The Importance of SMART Marketing Goals

Having goals for your business is really important and setting SMART goals for your marketing is critical to success. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Having guidelines for goals allows you to make better goals for your business that will, in turn, make your business more successful.

 

The Devil is in The Details

Specific details are important because it sets the tone for the rest of the pieces of the goals. You do not want to say that you want more customers because you would not be able to determine if you obtained your goal. Even just one more customer would accomplish that goal. You can ask yourself questions about who is involved in the goal, where it will be accomplished and why you need it to be accomplished.

 

Measurement Matters

Having a measurable aspect of the goal goes hand in hand with specific details. Make it something that you can attain and measure so that you know if you are accomplishing the goal or not. A good example is that you want to bring in $1 million more in sales, not just bring in more sales. You can also say you want to reach a certain number of customers instead of just reaching out to more customers.

 

Make It Attainable

Setting an attainable goal is definitely one of the more important parts of goal setting. You do not want to set an unrealistic goal that is out of reach. That would lead to discouragement when the goal is not reached. Setting small and attainable goals will keep you motivated to keep pressing forward and to continue to set more goals as time goes on. Setting a huge and unattainable goal will discourage you and possibly set you up for failure.

Another piece of setting attainable goals is making them realistic. Do not set a goal so far out of reach that it is impossible. Doing so will lead to failure and unachieved goals. You have to keep realistic expectations for yourself, so you do not let yourself and your employees down.

 

On Task and On Time

Last, but not least is to keep your goals time-bound. You want to set a time limit on your goals. You do not want to have infinite time on your goals. Set goals for a month, 3 months, a year, 5 years, etc. If you have a specific timeframe to work on your goals, you will be more focused on getting them accomplished and completed. Knowing the time frame, you have to work with to accomplish these goals will allow you to set objectives for each milestone in the goal process.

Keeping these in mind you can set goals for expanding your business and using marketing as a great tool in which to do so. Marketing is a very useful tool when used properly and in a focused manner. When you are focused on reaching your goals and use all available tools, you will be more successful. With each goal you accomplish, you can add new goals and keep building and expanding your business.