Developing and setting goals are critical for any organizations success. However, it does little good to create these goals only to end up with a list that is never acted upon.
The whole point of setting goals, after all, is to act upon and achieve them.
In this video, we talk about the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework and how you can leverage it for your business.
Smart goals allow you to take very broad or vague goals and turn them into smaller, actionable goals. And
though the Smart goal framework can be applied to just about anything in life, in particular, they can be used to implement a successful marketing campaign for your business.
SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
The specific part stands for anything we can track and put a factual number too. For example, if you're using analytics on your website you can track visitors, leads or customers. So, we could essentially put one of these into our Smart goal. Since we now have so much more access to data, metrics and analytics, we no longer have to guess at what's working (unlike print, radio or tv advertising).Being specific as to what you want to track or improve is the first step in the framework.
Measurable means how many more leads, visitors or customers do we want. Provide a real number from your metrics and not one based out of thin
air.
Attainable sets a realistic goal that will be attainable for you. However, you must know what your numbers currently are in order to set this. You should have a benchmark number
that you can launch from and then you can measure from there.
Relevant merely relates to the overall end goal that you are trying to achieve.
Timely means that you're going to include a number in your goal. For example, by 6 months or by the end of the year.
So, now that we know what it means, what does a smart goal look like?
I want to increase visits(S) by 50%(M) (2500 per month to 5000 per month)(A) by December 31st 2014(T).
Above is an example of a smart goal. Notice this goal has a specific number which we'll be able to measure going forward. This goal is attainable because we based it on factual data from our analytics - not some number based off of intangibles. The goal is also relevant because it relates to an overall goal - increasing visits: which could lead to increased conversion and sales. Lastly the goal is timely because we put a time frame to it.
