To hit a target, you need to find the bullseye. If you don’t know where to aim, how do you know which direction to shoot? Although establishing business goals may seem like a trivial task, your objectives make up the foundation of your brand. Utilizing the SMART acronym to develop and define goals across your business is one of the best ways to mold practical and attainable goals for nearly any business.
At Forge Apollo, we help businesses develop SMART goals and track progress to ensure marketing efforts produce a strong ROI. Discover how SMART goals can help move your business forward and hold marketing efforts accountable.
What Are SMART Goals?
Although your goals should certainly be sensible and well-thought-out, the function of the SMART acronym goes further than literally setting goals that seem “smart.” Each of the five letters in this mnemonic device represents a specific standard that your goal needs to meet to succeed. In short, SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
Specific
Narrow down your proposed objective as much as possible. In other words, specify explicitly what you want to accomplish, what you’ll need to accomplish it, and who needs to be involved. Outlining these primary elements will make it easier to map out the steps necessary to achieve your goal.
Measurable
How will you know if you’ve accomplished any of your goals? Goals have to be measurable in order to track any progress towards them. Monitor success within your business by setting appropriate milestones to maintain direction and keep your focus. Some aspect of your goal has to be quantifiable to determine its progress.
Achievable
Goals should be challenging but relevant. In short, objectives have to be achievable. Try to find a healthy medium between optimism and realism when defining goals. It helps to have ambition, but keep your feet on the ground while your head is in the clouds.
Relevant
Always consider your brand values and long-term efforts when generating goals. Ask yourself how you can guarantee that this undertaking won’t waste time or resources by aligning these objectives with the company’s overall needs. Make sure you understand how this particular goal contributes to future business goals.
Timely
Being sure your goal is time-bound doesn’t necessarily mean setting a strict time limit for your task. Ensuring your goal is timely means being aware of approximately how much time is needed to achieve it and selecting an appropriate time frame. Remember that missing this deadline isn’t a means of abandoning the goal. Instead, this gives one the perfect opportunity to reassess the entire goal and be sure it’s meeting all the SMART criteria above.
SMART Goal Example
Here is an example of a SMART goal a business may make:
- Specific – Increase our business page’s follower count on Instagram
- Measurable – Our goals is 100+ new Instagram followers
- Achievable – We have acquired 20 organic followers on average per month in the last year.
- Relevant – By increasing our followers, we’ll boost brand awareness and engagement on posts.
- Timely – We aim to bring our follower count u over 3000 within the next six months.
Why Do I Need Them?
The importance of employing a professional agency that institutes SMART goals can’t be overstated. Goals that don’t fall into the above parameters can quickly become detrimental to your business strategy and hold you back from entrepreneurial success. Objectives that fail to meet SMART criteria will be unclear and unpredictable, so avoid uncertainty by using this framework to define your targets.
“Marketers who set goals are 376% more likely to report success than those who don’t. And 70% of those successful, goal-setting marketers achieve them.” – CoSchedule
SMART marketing goals are particularly useful for small businesses whose owners or employees tend to wear multiple hats and work with numerous customers simultaneously. Forge Apollo is an excellent example; as a multi-purpose agency made up of less than 50 people, the SMART goals acronym effectively prioritizes, organizes, and delegates staff objectives for each client. By verifying that all company goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely, we can ensure peak efficiency amongst our team and collaborate confidently with our partners.
The SMART framework concurrently sets boundaries within a business while measuring growth and progress. Time and time again, SMART guidelines have proven to be an incredibly efficient method for developing objectives and organizing priorities. Project management service Wrike provides three valuable benefits to instituting SMART goals:
Clarity
SMART framework provides your team with the specific details they’ll need to complete the initiative. Defining your goals with these parameters limits questions, inconsistencies, and ambiguities amongst staff members and increases transparency within your department. Employees can more easily achieve their goals when they know what to achieve.
Motivation
Efficiently documenting and planning your goals encourages team members and motivates them to succeed more effectively. For example, a Dominican University of California study showed that 70% of participants who shared their goals with someone successfully achieved their desired goal, compared to only 35% who kept their objectives to themselves. Essentially, the better you communicate a goal, the better it’s understood, and the more likely your team will succeed.
Priorities
Managing priorities is a widely-experienced challenge for business owners. Implementing a SMART framework simplifies this task by clearly establishing which objectives are worth pursuing. If you can’t nail down the SMART reasoning behind your goal, it probably shouldn’t take precedence.
—> FREE Hubspot Template for Creating SMART Goals <—
—> FREE Goal Setting Template from CRM Toolbox <—
How Can Our Philadelphia Marketing Agency Help?
Forge Apollo incorporates SMART goals for our valued clients to ensure the most efficient use of time and resources by everyone involved. Proper prioritization and goal-setting is the best way to guarantee success within your business, and we’re eager to help get you there. We specialize in marketing strategies and production techniques designed to push your company to victory, regardless of individual objectives. Contact our Philadelphia marketing agency today for a professional, personalized initiative aimed at accomplishing your dreams!
