Setting and Celebrating Obtainable Marketing Objectives
As we take the journey into the New Year, now is a great time to start narrowing in on exactly what you’d like your marketing team to accomplish in 2018. While other forms of marketing have their times and places, starting with digital marketing means that you can see the results of your changes in real-time. But, setting marketing objectives isn’t as easy as saying that you’d like to see an increase in click-throughs on emails.
It may be that your marketing objectives in past have looked a lot like that, but setting that kind of goal leaves little room to measure by and it isn’t an appropriate way to encourage your marketing efforts. There is a better way, called setting SMART goals. This process first emerged in the 1980s, but has reemerged today. Each letter in SMART stands for a step in your goal setting process.
Let’s start with the goal mentioned earlier: “Increase in click-throughs on emails.” A SMART goal would shape that goal into a better version of itself by being more:
- Specific- Tell how and in what way you’re planning to increase email clickthroughs.
- Measurable- Create quantifiable results that can be compared over time.
- Achievable- Set realistic outcomes for yourself. The goal should be challenging, but not impossible.
- Relevant- Ask yourself, “Why is it important that I’m doing this?” If you can answer that question, your goal is probably relevant.
- Timely- Your goal should have a specific time period in which you’re working to achieve it.
Your new goal would now look something like this: Our company plans to increase click-through on coupon emails by 25% by August 1 by making our marketing efforts more relevant to specific consumers.
If you haven’t accomplished your goal in the time allotted, there are two possibilities. Either the goal wasn’t obtainable, or the appropriate resources were not put forth to accomplish them. If your goal is achieved, it’s time to celebrate! This could be anything from a special luncheon to a sincere thank you card to your team members.
NATIV3 can help you set your marketing goals and work towards more celebrations. Contact us in the New Year to start setting new marketing objectives!