Last modification on July 18, 2021 by Loïc Frissard
When identifying specific marketing objectives to support your long-term goals, it is common to apply the widely used SMART method. SMART objectives are used to assess the adequacy of the objectives set to drive different marketing strategies towards success.
Whether you are a company or a marketing agency, there can be several concrete cases of SMART objectives as we will see together in this article.
What do SMART goals mean?
SMART is an acronym in English that you can use to guide you in setting your goals. To make your goals clear and achievable, each of them must be:
- Specific (specific): Your goal should focus on a clearly defined metric.
- Measurable (measurable): You need to have a way to measure the content you publish against this metric.
- Achievable (Attainable): Your goal should push you to go beyond the results your content will generate naturally or organically toward that metric.
- Realistic (Relevant): At the same time, your aspiration must be controlled by what you can reasonably achieve with the resources that are (or will be) at your disposal.
- Temporally defined (Timely): Your goal should have an end date by which you will achieve this goal.
According to Professor Rubin, the definition of the SMART acronym may need to be updated to reflect the importance of efficiency and feedback. However, some authors have expanded it to include additional areas of interest. This is the case for SMARTER objectives which include the terms Assessed and Reviewed.
Understand your business goals
As a marketer, you are not judged solely on your activities or productivity. Your value is linked to your results.
For your marketing to make sense, it must move the needle on key business objectives. Remember the common business goals listed above? That’s what it means.
To do this, make sure your marketing goals are linked to a business goal. For example, you may want to gain more social media followers. It is very good ! But how does this help the business?
Here are some advantages:
- Increased brand awareness.
- Establish your business as an authority.
- Reach new customers.
These are all objectives that can have a significant impact on your business. So when setting goals, choose ones that will deliver business results, not just produce impressive numbers that aren’t really relevant.
Your business may have broad goals that aren’t set by your marketing team.
Make sure you understand what they are. If these goals are not clear to you, you may need to talk to your general manager, CEO, or other executives who are familiar with the company’s goals.
Most companies set clear goals for their employees. But if that’s not the case in your business, you may have additional work to do.
It’s about making sure you understand your business goals, so you know you’re investing your marketing resources in the right places.
Suppose your business needs to get more customers. To achieve this, you need to generate ten leads per week. The sales team needs marketing’s help to bring these leads to fruition.
The business objective is to increase revenue by increasing the number of customers. A good marketing objective can be anything that can help generate more leads.
6 Examples of SMART Goals That Will Make You a Better Marketer
1. Blog traffic goal
- Specific : I want to increase our blog traffic by increasing the weekly posting frequency from 5 to 8 times per week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from 2 to 3 posts per week, and our editor-in-chief will increase her workload from 1 to 2 posts per week.
- Measurable: An 8% increase is our goal.
- Achievable : Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly posting frequency from 3 to 5 times per week.
- Realistic: By increasing our blog traffic, we will build brand awareness and generate more leads, leading to more opportunities to close sales.
- Temporally defined: End of this month
- SMART objective: At the end of this month, our blog will see its traffic increase by 8% by increasing the weekly publication frequency from 5 to 8 messages per week.
2. Target video views on Facebook
- Specific : I want to increase average views per native video by reducing our video content mix from 8 topics to our 5 most popular topics.
- Measurable : A 25% increase is our goal.
- Achievable: When we reduced our video content mix on Facebook from 10 topics to our 8 most popular topics six months ago, our average views per native video increased by 20%.
- Realistic: By increasing the average number of views per native video on Facebook, we will build social media following and brand awareness, and reach more potential customers with our video content.
- Temporally defined: In 6 months.
- SMART objective: In 6 months, we will see a 25% increase in average views per native video on Facebook by reducing our video content mix from 8 topics to our 5 most popular topics.
- Specific : I want to increase the number of subscribers to our e-blogs by increasing our Facebook advertising budget for blog posts that historically attract the greatest number of subscribers.
- Measurable: A 50% increase is our goal.
- Achievable: Since we started using this tactic three months ago, our e-blog subscriptions have increased by 40%.
- Realistic: By increasing the number of e-blog subscribers, our blog will generate more traffic, build brand awareness and attract more potential customers to our sales team.
- Temporally defined: In 3 months.
- SMART objective: In three months, we will see a 50% increase in our e-blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget for the articles that historically attract the highest number of blog subscribers.
4. Webinar Registration Goal
- Specific : I want to increase registrations for our Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it through the company, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.
- Measurable: A 15% increase is our goal.
- Achievable: Our last webinar on Facebook Messenger saw a 10% increase in registrations even though we only promoted it through our social media, email, and blog.
- Realistic: When our webinars generate more leads, sales are more likely to close.
- Temporally defined: By April 10, the day of the webinar.
- SMART objective: By April 10, the day of our webinar, we will see a 15% increase in registrations by promoting the webinar through social media, email, our blog and Facebook messenger.
5. Performance objective of a landing page
- Specific : I want our landing pages to generate more leads by moving from a one-column form to a two-column form.
- Measurable: A 30% increase is our goal.
- Achievable: When we tested our traditional one-column form versus a two-column form on our busiest landing pages, we found that two-column forms converted 27% better than our traditional one-column, one-column forms. 99% significance level.
- Realistic: If we generate more content leads, sales can close more customers.
- Temporally defined: In a year.
- SMART objective: in a year, our landing pages will generate 30% more leads by moving their forms from one column to two columns.
6. Objective of a netlinking strategy
- Specific : I want to increase our website’s organic traffic by developing a link building strategy that encourages other webmasters to link to our site. This helps improve our ranking in search engine results, which allows us to generate more organic traffic.
- Measurable: 40 links to our company homepage is our goal.
- Achievable: According to our SEO analysis tool, there are currently 500 low-quality links to our homepage from other websites. Given the number of partnerships we currently have with other companies and the fact that we generate 10 new inbound links per month without any outreach on our part, 40 additional inbound links from a single link building campaign is an important but achievable goal.
- Realistic: Organic traffic is our primary source of new leads, and inbound links are one of Google’s biggest ranking factors. If we build links from high-quality posts, our organic ranking increases, which boosts our traffic and leads.
- Temporally defined: In 4 months.
- SMART objective: Over the next four months, I will create 40 additional links that will lead to the website. To do this, I will work with editors in our PR department to connect with publishers and develop an effective outreach strategy.
Now that you know what a SMART goal is, why it’s important, and what the framework is for creating one, it’s time to get inspired to put this information into practice.
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