Want to reach your marketing goals?  It’s time to get SMART.

Do you know what it is you’d like to see your business achieve this year? It’s likely you do. In fact, most people know generally what they’d like to see happen over the course of a year because they plan. But don’t be fooled, SMART goal setting is far more than just planning.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the SMART Goal concept, it’s essentially a roadmap to success. It makes our goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.  SMART Goals are a tool that can be applied in many settings.  For example, SMART Goals can be used to reduce costs associated with order fulfillment as well as to increase your website’s monthly visits and visitor to lead conversation rate.

Let’s take a look at how one marketing manager, we’ll call him Sam, might apply the SMART goals framework to his marketing efforts.

Specific – Here Sam will describe his goal in detail. He knows he wants to increase website traffic this year, but that’s not enough, so he gets specific. Sam sets a goal of increasing website traffic by 15% by the end of this fiscal year.

Measurable – How will Sam track his progress? In order to keep Sam on track to meet his goal by target date he set, he decides to use the website performance indicators he already tracks monthly.

Attainable – Sam’s goal should be challenging, but not impossible to reach. He reviews his company’s digital media strategy and prior year website traffic reports. After reviewing those, he decides that his current goal to increase sales by $250,000 by the end of this fiscal year is challenging yet achievable.

Realistic – Sam’s company expanded its product line at the beginning of the fiscal year, so it’s likely the company will experience increased marketplace exposure – an ideal situation for his goal of increasing website traffic.

Time-Bound – Sam plans to reach his goal by the last date of this fiscal year. He will track his progress monthly using website performance indicators.

By setting a SMART goal, Sam gives himself a specific focus and builds structure to his general plan of increasing website traffic. Breaking it down into more manageable parts will give him the motivation he needs to reach his goal.

What are your marketing plans for this year? Do you have a SMART goal guiding you? Increase your chances of success by downloading our free Marketing Goals Template.

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