Digital resource
Identifying your marketing goals
The first step in improving your marketing is understanding what you’re trying to achieve.
- You need to know what problem you’re attempting to tackle, then design your marketing goals to address this.
- Once you’ve set clear and attainable goals, you’ll be able to more easily focus your efforts, measure your progress and determine whether you’ve been successful.
- Different art centres have different priorities, resources and desired outcomes. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, you need to identify your own marketing goals that are relevant and sustainable for your business.
Your marketing goals should directly support what your art centre, as a business, is trying to achieve.
What are your business objectives?
Your marketing goals should directly support what your art centre, as a business, is trying to achieve.
Some example goals may include:
- Sell art online
- Sell art at the art centre
- Sell art through exhibitions
- Sell art to new buyers
- Foster a loyal community of buyers who purchase regularly (while considering how regularly people might purchase an artwork)
- Engage visitors in on-site tours and/or workshops
- Share cultural stories and knowledge via your e-newsletter
- Share cultural stories and knowledge via the website
- Increase awareness of your art centre
Ask yourself:
- What is my art centre trying to achieve?
- What is our core problem or challenge?
- Are you trying to grow, stabilise, or pivot from where you are now?
- Do you want more sales, visibility, or to grow customer loyalty?
- Note: as an art centre, you may have multiple goals; however, it’s best to select 1–2 primary goals to focus on.
But, are your goals SMART?
Using the SMART acronym can help turn vague ideas into actionable targets.
Specific
Specific – Clearly define what you’re aiming to do.
Measurable
Measurable – Track your progress with numbers or milestones (this will help you determine whether you’ve succeeded).
Achievable
Achievable – Set goals you can realistically reach with your current resources and staff hours.
Relevant
Relevant – Goals should connect to your business goals (e.g., don’t focus on ‘likes’ on social media if your issue is sales).
Time-bound
Time-bound – Set deadlines.
Example
If your art centre’s goal is to share cultural stories and knowledge through your e-newsletter, an example of a vague marketing goal might be to “increase subscriptions to the e-newsletter”.
We can reframe this as a SMART goal: “Get 30 new e-newsletter subscribers per month via Instagram by November 2025”.
This goal is:
- Specific – 30 new subscribers per month
- Measurable – 30 per month
- Achievable – not aiming for 1,000s
- Relevant – relates to your art centre’s business goal
- Time-bound – there is a deadline of November 2025
Who is your target audience?
- Knowing your ideal customer helps you set goals that matter.
- What is their age, gender, location, income etc.?
- What are their values, pain points (problems that they face, e.g., they might want to buy some Aboriginal art but don’t have time to visit the art centre), lifestyle, buying behaviour?
- Where do they spend their time? (Instagram vs LinkedIn? Blogs vs YouTube?).
- Use surveys, interviews or tools like SAM (Stories Art Money), Google Analytics and Meta Audience Insights to learn more about who is engaged with and buying from your brand.
What resources do you have?
Realistic planning starts with understanding your capabilities.
- Time – Do you or your team have the time to execute the plan?
- Money – What can you afford to spend monthly on tools, ads, and services?
- People – Do you need freelancers or agencies to help?
- Don’t overcommit – It’s better to choose fewer, more focused goals if resources are limited.
Without measurement, it’s difficult to know if your efforts are working and when to pivot to a new strategy
What are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
KPIs help you measure progress and success. Without measurement, it’s difficult to know if your efforts are working and when to pivot to a new strategy. These also help keep everyone on the same page and working towards the same goal.
Example KPIs by goal:
- Brand awareness – measure social media reach, impressions
- Lead generation – measure the number of new sign-ups or inquiries
- Sales – measure revenue (how much income are you making?), conversion rate (the percentage of potential customers who “convert” to buyers after seeing an advertisement or visiting your website. For example, if 1,000 people visited the website and 50 people bought something, your conversion rate would be 5% since 50/1,000 = 5%. Hint: you want to aim for a 2–5% conversion rate)
- Retention – measure repeat purchases, email engagement
Google Analytics, Meta Business Suite and Shopify/WordPress have dashboards that can help to track these KPIs.
What are your marketing efforts now? What is and isn’t working?
It’s important to review and reflect on past efforts before setting new goals.
- Look at past campaigns, consider how people hear about your art centre and/or how they come to visit your website (for example, do they find you through Google, social media and/or email marketing), check your email metrics and other sales data.
- What platforms or content types have worked best?
- What’s underperforming and should be dropped or improved?
It’s unsustainable to be on all platforms all the time. Instead, focus your efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
What marketing channels should you be using?
It’s unsustainable to be on all platforms all the time. Instead, focus your efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
- Organic channels – SEO (search engine optimisation, aka where you rank in Google search), social media, blog content
- Paid channels – Google Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Ads, influencer marketing
- Owned channels – Website, email list, e-newsletter
Consider:
- Where is your audience most active?
- What type of content do they respond to? Where do you get the most likes/comments/saves/clicks?
- What is your budget and team skill set?
What are your short- and long-term goals?
Break big visions into actionable steps.
Short-term (1–3 months):
- Run a campaign
- Grow your email list by XX%
- Launch a product
Long-term (6–12+ months):
- Build brand reputation
- Develop customer loyalty programs
- Rank in the top 3 for specific keywords
How are you going to measure success?
To determine whether you have achieved your goals and/or are heading in the right direction, you need to be able to track your activity.
Use tools like:
- Google Analytics (website traffic)
- Meta Ads Manager (ad performance)
- Email platforms like Mailchimp, Omnisend or Klaviyo (open rates, click-throughs)
Schedule monthly or quarterly reviews to:
- Compare results with goals
- Analyse what worked/didn’t
- Adjust campaigns, messaging, or channels
Ready to identify your own marketing goals?
Download this template to help you get started.
[This resource was created 15 August 2025.]
Upcoming resources
Stay tuned for more upcoming resources and discover how to action the marketing goals you’ve identified.
Have a question?
