Module 6: Establishing SMART Marketing Goals

• What do I want to accomplish?
• Why do I want to accomplish it?
• Who is involved in its attainment?
• Where will this happen?
• When will this happen?
• Which requirements will be involved in the process?

Of course, you don’t need to cram an answer to each of these six questions into the simple statement of your objective, but include all that apply.

The objective should be stated in one sentence that anyone with any familiarity with your industry can understand.

Like the Specific criteria, you can refine this by asking ‘how’ questions such as ‘how much,’ ‘how many,’ and ‘how will I know when it is accomplished.’

Include targets and milestones that you can clearly reach and focus on objective indicators like quantity, time, flexibility, efficiency, etc.

If it’s impossible, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

It’s not always easy to tell whether or not a goal is achievable at first. Try to consider what work will go into achieving this goal and what resources you’ll need.

Consider also the timeframe in which you want to get it done. It’s often easier to see whether a goal is achievable or not once you start working toward it.

How will attaining this goal help your business move forward toward its goals?

Measure each marketing goal against your business goal by asking yourself how it’s relevant.

They can’t be open-ended.

Your goal may have a time-frame of days, weeks, months, or even years, but it needs to have some kind of time limit.

Include a time limit for the goal’s attainment as well as specific times for each of the steps needed to reach the eventual goal.

Tactics are the actual concrete methods that will lead you to achieving your marketing goals.

For example, your marketing goal may be to increase revenue from a specific segment of your market by 25%. You’ll consider your capabilities, your market, and your marketing plan to decide what strategy will help you do that.

For example, you might decide that your best strategy is to increase your presence and engagement on social media to gain access to that market segment.

Once you have a strategy in place, you can draw from it the specific tactics that will put it into action.

Review your business goals. Make sure that these goals are clearly stated. Once defined, state your marketing goals, which are tied in with your business goals.

Since this is a marketing plan, your marketing goals are the central focus (although your marketing plan should summarize business goals as well).

For now, set marketing goals for one year from now. Where do you want your marketing to get you in a year? Separate these goals into different categories.

When coming up with marketing goals, think in terms of the actions you want your target market to take. When your customers take these actions, it pushes you closer to your business goals.

You can extrapolate your marketing goals into strategy and tactics by asking yourself, ‘What can my business do to lead customers to take these actions (the marketing goals)?’

In order to do this, you need people to tell others about you. You need to get the message to them about your offering and its benefits. If you can spread awareness of the unique value you offer, this will result in more first-time purchases.

Your tactics should include everything from gaining more exposure to moving customers through your sales funnel toward that first purchase.

Other goals revolve around keeping current customers. Your objective may be to maintain the same purchase amount and frequency. If this objective is met, you’ll gain revenue as you gain new customers.

To meet this objective, you might encourage increased use of your products or develop new product lines that current customers can use.

Finally, goals can be aimed at getting customers to buy more from you. The tactics would be similar to the last type (keeping customers buying) but the objective would be to increase purchase amount and frequency.

Just remember that your marketing goals should be simple, focused, clear, and should follow the SMART criteria. They should be specific actions you want your customer to take.