Whether you are working on your overall marketing plan or a specific part within it, it’s imperative that you have clear objectives and goals for each element within your strategy. These goals should be clearly defined, realistic and you should be able to reach them within an acceptable time-frame. Companies who have the most success with their marketing tend to identify their marketing goals using the SMART goal framework.
SMART stands for:
Specific - Your goal should be unambiguous and communicate what is expected, why it is important, who is involved, where it is going to happen, and which constraints are in place.Measurable - Your goal should have concrete criteria for measuring progress and reaching the goal.
Attainable - Your goal should be realistic and possible for your team to reach.
Relevant - Your goal should matter to your business and address a core initiative.
Timely - You should have an expected date that you will reach the goal.
Some example SMART goals might be:
- Website Traffic: Get 15,000 new visits by January 1, 2018 through the content related to your new campaign.
- Lead Generation: Get 1,00 new leads by June 1, 2018 through the content related to your new campaign.
- New Customers: Get 350 new customers by March 1, 2018 through the content related to your new campaign.
Download our FREE SMART Marketing Goals template here.
Now that we are all caught up with SMART goals, let's examine your current situation:
- What have you been focusing on in the past, Is it visits, leads, or customers?
- What are you currently spending the most of your time on?
- How much time do you have per week, a few days per week or a few hours?
- Who else is helping you, are you the only one, or do you have colleagues?
You should set goals based on your business's performance in the past, projections of your team, and, if applicable, on data about other businesses in the same industry. Make sure that your goals are realistic and consistently relevant to your business.
By implementing SMART goals will help you prevent your marketing goals from becoming off-base pipe dreams – instead they will become realistic targets that will help you achieve exactly what you want to achieve.
To recap: be SMART – Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-sensitive.
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