The power of SMART goals

Goals are vital to the health of our businesses.  Without them businesses flounder.  

How we define our goals is just as important as having goals.  If we state a goal that isn’t well defined, such as ‘lose weight this year’.  It’s hard to know when we’ve reached that goal, because there is not a clear timeline associated with it.

If you haven’t discovered SMART goals, than I count it a privilege to share them with you now.  SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-Bound.  In order to set a SMART goal all you need to do is ensure that you can check off that it achieves each of the letters in SMART.

How to Set SMART Goals

1. Specific – The most important criteria for establishing and evaluating a goal.  The more specific a goal the greater the chance for success and knowing if you’ve been successful in achieving the goal. 
2. Measurable – What measurement will accurately measure success?  Is it a yes/no that you achieved it, or is it a metric that shows you achieved it (i.e. lose 10 lbs or write 5 blog posts). 
3. Actionable – How will the goal be achieved?  What is the action plan?  Are the resources available to achieve the goal?
4. Relevant – This ensures you are focussing on the most important goals.  Consider the 80/20 rule:  20% of your goals will give you the 80% of the results you are looking for.
5. Time-bound – Set a specific date for achieving the goal.

An example of a good SMART Goal:  I will work with my web developer to create and  launch my new website by June 1.

Is it specific? Yes.  Is it measurable?  Yes, it has either launched or it has not.  Is it Actionable? Yes, I have a web developer who will make it happen.  Is it relevant?  Yes this is vital for my businesses sales and marketing.  Is it time-bound?  Yes, March 1 is a hard deadline.

Bringing this Home for Marketing

In order to consistently move your business towards it’s big objectives you have to have SMART Goals for your marketing.  These SMART goals usually come out of the strategic marketing planning phase which is vital if you want to ensure you’re maximizing your Return on Investment (ROI) while reducing costs and stress on resources.  At Outsourced Marketing we are all about SMART Goals.  If you would like to explore partnering with a marketing agency that focuses on not just setting SMART Goals, but helping you with the work to actually reach those goals than what are you waiting for, book a free discovery call or call us at 905-251-8178.

Here’s a great video that explains SMART Goals.

Video by: Decisionskills.com