SMART goals for marketers: learning how to work effectively

Why do you need to be able to set SMART goals correctly?

The ability to clearly spell out your goals is considered one of the most important skills. If you want to achieve results, first you need to clearly understand what exactly you want to get. After that, you can think of a method to achieve the goal, develop an action plan and move towards the result.

For example, you decided to improve your figure and want to lift weights. But what exactly are you going to do? What weight do you plan to take as a result? How much time are you willing to spend on training? Only if there is a specific plan, you can achieve results.

Setting SMART goals helps not only in business, sports and everyday life. Marketers can also apply this approach.

SMART goals: what is it?

This term means a list of specific goals that need to be achieved in a predetermined time. They are carefully developed, after which the implementation is controlled by the head.

The word “SMART” is an acronym in which one of the stages of goal setting is encrypted under each of the letters:

• Under the letter S is encrypted “specific”, which translates as “specific”;
• The letter M stands for measurable, the English word “measurable”;
• The word attainable begins with the letter A, which translates as “achievable”;
• The meaning of R is the word “relevant”, translated as “significant”;
• The last letter T stands for “time-bound”, i.e. limited time limits.

But the word “SMART” also has its own meaning, it translates from English as “smart”.

Learning to Write Smart Goals

In order for a goal to be called “SMART”, it must meet the characteristics described above. Let’s look at each of them in more detail.

Specific

So, you’re a marketer. And you want to get better as a professional. The desire is understandable and commendable. But this is not specific at all. Think about what exactly you want to improve your performance in? How much do you want to raise them?

Most likely, you, as a marketer, work with KPIs (key performance indicators). Try to choose some separate parameter, for example, the number of leads or buyers. This is already a very specific task.

It is also necessary to determine which employees will be needed to achieve this goal, what resources they need to be provided, and develop an action plan.

When we talk about SMART, setting a goal may sound like this: “Increase blog traffic from an email newsletter.” Such a goal clearly and unambiguously defines what exactly you will improve.

Measurable

In smart planning, it is important that the goal is quantifiable. In the process of work, you need to evaluate progress in some way. Therefore, an increase in blog traffic cannot yet be called a SMART goal, since there is no clear understanding of what the increase should be. Try to figure out what kind of traffic from the mailing list you want to get?

Let’s say you want to see a 25 percent increase. We clarify the phrase from the example above: “Increase blog traffic from email mailing by 25% per month.” Now it is clearly clear what needs to be improved and how to measure success.

Achievable

There’s no point in setting goals that you know you can’t achieve. Therefore, always check how realistic the planned figures are. For example, if blog traffic grew by about 5% in the previous months, it is unlikely to get 25% in a month. It is better to put more modest figures, for example, 8-10%.

It is very important to focus on your own analytics. Competitors’ achievements can be a “guiding star”, but not a criterion for setting smart goals. Otherwise, you risk biting off a piece that you will not be able to swallow.

So, we clarify the example: “Increase blog traffic due to email subscribers by 10% per month.”

Significant

SMART goals should benefit the business or the project, and not only amuse your ego. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the benefits for business and the situation in the industry. For example, you plan to work with an email newsletter, but an analysis of the situation shows that these visitors very rarely become customers. The main conversion comes from search traffic.

Of course, you can still do mailing. Personally, you and your unit will achieve the goal and show good results. But will it be of much use to the whole company? Most of your efforts will not bring customers, i.e. profit.

Most likely, in such a situation it is better to promote in search engines. We are changing the goal so that it is useful for business: “To increase the number of search traffic in the blog by 10% per month.”

Limited time limits

Setting SMART goals should keep you within a certain schedule. Moving towards the goal is very important, but only if it does not take too long. Clearly defined deadlines stimulate the activity of employees. It is a well-known fact that if a job can be done “someday”, it will never be done. Clearly defined, but at the same time reasonable deadlines are the optimal solution for any project. Moreover, it is very important to think over the deadline in such a way that the activity of the team is constantly stimulated.

What do you think is better – to increase traffic by 5% monthly and get a 35% increase in six months, or to set a goal for a 15% increase in traffic without a time limit, provided that the goal is still achieved in the same period? If you like the first option, this is absolutely true.

Let’s supplement our smart goal with a time frame: “To increase search traffic for a blog by 10% per month in order to reach 50 thousand sessions by September 1.”

The examples below will help you understand in more detail how to set SMART goals correctly. Use them when you decide to do goal-setting.

6 examples of setting SMART goals

1. Blog traffic

Specifically: to increase attendance by increasing the number of articles from 5 to 8 times a day. At the same time, 2 authors will now write not 2, but 3 texts daily, and the editor, instead of one, will post 2 “guest” publications.

Measurable: traffic increase by 8%.

Achievable: we have already practiced increasing the number of publications, when the number of materials increased from 3 to 5, traffic increased by 5%.

Significant: the growth of blog traffic helps to increase brand awareness and attract new customers. This is important for sales growth.

Term: 30 days.

SMART goal: in 30 days we will see an 8% increase in traffic, for which we will increase the frequency of blog posts from 5 to 8 materials per day.

By the way, read about whether a blog is needed for business and how to get the most out of it

2. Viewing video content on Facebook

Specifically: to increase the number of views of each video by reducing the number of directions from 8 to 5, choosing the most popular ones.

Measurable: increase the viewing figures by 25%.

Achievable: Six months ago, we already reduced the number of topics from 10 to 8. Views increased by 20%

Significantly: increasing the number of views of our videos helps to increase brand awareness and popularity in social networks.

Term: in six months

SMART goal: After we reduce the number of destinations from 8 to 5, in six months we will see a 25% increase in native video views.

3. Subscribe to the email newsletter

Specifically: to increase the number of email subscribers to new blog materials by financing additional Facebook advertising for posts that, according to statistics, attract the maximum public.

Measurable: increase in the number of new mailing addresses by 50%

Achievable: we used this method 3 months ago, and we are seeing an increase in the number of subscribers by 40%

Significant: an increase in the number of mailing recipients will lead to an increase in traffic, as a result, the number of potential buyers will increase.

Term: 3 months

SMART goal: After we finance Facebook advertising for posts that statistically attract the most people, in 3 months the number of new subscribers to blog materials will increase by 50%.

4. Number of webinar participants

Specifically: to increase the number of applications for participation in the webinar by promoting information about it via email, blog and Facebook posts.

Measurable: increase in subscribers by 15%

Achievable: after we used similar tactics to promote the last event, the number of participants increased by 10%.

Significant: the increase in the number of participants in our events gives an additional influx of potential customers with whom the company will be able to conclude a contract.

Deadline: June 15 (date of the event)

SMART goal: By June 15, when the webinar will be held, we will receive a 15% increase in the number of participants after we send a notification about the event via email, blog and Facebook.

5. Improving the quality of landing pages

Specifically: to increase the volume of requests from potential customers (leads) through landing pages by improving their appearance, i.e. changing the presentation of information from one column to two.

Measurable: the growth of leads from landing pages by 30%

Achievable: Split-testing of our company’s landing pages, which collect the most traffic, was carried out. As a result, we found out that when using a 2-column design, lead conversion is 27% better compared to the one-column design option. The reliability of testing is 99%.

Significant: The more leads are generated, the more buyers there will be.

Term: 1 year.

SMART goal: As a result of changing the design of our landing pages from a one-column option to two, we will see a 30% increase in the number of leads in a year.

6. Link building

Specifically: to increase site traffic by developing and implementing a link building strategy that will motivate partners to generate links to the main page of our project. This will increase the position of the site in the search results, which will lead to an increase in traffic.

Measurable: getting 40 new high-quality links to the site.

Achievable: the results of SEO analysis show that now more than 500 low-quality external links lead to the site. Taking into account the existing partnerships today, we generate 10 links to us from partners every month without any active actions. It is quite possible to get an additional 40 links as a result of a link building company.

Significant: the main source of customers for our company is organic traffic from the site. It will be larger if the site’s position in the search results increases. And external citation is one of the important factors affecting the search results of Google and other search engines. That is, with the help of external citation, we will increase the ranking of the site in search engines and increase traffic, which will lead to an increase in the number of leads.

Deadline: in 4 months.

SMART goal: Within the next 4 months, we will see 40 high-quality external links to the main page at “our_sait.сом “. Together with Oleg and Misha from the advertising department, we will contact the representatives of the article projects and create a strategy for cooperation.