-progressing stages of the funnel.

Desirable outcomes for a digital marketing funnel, like the one shown in the graphic,
might be:

 Awareness and engagement (ToFU): The customer has a general awareness of your
brand, product, or service, and engages in online activity to learn more.
 Consideration (MoFU): Your brand, product, or service comes up as a top choice after the
customer has engaged.
 Remarketing (MoFU): The customer who didn’t convert is re-engaged to consider your
brand, product, or service again.
 Conversion (BoFU): The customer purchases your brand, product, or service for the first
time.
 Retention (BoFU): The customer makes regular purchases and a customer relationship is
established.

Other marketing funnel variations

Today, specific funnels exist for many individual areas of marketing. Examples include an
e-commerce marketing funnel, a social media marketing funnel, and even a content
marketing funnel.

E-commerce marketing funnel

An e-commerce marketing funnel can include the following stages that focus on attracting
and retaining customers:

 Awareness: Build awareness of your e-commerce business.

 Consideration: Build the brand.
 Differentiation: Stand out in the business category.
 Purchase: Reach shoppers most likely to purchase.
 Brand readiness: Increase the potential for shoppers to make return purchases.

Social media marketing funnel

A social media marketing funnel can include these stages that turn a customer with brand
awareness into a customer who is an advocate:

 Awareness: Attract potential customers unaware of your brand, product, or service.

 Consideration: Stand out among your competitors so potential customers have a good
impression of your brand, product, or service.
 Action: Convince potential customers to act and make a purchase.
 Engagement: Keep customers engaged after they make a purchase so your brand,
product, or service remains top-of-mind and in the spotlight.
 Advocacy: Build trust with customers so they recommend your brand, product, or service
to others.

Content marketing funnel

A content marketing funnel can include these stages to help marketers organize and focus
their content:

 Awareness: Build web pages, blogs, social media posts, infographics, and podcasts.
 Evaluation: Focus on surveys, email, webinars, and educational events.
 Conversion: Provide customer success stories, webinars, specifications, and demos.

Key takeaways
The key takeaways for funnels are:

 There isn’t a single funnel that fits all needs.

 Funnels are created for general sales and marketing needs.
 Funnels are also created for specialized areas of marketing.
 Effective marketing efforts incorporate funnels to optimize desired outcomes.
Finally, as a reminder, although this reading introduced a variety of funnels, the marketing
funnel that you will refer to often in this program is the one shown below.
Previously, you learned about the different stages of the marketing funnel. In this case
study, you’ll learn the marketing strategies that the Lenexa, Kansas based e-commerce
company, MERSEA, uses to attract potential customers, turn them into paying customers,
and eventually repeat customers. This process represents MERSEA’s approach to the
marketing funnel. 

There is no standard approach to building a marketing funnel. The various marketing

funnel models often share similar strategies and structures, but vary based on the needs
of the business.
Company background

In 2013, Lina Dickinson and Melanie Bolin founded MERSEA, a lifestyle brand located in
Lenexa, Kansas, offering clothing, accessories, and home fragrances. MERSEA’s products
are rooted in the joy of travel and the tranquility of seaside escapes. Initially, Lina and
Melanie focused on selling through retail partners, placing MERSEA in over 1,200 stores.

The challenge
After having a solid presence in retail stores, MERSEA’s founders wanted to increase their
e-commerce sales. The challenge MERSEA faced is like many other e-commerce
businesses: acquiring new customers online and turning them into repeat customers. This
is the core of its marketing funnel. 

Imagine the perspective of a business owner. You have a functional online store. But, how
can you get potential customers to visit the online store? And, after attracting customers,
how can you encourage those customers to revisit the store and become repeat
customers?

The approach
To get the MERSEA brand and product offering in front of its ideal customers, Lina and
Melanie used a mix of marketing strategies such as online paid advertising, email
marketing, social media marketing, and text messaging.

It’s important to note that MERSEA is not implementing all these strategies with its own
employees. They hired an outside marketing company to assist with Google Ads. Working
with a marketing company outside of the business allows the founders and its employees
to focus on what they’re best at, creating outstanding products.

For busy business owners, it may be beneficial to hire outside of the company to complete
tasks, particularly for marketing strategies that require more technical skills. For example,
Google Ads requires a knowledge of its platform and how to interpret its metrics.

Organized by marketing funnel stages, here are some marketing strategies MERSEA uses:

Awareness

For the awareness stage, MERSEA uses online ads including Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

There are several types of Google Ads MERSEA uses. For example, the company uses
Search ads for brand name and product searches. It also uses Shopping ads for specific
types of products, such as “kimono sweater.” For the Facebook Ads, MERSEA advertises to
potential customers from lifestyle-based targeting.

Both of these ads help get the MERSEA brand and products in front of those searching and
interested in their type of products.
Consideration

During the consideration marketing funnel stage, MERSEA continues to apply online
advertising, and also uses social media marketing and email marketing.

For online advertising, a marketing strategy MERSEA uses is delivering ads to people who
previously visited their website. This is called remarketing. After the customer visits the
website, they then receive ads specifically for the products they viewed. This type of
advertising is in the consideration stage because the remarketing ads build interest in the
potential customer.

For social media marketing and email marketing, MERSEA tells stories about products and
introduces potential customers to the brand. 
Conversion

MERSEA is continually working to improve the conversion stage of its marketing funnel.
One strategy it uses is following up with customers who have abandoned their carts. An
abandoned cart is when a customer adds an item to their cart in an online store but does
not make a purchase. If the customer enters their email during the checkout process, but
doesn’t make a purchase, MERSEA automatically sends follow up emails reminding the
customer about the product in their cart. This follow-up leads to an increase in the
conversion rate.

Loyalty

During the loyalty stage, MERSEA turns its paying customers into repeat customers. 

After making a purchase, the customer receives emails about additional and newly
released products they may be interested in. These emails are typically sent twice a week:
one during the week and another during the weekend.

In addition, one unique strategy MERSEA uses to build loyalty is through text messaging. It
has success with sending text messages for order delivery confirmation and updates.
When done well, this texting strategy creates a more personal relationship with
customers.

The results
While MERSEA’s success starts with its quality and fashionable products, its well-
functioning marketing funnel approach contributes to its success. Within two years of
focusing on e-commerce and building an online marketing funnel, MERSEA increased its
online sales from 10% to 45%.

Additionally, because of the satisfied customers and the well-developed loyalty stage of
its marketing funnel, around 50% of MERSEA’s customers are returning customers. 

Conclusion
There is no correct way to structure a marketing funnel. A key to a successful funnel is
trying and testing new ideas. MERSEA has been successful with its online marketing efforts
because it didn’t simply set up an e-commerce store. MERSEA built a marketing funnel to
complement it. 

A well-made product is important, but a well-rounded marketing approach helps sell the
product. A mix of the right marketing strategies drives customers through the funnel. The
customers go from unaware of the brand to interested to first-time customers to repeat
customers.
Glossary terms from week 2
Terms and definitions from Course 1, Week 2
Awareness stage: The first stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer first becomes
aware of the product or service

Consideration stage: The second stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer's interest
builds for a product or service

Conversion: The completion of an activity that contributes to the success of a business

Conversion rate: The percentage of users or website visitors who completed a desired action, such as
clicking on a link in an email or purchasing a product

Conversion stage: The third stage of the marketing funnel, when marketers capitalize on the interest
people have already shown

Customer journey: The path customers take from learning about a product, to getting questions
answered, to making a purchase

Customer journey map: A visualization of the touchpoints a typical customer encounters along their
purchase journey

Frequency: How many times an individual encounters an ad

Impressions: The total number of times an ad appears on people’s screens

Inclusive marketing: The practice of improving representation and belonging within the marketing
and advertising materials that an organization creates

Lead: A potential customer who has interacted with a brand and shared personal information, like an
email address

Local search: A search query that generates local-based search results

Local SEO: Optimizing content so that it displays in Google's local search algorithms

Loyalty stage: The fourth stage of the marketing funnel, when customers become repeat customers
and brand advocates

Marketing funnel: A visual representation of the process through which people go from learning about
a brand to becoming loyal customers

Omnichannel: The integration or synchronization of content on multiple channels

Pain points: Problems customers want to solve

Reach: The total number of unique individuals who encounter an ad across their different

devices

Target audience: The group of people most likely to purchase a company's products; often defined as
the combination of customer personas
Touchpoint: Any interaction a customer has with a brand during their purchase journey

Terms and their definitions from previous module(s)

A
Agency: An outside partner that fulfills a company’s digital marketing and advertising needs

B
Business-to-business (B2B): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to other businesses
(when businesses purchase from each other)

Business-to-consumer (B2C): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to consumers (when
consumers purchase from businesses)

C
Consumer-to-business (C2B): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to
businesses (when businesses purchase from consumers)

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to

other consumers (when consumers purchase from each other)

D
Digital channel: Any communication method or platform a business can use to reach their target
audience online

Digital marketing: The practice of reaching consumers online through digital channels with the aim of
turning them into customers

E
E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods or services using the internet

Engagement marketing: (refer to experiential marketing)

Experiential marketing: The process of encouraging consumers to not only purchase a brand or
product, but to experience it

I
Influencer marketing: The process of enlisting influential people to endorse or mention a brand or
product to their followers on social media

In-house: Within a single company

S
Social media marketing: The process of creating content for different social media platforms to drive
engagement and promote a business or product

T
Transferable skills: Skills from other areas that can help someone progress a career in marketing

Find your audience and understand your customers

In this reading, you will learn about creating customer personas to reach your intended audience. By
analyzing certain customer data points, you will be able to determine the type of content your
audience engages with. 

Why is it important to know your audience?

When you identify your audience, you can create digital marketing campaigns that interest and engage
them. This can lead to brand growth and increased awareness.

Knowing your audience involves learning details about their lives, such as their geographic location,
interests, online activities, and preferences. It’s important to understand what content your audience
likes and how they like to consume it. For example, do they enjoy receiving humorous content via
email? Maybe they like to be introduced to new products via social media ads. Perhaps they are more
likely to engage with an ad if they see it while they’re on a website they frequently visit. There is a lot to
consider when you are thinking about your audience, but start by learning who they are.

Who is your audience? 

Understanding customer personas
Customer personas represent a group of similar people in a desirable audience. They are profiles of
your likely customers, based on data and research. Creating customer personas can help a company
figure out how to reach people at the right time and with the right message, offer, or products.
Personas allow you to focus your time and energy on prospective leads that may actually turn into
customers, rather than random people who may not have any interest in your company at all.

There are a few ways to create customer personas. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Xtensio,
and Up Close & Persona have persona generators built in. However, if you prefer to create your own,
you will need to conduct some research. 
 Asking the right questions
Using surveys, interviews, and/or data that already exists in your automation tools, you can find the
information needed to create your personas. That information will most likely be demographics like
gender, age, geographical location, income, education, and job type.

If you collect this information through surveys or interviews, it’s important you ask questions based on
your business’ goals. Sometimes, it’s as simple as finding out your customers’ personality traits,
hobbies, and which social media platforms they use to engage with brands. 

Note: Your customer personas may not look exactly like this. They may be more or less detailed or include
different information. It’s all about what is right for your company. You will get more in-depth instructions
on how to create customer personas in a later reading.

Key takeaways
Customer personas represent a group of similar people in a desirable audience. They:

 help a company figure out how to reach people at the right time and with the right message, offer, or
products
 allow you to focus your time and energy on prospective leads that may actually turn into customers
 can be created manually or using automated tools 

How to set SMART goals

Throughout this program, you will learn about SMART goals. In this reading, you will gain a very broad
understanding of what SMART goals are. Later in the course, you will build on that understanding with
more in-depth readings, videos, and activities.
 What are SMART goals?
Before you create email campaigns, you need to evaluate what your company’s goals are. You may
want to grow your subscriber base, boost brand awareness, or increase conversions, but those hopes
aren’t necessarily your goals yet. For them to be goals, they need some additional details and
specifications.

When you set your goals, you’ll want to refer to the acronym SMART. SMART stands for specific,
measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Ensuring your goals meet this criteria will help keep
you organized, give you a sense of direction as you move through your campaigns, and provide you
with a time frame to work within.

SMART considerations
To make sure your goals are SMART, consider the following factors:

 Specific: What do you want to accomplish?

 Measurable: What are the success metrics that will determine whether the objective has been met?
 Attainable: Is this a realistic goal that you think you can meet?
 Relevant: Is this email marketing goal aligned with your company’s overall objectives?
 Time-bound: What is a realistic time frame that this goal can be met within?

Example scenario
You’re a digital marketer for a photography and photo sharing company. Users can upload their photos
onto your website and, using your design templates, make scrapbooks and other items to
commemorate events, trips, loved ones, and more. You are setting new SMART goals in preparation for
the upcoming financial quarter.

You know the company wants to focus on increasing scrapbook sales for this next quarter, so you start
thinking about goals. You decide to set a SMART goal to give you something to compare your progress
against. You come up with:

We aim to increase scrapbook sales by 15% by the end of the next quarter through a robust social media
campaign where we focus heavily on influencer marketing.

This goal fits all of the SMART goal criteria, which means you’ll be able to easily track your progress and
make adjustments as the social media campaign progresses.

Key takeaways
This is just the beginning of your journey in learning more about setting SMART goals. As you move
along in the course, you’ll gain some additional context for your SMART goals. For now, remember that
SMART goals should always be: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.