How to succeed with smart goals

Setting goals may sound simple, but it is often easier said than done. You need to choose a target that is high enough, but also realistic. What satisfies this can be difficult to know, especially if it involves setting targets for completely new marketing activities. Then it is easy to base it on pure guesswork. So to make it easier for you, in this post we offer six concrete steps for setting smart goals.

What are smart targets?

Before we get into the steps, let's do a quick review of what smart goals are, and where they come from.

Once upon a time, there was a consultant and former director of corporate planning at the Washington Water Power Company named George T. Doran. In 1981, he published a paper entitled There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives. Doran's insight was that all companies need to achieve goals, but that established goals are often too vaguely described to have a meaningful impact. He also believed that goals are not vague things, rather they are measurable things that must be achieved to move an organization forward.

SMART is an acronym for the five pillars of how a goal should be formulated.

In the paper, Doran presents a model of what became the first convincing way to define, measure and ultimately achieve goals - S.M.A.R.T goals. In other words, smart goals are criteria that improve the chances of success in achieving goals. SMART is an acronym for the five pillars of goal setting: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timebound, which often translates into:

Specifically

The objective should be clear and concrete. The more specific the objective, the better. Describe it as specifically as if it were already implemented.

Measurable

The goal should be measurable in time, quantity or quality. The idea is that if the goal is not measurable, it is not possible to determine whether you are making progress.

Accepted

For the goal to be accepted, it is important to work towards a goal that is challenging but achievable.

Realistic

Be honest with yourself, you know what you and your team can do. Also think through any obstacles you may have to overcome along the way.

Timed

Set a deadline for when the objective should be achieved. Large overarching objectives may need to be broken down into smaller sub-objectives.

6 steps to set smart goals

1. summarize your goal

The first step is to briefly describe the goal and what it means. Forcing yourself to write it down will make it more clear and concrete.

2. categorize the target

Most marketers need to do one of three things: get more visitors to the site, get more visitors to convert to leads, or get more leads to convert to customers. Starting with one of these three categories makes it easier to drill down deeper and find the right strategy.

3. Add a real value

Now it's time to set a real value to work towards. Let's say the goal is to increase the number of leads from your site by 10%. What does that mean in actual numbers? Start with the current average number of visitors to your site each month and the conversion rate of visitors to leads. Once you know these numbers, it becomes clearer what it takes to reach the goal.

4. Set an end date

You've probably heard it before, but a goal is just a dream until you set a deadline. Decide how much time you think it will take to reach the goal, it will also help you figure out how aggressive you need to be with your marketing efforts.

5. set aside time each week

Obviously, we'd all love to see great growth in short periods of time, but will you be able to put in the hours required? Is it 1 hour, 3 hours, 5 hours or over 10 hours a week? Being realistic about how many hours you can put in and adjusting your goal accordingly increases the chances of your dream becoming a reality.

6. Become aware of barriers

There will always be things that can prevent us from reaching the goal. Think through and list all potential obstacles now. Becoming aware of what the obstacles are will allow you to start planning for ways to get around them, instead of using them as an excuse later on.

Learn more about inbound marketing

If you want to know more about how to use your smart goals, we have some tips in our white paper on inbound marketing, which might be worth downloading.