How to Set SMART Marketing Goals

January is a great time to sit back and reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead. You probably have a vision for what your success looks like - whether it’s a better work-life balance as an entrepreneur (something we all lack amirite?), or a revenue target - but not planning how to accomplish that vision means you’re setting yourself up for failure before you even get on the road. It’s like planning a road trip and planning all the fun things you’ll do when you get to your destination, but not actually mapping out your journey and knowing the route you’ll take to get there.

Most of us have heard of SMART Goals - and probably even set them once or twice in our lifetime/careers. SMART goals ensure that your goals are specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and timely. What does that even mean when it comes to marketing?

Specific

Having goals that just have a traffic goal for instance “I want X visitors to my website.” Sure it’s specific, but it’ll be more specific when you identify the when and why. Why does having more traffic matter? “ I have X visitors to my website per month by Y via social media traffic.” That’s better because it identifies how, and the what. So when you set a goal, make sure you’re specific enough that it’ is…

Measurable

“I want more traffic to my website by end of 2022.” Okay. How are you going to measure that? “I have X% increase in traffic to my website by Y via [channel] or “ I will have 100 more subscribers to my email newsletter by X by putting out 1 lead magnet per month.” Make your goal measurable so you know if it is been accomplished.

Attainable

There are lots of roadblocks when it comes to marketing - algorithms that are sometimes fickle, staffing shortages, garbage websites that you can’t invest more money into - that may make your goals less attainable. Saying you want ten thousand page views may sound realistic BUT if you’re starting from 100 page views per month, it may be a little less attainable if you have only one person on your team or with a budget of zero for advertising. So think about what’s attainable given the resources you have. Ten thousand views per month may be attainable but it may take longer to get there. Goals should be challenging but they should be feasible, and realistic - look at your benchmarks before setting your goals so you know if they’re actually attainable.

Relevant

If your business has broader goals - perhaps revenue-based - your marketing goals should support those. If the company goal is to improve brand recognition, a realistic marketing goal to support that may be to increase your social media audience by 10%. If your company goal is to increase revenue by X percent, perhaps improving conversion rate and/or lead generation goals may be more relevant. By making sure your marketing goals ensures that the work your team tackles in the year ahead is impactful to the overall business goals.

Timely

Smart goals should be timely, meaning they should not last forever. What’s the start date, and when do you want to have your goal accomplished by? Many call this a “by-when” - it’s the (ideal) end date. Look at your metrics to help you set a realistic timeline that makes your goals attainable. Setting short-term goals is also helpful because seeing results can help drive momentum and keep you motivated.

When you think about the goals that you’re setting for the year ahead, sticking to SMART goals ensures that the business goals you set for yourself, the vision you have for your business this year are reasonable and something that you stay focused on the work that has real impact.

Need help setting a social media strategy that helps you accomplish goals? Let’s chat!