Set Up Your Marketing Goals Properly With The SMART Approach
Hi everyone. Yesterday was quite emotional for me - five years since my family and I immigrated from Serbia to Australia.
Yes. You can build an entirely new life in five years. I did it. With my best team ever. My family! Courage or insanity? I wrote about our milestone on Linkedin and Twitter, and I’m happy if our story is motivational to others to start changing their lives.
Also, I’m extremely curious - do you find this newsletter helpful?
Boring?
What do you want to read? Please, hit reply and let’s talk!
I’ve just started building my side hustle (One of my visa conditions is to keep the full-time job as my company have been sponsoring me), and I want to hear the real voice of the community I’m trying to build here.
Regards,
Angelina.
I also hope this email will be helpful to you - setting up marketing goals maybe sounds boring, but it’s extremely important for your long-term success.
Among the most common reasons marketing campaigns fail, two are attributed to planning: unrealistic expectations and misguided objectives.
Everyone talks about “SMART” goals, but do you know how to set them up?
SMART goals are a valuable framework to help you define and achieve your marketing objectives. Here are a few additional tips to keep in mind:
Specific Goals
When setting specific goals, it's essential to be as detailed as possible about your goals. Think about who your target audience is and what they care about. What objectives will help you reach and connect with them better? What marketing channels that usually use?
For example, instead of setting a general goal like "increase website traffic," a more specific goal might be "increase website traffic from social media channels by 25% over the next three months." That way, you’ll know what to measure, and you can set up your KPI (key performance indicator) properly.
Measurable Goals
Goals need to be measurable to determine whether or not you've achieved them. You need to determine how you will track your progress to do this. This will help you stay on track and adjust your marketing tactics as needed. Make sure you have a system in place for gathering and analysing data.
For instance, set up Google Analytics to track your website traffic and email marketing software to track email campaign performance. Use social media analytics tools to measure not only a number of followers but also engagement, views, and, most importantly - direct leads.
Attainable Goals
While it's important to set high goals that push your marketing efforts, it's crucial to ensure that they are still attainable. Setting unrealistic goals can set you up for disappointment and failure.
Take into consideration your budget, time, and resources when setting your marketing goals. For example, if you don't have the budget to spend on advertising, consider alternative tactics such as social media marketing or content marketing.
Relevant Goals
Your marketing goals should be relevant to your overall business objectives. They should also be aligned with your target audience and their needs. Consider your audience's interests and pain points, and set goals that address them. For instance, if your audience is interested in learning more about composite decking (my niche at my full-time job), set a goal to produce a series of educational articles or videos on different topics related to composite decking:
How it’s made
How to install it if you’re DIY-er
How to hire the right professional builder
How to clean/maintain it.
Time-bound Goals
Setting deadlines for your marketing goals is critical to staying on track and keeping yourself accountable. Be realistic when setting deadlines, but also make sure they are tight so you can stay motivated. Break down your goals by stages or milestones that you can reach within your given timeline.
And finally, don't be afraid to change your goals if they are not working. Part of becoming a SMART marketer is learning from your mistakes and adjusting your tactics as you go. You don’t need to be perfect - you’ll find your pace.
TL;DR
To make things easy:
Let’s say I have a product — cooling pillows for women in menopause and want to increase my email list.
My SMART goal: 500 new email subscribers in the next six months. I’ll do that by making an attractive lead magnet, A/B testing my CTA, and advertising my offer.
🎯 Specific — The goal is specific to grow the prospects database using proven tactics.
📏 Measurable — It’s easy to measure the number of subscribers.
💥 Attainable — I’ll use well-known methods and CTAs; numbers are realistic ( 500, not 50.000 subscribers).
⚛️ Relevant — Email marketing has a great ROI, and a larger database will bring more sales.
⏳ Time-bound — Six months is enough time to compare results and adjust goals or methods if needed. Setting deadlines is great for keeping you accountable.
Interesting things I found last week
Great Twitter thread by Matt Baker, Linkedin copywriter and ghostwriter on how the most valuable lessons on writing. Personally I like this the most (think about it when you set up your goals :)):
Boring actions often generate the most exciting results
Swipe worthy - Inspiration for marketers and copywriters.
Quote that matters
Helen Keller, who became the first deaf and blind person in the United States to earn a college degree, on perseverance:
"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships."
Source: The Simplest Way to Be Happy