The great writer C. S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, once said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” It’s true that you shouldn’t let yourself be deterred from setting new goals or allow perceived barriers to get in your way. However, setting goals the right way, is something many don’t stop to think about.
You have to be SMART. The acronym stands for setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. SMART goals are goals that you’ll be able to achieve faster and more effectively. By putting some effort into setting the goals upfront, you’ll make the task of achieving them simpler.
Here are a few tips to help you think outside the box and set SMART goals for digital marketing:
Specific
When you get into the digital marketing realm, you’ll find that you have many options. You can use your website, blog and social media pages to increase sales, improve your company’s reputation, introduce your brand, solidify your brand etc.
So you need to be specific about which of these goals you want to achieve and to what extent. For example, if you want to increase sales, what are your sales right now? And how much do you want to increase them? Do you want a modest 10% increase or are you aiming to double your sales altogether?
If you want to improve your reputation, you need to get more specific about how you’d like to see it improved. Here are a few ways in which you can get more clarity:
- Perhaps you want to repair some damage that was done to your reputation by a previous marketing mistake.
- You might want to emphasize how well your product will satisfy your clients’ needs.
- Or, you want to publicize the good work you are doing in your community
The more specific you can be, the easier it will be for you to achieve your digital marketing goals.
The main thing to keep in mind before you start setting goals, is who your most valuable customers are. What segment is most loyal to your brand and why?
These are the people who are your brand ambassadors. They will go to bat for you, so speak to them. Perhaps you don’t see this segment as the main proportion of your customer base, but these are the people that will do priceless marketing for you. If you don’t know who these people are, it’s time to do some live market research. Think focus groups, surveys, etc.
Measurable
At times, you might find that the different aspects of SMART goal-setting overlap with each other. For example, if you set a goal to double your sales, you’re setting yourself a goal which is specific as well as measurable.
Often, the unit of measurement is money and how much more money you want to make with the help of digital marketing. At other times, however, you might be able to measure success in other ways.
- How much traffic do you want to drive to your website?
- How many of your visitors do you want to convert into buyers?
- How many leads or prospects are you aiming for next month?
- What kind of engagement rate would you like to have on social?
- How many Facebook followers do you want?
- How many new employees do you want to attract to your company?
- How many investors do you want to find?
When your goals are measurable, you’ll find that they’re easier to achieve. You always know exactly how much harder you need to work in order to get to the number you’ve set yourself.
Achievable
Many times, the difference between achievability and un-achievability is in the mind. You may think that setting a modest goal of 100 readers per blog post is achievable. But one of your blog posts might go viral, resulting in thousands of readers in just a matter of days. What you thought was unachievable suddenly becomes achievable overnight.
Therein lies the conundrum. Modest or aggressive goal setting. In the digital marketing world, going viral is achievable. However, it’s difficult to do because of all the noise and information flow. It’s really a matter of consistently creating quality content and pushing it out into as many channels as possible.
If you want to set a challenging goal for your company, keep in mind that it must be achievable. So for example, your goal could specify a number of channels that reposted your content in a certain amount of time.
Whether you go with a slightly more modest goal or one that is more aggressive, it’s a matter of personal choice. You know what works best for you and what will be more motivating for you in the end. When you’re working with a team, however, it’s best to set a goal which is a little bit higher than what you really want. This can help motivate your team members into reaching it.
Relevant
Anything that helps you raise the bottom line of your company is going to be relevant. Sales are important to all companies. However, there might be times when money isn’t going to be the most important thing to your company. Here are some of the other things that might take precedence:
- Improving your company image.
- Improve your company culture.
- Introduce more innovative products.
- Grow your company horizontally rather than vertically.
- Address the competition
- You might want to start appealing to a different demographic.
It’s up to you, as a business manager or owner, to keep track of what’s most relevant to your company.
Time Bound
You might have a number of different aims and you might be working towards all of them. But it’s possible that you’re working very slowly. Maybe you have a dream of doubling your company’s worth in a year or two. Ask yourself if that’s going to be possible at the rate at which you’re going. How much progress have you made in the last year or two? And if you continue at the same rate, will you be able to reach your goals?
The problem is not that you’re not working hard enough or that you need to push your employees more. Instead, you just need to reset your goals. You need to make sure that you include a time limit. Keeping time constraints in focus helps drives people to work at the rate required to achieve the goals.
To get to where you’re going, you first need to know where you are. Perform a thorough analysis of your brand voice, target audience and competitive landscape. Then, get in touch with us to set up SMART marketing goals.
