You might have some smart ideas for your next inbound marketing campaign. But have you set SMART goals?
The two things go hand in hand.
SMART in this case is an acronym. It means that youāve set Specific (S) and Measurable (M) goals that are both Attainable (A), Realistic (R), and Time-bound (T).
Letās take a closer look at how that works:
Specific
Your goal should focus on a single goal of inbound marketing, and identify ways to achieve the goal. The goal should be defined enough to answer the ā4 Wsā (who, what, when, why).Ā What do we want to accomplish? Who do we need to make it happen? When will it happen? Why are we doing this?
Ideally, specific inbound goals should focus on three things: getting more visitors, leads and customers to your website.
Measurable
Itās not enough to say āWe want to bring more visitors to our website.ā Your goal should have a number attached to allow you to gauge your results: āWe want to increase visitors by 20 percent.ā Ask yourself questions like āHow much?ā āHow many?ā and āHow will we know when we hit this goal?ā
Attainable
Attainable goals and realistic goals might sound like the same thing, but thereās a distinction here. When we talk about setting attainable goals, we mean something that might be challenging, but is still possible.
Start with a benchmark: your current number of visitors/leads/customers. (If you donāt have that info, IQnection can help you keep track of it.) Once you know that number, you can use it to set your goals.
Realistic
Realize that you wonāt hit these goals in a day or a week or even a month. The goal should be within reach for your company and its circumstances and should consider any challenges youāre up against.
We should also point out that some marketing professionals swap ārealisticā for ārelevant,ā meaning āIs it relevant to your companyās larger vision?ā
Time-bound
Even as youāre acknowledging the challenges you face; you should set a deadline for yourself. Saying āIād like us to increase our traffic somedayā sounds wistful. āIād like us to increase our traffic by 10 percent by the end of the quarterā sounds like a goal.
Now that you know how SMART goals work, letās take a look at putting them into practice.
- First up, share your SMART goals with your entire team so everyone knows what youāre working towards. This will hold you accountable for the goals youāve set, while also making sure that the attainable and realistic goals really are attainable and realistic. Another set of eyes could tell you if youāre going too far, or not far enough.
- In addition, communicating your goals with the whole team means that you might discover that someone is already working on a project that dovetails with what youāve just presented.
- Set shorter-term goals for the first few months of the project. For example: Interview existing customers to create buyer personas by the end of the first month. Identify 100 keywords based on those personas by the end of the second month. And try to publish a blog post each week over the first three months.
- Each week, be sure to check your marketing performance against your goals using analytical software that can tell you how youāre progressing toward each goal. These numbers can tell you where you need to re-adjust your efforts.
There might be some stumbles along the way, but thatās OK. Setting SMART goals are about whatās doing whatās best for your company in the long term and having a road map to get you there.