August 21, 2024
Effective Goal Setting in…
Effective goal setting in marketing is essential to the success...
Effective goal setting in marketing is essential to the success of your entire marketing strategy and, ultimately, your business.
Without a clear vision in mind, your marketing will not be all that effective. There’s just no two ways about it. Without clear goals, it’s unlikely that you will achieve significant growth in the areas that matter to your business.
When setting goals, it’s imperative that you start out with strong and achievable goals and stick to them. This is what makes the difference between growing a business and merely maintaining one.
So, if you want to learn more about effective goal setting that leads to great results, read on.
The following questions can help you home in on what you want to achieve.
With all these questions answered, even with our best efforts, there are no guarantees. But making SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) helps ensure that your objectives are attainable within a certain time-frame.
Yes, even with the best goal setting techniques, there are no guarantees. But setting specific goals like “I want one new client a month” gives you a target to work towards.
It doesn’t mean that’s going to happen necessarily, but specific goals focus your mind and keep your efforts from drifting.
In both the early and later stages of running a marketing business, a business mentor can be really helpful. A trusted advisor can provide you with the benefit of their experience and advice. They are also someone you can be accountable to regarding the specific goals you set yourself.
Measurable goals are closely linked to the previous point about being specific. How well you’ve achieved those specific goals over a period of time is a measurement.
But any sort of goal setting in marketing is a waste of time if those goals can’t really be quantified. Sure, there are some things that, whilst important, can’t really be quantified. Like the quality of client relationships or the direct effects of PR on the public’s perception of a brand.
These sorts of marketing definitely shouldn’t be neglected. But make sure the goals you set are actually measurable, then you can track your progress over time.
Some things you can set targets for and track over time include:
Maybe this one sounds obvious, but it’s really important you set out with goals that are realistically achievable.
Set achievable goals, and it’ll feel great when you achieve them, motivating you on to the next project. Set unrealistic goals and you’ll just end up frustrated and feeling like you’ve failed.
Stretching your abilities is necessary for growth. But to ensure the goals you set are achievable, there are several key factors to consider:
Once you’re confident that your goals are specific, measurable and achievable, check they are truly relevant! It’s easy to get side-tracked and go for goals that look like great on paper. But dig a little deeper and you realise they’re not actually all that relevant.
Be wary of ‘vanity metrics’ for example. This is where you focus on having more of something (likes, comments, followers) because the metrics look bigger rather than focusing on the metrics that work to grow your business. Think of it as choosing quantity over quality with the metrics you are tracking.
For example, you might set a goal to achieve X number of followers on a social media platform by a certain date. And whilst it’s not that it’s wrong to do this, it’s unlikely that follower statistics will correlate with increased sales. Especially if the followers aren’t within your target audience. So whilst it has its place, it’s not really something to set as a goal, since the growth in followers is fairly irrelevant to business success.
Goal setting in marketing needs to be based on goals that directly contribute to business growth. So, ensure your goals align with your overall marketing strategy and business objectives.
Finally, setting realistic timeframes will help your marketing goals to be achievable. Setting timeframes helps you to track progress accurately. It also gives you a deadline to work towards, increasing motivation.
Open-ended goals that lack a timeframe are more likely to go unachieved, or happen much more slowly than they could. It’s much less likely that you will drift if you know what sort of timescale you’re working to.
Now you know how to create SMART goals, let’s put this advice into action. Here’s how you can make vague goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Vague goal: Get better at email marketing.
SMART goal: Increase my email open rate by 10% in 8 weeks.
Vague goal: Get good coverage for press releases.
SMART goal: Achieve 5 pieces of press coverage in relevant media in the next month.
Vague goal: Improve my social media presence.
SMART goal: Increase social media followers across all platforms by 15% in 6 months.
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