With the beginning of a new year comes the opportunity to reinvent yourself and your business. Think back to your goals for 2015. Did you accomplish them? Your SMART Marketing Goals will help define your business's direction for 2016 and give you the tools you need to market your business successfully. Develop your 2016 SMART Marketing Goals now to help ensure your business's success for the coming year.
SMART is the acronym that will help guide you through the development of your marketing goals. If you'd like further direction, this free download will walk you through the process of setting your goals, developing them to their fullest extent, and ensuring that when you look back on 2016 at the end of the year, you'll see you've met your goals. When you set your SMART goals, they should be:
Specific
Specific means you should be able to explain exactly what your marketing goal is. A goal of, “I want to bring in more website traffic this year” isn't specific and won't help to actually attain it. Are you hoping for one more visitor? A hundred? A thousand? Be very clear and specific about what you're hoping to accomplish with your marketing goals.
Measurable
When you make your marketing goals specific, you should be able to measure the results. Include a way to effectively quantify the results of your marketing efforts. For example, if you're hoping to boost your social media marketing, you might include a specific coupon code only available to your social media followers. You could also measure your social media engagement through likes, shares, or re-tweets, depending on your preferred platform.
Attainable
There are some goals that simply aren't possible for your business in the coming calendar year. Think about the current market and the resources you have on hand, then make sure your marketing goals are actually reachable. If you set unattainable goals, it's easy to get frustrated or give up. Instead, make sure your marketing goals are realistic.
Relevant
Your marketing goals need to be relevant to your business. If social media engagement through a particular platform won't net sales or allow you to interact effectively with your target audience, you need to take a hard look at whether or not this particular platform is one with which you need to engage. Your marketing campaigns should always take your ultimate business goals in mind to help ensure your success.
Time-bound
How many times have you started projects around the house, only to give up on them because they didn't have to be done immediately? What about those projects you rush to complete at the last minute because suddenly, you have a concrete, measurable deadline? The same is true for your business goals. Set deadlines for your goals–and not just “by the end of 2016,” either. You should have solid, monthly goals you endeavor to meet on time. Break bigger goals down into smaller pieces throughout the year, or select goals that can be linked to specific time periods: quarterly goals, holiday goals, or any other time-specific breakdown that works for your business.
Setting your SMART Marketing Goals for 2016 is a great way to get your business moving and keep yourself on track throughout the year. While flexibility in those goals will help you adapt to changes within your business throughout the coming year, having a basic framework in place will help you develop the marketing strategies and campaigns that will take your business where you want it to go. Looking for more help setting your marketing goals? Contact us today to learn how we can help.
