Tips to Help You Set SMART Marketing Goals

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably had a lot of goals in life. The only problem is, obtaining the goals doesn’t always work out. Whether it’s business goals or personal ones, it’s easier to make them than to keep them.

However, if you get SMART about your goals, you’ll be able to build a plan to accomplish them. What is the strategy behind the SMART goals? Read on.

Why Smart Goals Help!

Smart marketing goals help you measure your progress.  If you don’t set up goals that you can track, you won’t be able to tell how close or far you are from achieving them.  There is a world of difference between hitting 90% of your goal than 50% and you need to know that difference to grow your business.

Here are 5 Tips to help you with your SMART goals:

1 – Make Specific Goals

Your goals need to be specific. This sounds straightforward enough, but let’s be honest, we can be pretty vague when it comes to setting goals. You need to determine what metric you are trying to change.

Do you want more website visitors, more leads for sales, or more sales?

You may want goals in all those areas, but start with just one, then determine what tools you need to accomplish this specific goal. Ask yourself these questions:

Will you need a particular department to work on it or maybe just a team member or two?

Does the team need any specific tools to accomplish this goal?

What is the game plan to help them achieve this goal?

The answers will help shape your goals.

 2 – Make Measurable Goals

Being able to measure your goals is the only way you’ll know if you’ve been successful or not. How many times have marketing managers set a goal that said something like, “increase website traffic?”

Or maybe the goal was to “get more visitors to our social media accounts.” This is a great starting point, but it needs more meat to it to see it happen.

For example, if you specifically state that your goal is to increase the current number of visitors by 10%, then you’ve made this goal one that you can measure.

This type of specificity holds you accountable to a real number, which means you’ll know if you’ve reached your goal or not.

3 – Make Attainable Goals

Some people get their desires mixed up with what’s realistic. We’ve all been there. We want to see an astronomical increase in leads or visitors when we’ve only been getting a minimal number at the current moment.

So, you want to go from about 0 to 1,000 right now!

Sorry, but that’s not happening. Be realistic and set doable goals. You will feel more confident as you achieve your goals, and you can increase your goals in time. In order to make your goals attainable, you’ll need to know what you are achieving right now.

If you haven’t been keeping track, take some time to track where you’re at and then you can increase it slightly (to start).

4 – Make Relevant Goals

Keep your goals relevant. Don’t make a goal to increase visitors to your Twitter account if most of your buyer personas don’t use Twitter. You want a goal that aligns with your customers, prospects, and your current needs.

So, for example, if you generally get a lot of leads from Facebook, you may want to make a goal around the Facebook traffic or conversions. The point is to make sure you keep it relevant.

5 – Make Time-focused Goals

It’s no use making a goal and not attaching a time when you want it done. You need to have a time-frame when you check back in and see how you’re doing.

Are you achieving the goals you set?

Attaching a time-frame holds you accountable too. This deadline can serve as a motivator to achieve the goals.

Now that you know being SMART is the only way to accomplish those marketing goals, it’s time to begin the process. Assess where you’re at right now, then you’ll know where you need (or want) to improve.