Are Your Marketing Goals Taking You in the Right Direction?

The ancient sage Lao Tzu observed that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (and perhaps with some light stretching first).

However, while this wisdom remains fresh and true, it’s important to remember that the word “journey” implies that the person about to undertake the 1000-mile trek knows where they want to go, and why they want to go there. In other words: their mission is rooted in strategy.

Well, guess what? Many businesses think that they have marketing goals, but unlike Lao Tzu’s traveler, they aren’t going to end up where they want and expect to go; not because of a lack of effort, but because of a lack of strategy.

SMART Marketing Goals

Non-strategic marketing goals are those that ambitiously (and often inspiringly) point the way forward, but lack the pragmatic, down-to-earth mechanics to make them happen in reality. In other words, they aren’t SMART:

S: Specific (“here are the precise marketing goals that we need to achieve”)

M: measurable (“here’s how we’ll measure whether we achieve/don’t achieve our marketing goals”)

A: Attainable (“the marketing goals we are aiming for are neither impossible to obtain, nor below our capacity”)

R: Relevant (“the marketing goals we’re aiming for are relevant and meaningful to our overall strategic direction – they aren’t goals for the sake of goals”)***

T: Time-bound (“we have a timeline in place to track our marketing goals on an ongoing basis”)

***If you’re familiar with the SMART approach (which was introduced way back 1981 and is still widely used around the world today), you may have come across some descriptions that denote the “R” as Realistic. This is incorrect, since that concept is captured by “A” for Attainable”. The R is correctly defined as Relevant, since sometimes it’s the case that businesses achieve goals that are specific, measurable, attainable and time-bound, but are either irrelevant, or not as relevant as other goals (i.e. they should have aimed their 1000 steps in a different direction!).

Examples of Non-SMART Marketing Goals

Examples of non-SMART marketing goals aren’t hard to find; in fact, they’re more common than SMART marketing goals. They include:

“We want to get on page 1 of Google”
“We want to increase sales”
“We want more website hits”
…and so on.

It’s very important to note that we are NOT in any way suggesting the above goals are “stupid” – because they aren’t! We’re simply saying that they aren’t SMART in the marketing goal-setting sense of the word. That is, the aims above, while important, don’t help a business achieve them. They’re like the picture of the finish line in a marathon. This can be great for motivation, but it’s not helpful when it comes to trying to figure out which way to go; and just as importantly, which way to avoid.

SMART Marketing Goals: Examples

Fortunately, as described above, SMART marketing goals are there to ensure that businesses head out in the right direction, at the right pace, and stay on course to achieve their desired results; or ideally, over-achieve them.

Naturally, each business is unique, and setting marketing goals is a process that takes time. However, generally speaking, we can highlight 7 steps to help businesses develop their SMART marketing goals with respect to inbound marketing:

Identify a specific and attainable revenue generation goal, and a realistic time-period in which it can be achieved.
Determine how many sales will be required to achieve the revenue generation goal.
Identify how many sales qualified leads and marketing qualified leads will be required to achieve the revenue generation goal (note: businesses will need to factor in their closing rate to determine this number/range).
Identify how much web traffic is required to achieve the revenue generation goal.
Identify how much revenue should come from various buyer personas, as well as existing customers (if applicable).
Identify monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual benchmarks to measure performance.
Develop a suitable inbound marketing budget.

The above, once identified, provide the building blocks for an inbound marketing game plan, which moves the businesses forward in the RIGHT direction: towards more growth and success!

Learn More

To learn more about setting marketing goals and integrating them with your overall inbound marketing program and campaigns, contact the Leap Clixx team today. Your consultation with us is free, and SMART marketing goals is the only kind we deal with. Lao Tzu would approve!

For more on how to use inbound marketing to succeed with your marketing goals, check out our FREE eBook “A Guide to Inbound Marketing Best Practices” now: