Is your business failing to meet its goals? Are you wondering how you can focus your efforts on your marketing strategy? Never fear, because SMART Objectives are here!
What is a SMART Objective?
A SMART Objective guides goal-setting by focusing your efforts and increasing your chances of achieving a goal. To form a SMART Objective, there are 5 simple steps:
Specific
The goal itself must be specific, well defined, and clear about what needs to be accomplished.
Ask yourself: Does the objective have enough detail and information to pinpoint problems and opportunities?
Measurable
The objective must be able to be measured in order to ascertain whether it has been achieved.
Ask yourself: Can a quantitative or qualitative attribute be applied to the goal to create a metric that is trackable?
Achievable
The aim is to work towards a goal that is challenging but achievable. It should be realistic based on the current availability of resources, knowledge, time, as well as existing constraints.
Ask yourself: How likely is it that we can achieve this goal?
Relevant
Having goals that are both relevant and important to your business will make a significant impact on achieving even bigger objectives in the future.
Ask yourself: Can the information be applied to a specific problem and can the information gained be used to improve performance in the future? If the objective can’t do this, there is little point in having it.
Time-bound
Objectives must be time-bound and have a ‘must be done date’ in order for them to be achieved.
Ask yourself: Can the objective be set for 1 or more dates as targets to review against and when do you need the goal completed?
Why do you need SMART Objectives?
Here at the Creative Collective, we believe forming objectives is the first step to success in a marketing strategy. Numerous studies (linked below) agree that business plans that don’t have well-defined objectives lack rationale. This leads to strategies lacking relevance and actions lacking clear direction. This accumulates into projects without accountability or purpose.
In order for goals to serve as usable and credible benchmarks for your business, they need to be properly constructed through the use of a framework like SMART. This way, results can be tracked and evaluated. If goals and objectives aren’t effectively formulated using the SMART framework, businesses pose the risk of failing to attain their goals.
Examples of SMART Objectives
Gain seven new clients before the end of the second quarter
- Specific: Gain seven new clients
- Measurable: In order to get seven clients, 14 proposals, 28 pitches, and 56 warm prospects are needed.
- Achievable: Last year, the company averaged five new clients during the same time frame, and the firm has been growing 30% annually; which makes this goal feel achievable.
- Relevant: The number of clients introduced each quarter tie directly to the firm’s top and bottom lines.
- Time-bound: Performance is measured quarterly.
Increase Search Engine Traffic by 15% in the Next Three Months
- Specific: Increase search engine traffic by 15%
- Measurable: Search Engine traffic can be monitored and compared to previous months.
- Achievable: The goal is realistic and achievable as the firm had an 8% increase in Search Engine Traffic in a similar time period.
- Relevant: Search engine traffic is one of the most valuable traffic sources for the business. By increasing traffic the business would be able to make more conversions.
- Time-bound: The goal is time bound within three months which gives a must be done date, by binding the goal in month, it allows the business to have monthly targets to review progress.
What do I do next?
STRATEGY SESSIONS
If you are still having difficulty developing your SMART Objectives and making them the foundation of your marketing strategy, we have plenty of strategy session options for you the check out here:
Once you have completed your strategy session, there are a number of other steps you can take…
What Next?
Firstly, it is important that you take all recommendations into consideration and implement them ASAP! This is an awesome first step that can make quite the difference.
Next, if you are feeling that your team’s skills aren’t up to scratch in certain areas, we can suggest a number of helpful training courses from our sister company, The Training Collective. These courses can help your team to cover any knowledge gaps and will give you more confidence moving forward.
However, if you prefer to outsource some of your business operations instead, you can engage in any of our packages. We offer numerous packages such as social media management, website builds and rebuilds, SEO services, photography sessions and much, much more!
Call, email or book a time to chat with one of our team members right now and start your digital marketing journey with us today!
More information:
Simplifying Strategy Sessions Blog Post