Learn how SMART goals can effectively help your marketing team and company achieve business objectives.
The creation of SMART goals is renowned for producing attainable and quantifiable company or personal objectives.
In this post, we’ll examine what SMART goals are, why individuals use them to get the results they want, and how SEO and marketing experts may utilize them to meet set goals.
How Do SMART Goals Work?
SMART goals are an abbreviation for:
Specific.
Measurable.
Possibility of achieving.
Relevant.
Time-Bound.
Every element of a SMART goal is created to guarantee that you have the right framework to achieve a goal. You create a specific strategy for the future as opposed to having vague hopes for it.
For instance, increasing profits is a common objective shared by most business owners. That, however, is not a SMART objective because there is nothing specific to aim for or measure.
We will get deeper into the elements that make up a SMART objective, but let’s first talk about why.
Why Use SMART Goals
According to a CoSchedule study, marketing professionals who have a strategy are three times more likely to declare success than those who don’t.
This would explain why companies set SMART targets for reasons other than boosting revenue.
SMART Goal Examples
The use of SMART goals to improve diversity and inclusion and lessen the impact on the environment is demonstrated in the examples below.
IBM
IBM has made a commitment to lessen greenhouse gas emissions and improve its energy efficiency using SMART targets. Here are a few of its objectives.
IBM will use renewable energy for 75% of its global electricity needs by 2025 and 90% by 2030.
a 65% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, including adjustments for acquisitions and disposals, using 2010 as the base year.
With residual CO2 emissions of no more than 350,000 metric tons, reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
To prevent consuming 275,000 megawatt hours between
McDonald’s
McDonald’s uses SMART objectives to lessen the impact of its restaurants on the environment. Among these objectives are the following:
By 2030, using 2015 as the baseline, McDonald’s restaurants and offices must reduce their absolute emissions by 36%.
a 31% cut in supply chain emissions from 2015 levels by 2030.
By 2025, all guest packaging will be made from renewable, recyclable, or approved sources.
Nestle
Nestle strives to reduce its influence on the world’s resources by using SMART targets for sustainability projects. Here are a few of its upcoming objectives.
Using 2018 as a baseline, reduce emissions by 20% by 2025 and attain net zero by 2050.
use of primary supply chains for all products that are entirely free of deforestation by 2025.
By 2025, use only recyclable or reused packaging materials.
planted 200 million trees by 2030.
Salesforce
Salesforce employs SMART objectives for programs promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Its objectives are as follows in addition to demonstrating its current progress:
By the end of 2023, there will be a 50% rise in the number of Black, Indigenous, Latino, and multiracial workers in the US employment.
By the end of 2026, a minimum of 40% of women or non-binary workers will be employed globally.
How To Write SMART Goals: A Breakdown Of Each Component
Now that you know why SMART goals matter and a few ways that brands use them, let’s look at how to write them with a breakdown of each part of the SMART goal-setting process.
Specific
A specific goal should be unambiguous – anyone working towards the goal should know exactly what the goal means without needing further context or explanation.
When you create a specific goal, you should clearly define the objective’s what, why, who, and where. What specific objective do you want to achieve, who will help, and where will the objective happen?
How can you include specificity in your marketing team’s goals? Here are some examples.
- Increase organic search traffic to the ecommerce store by 25%.
- Increase click-through rate (CTR) for the leading product page by 15%.
- Increase Instagram followers by 50%.
Measurable
A quantifiable goal enables you to track your progress and determine when it has been reached. It should make the purpose and any associated numbers crystal clear.
How can you make the objectives of your marketing team measurable? Here are some illustrations.
From 1,000 to 3,000 more social media users will visit your website each month.
Reduce blog content bounce rates from 50% to 40%.
email open rates should rise from 23% to 30%.
Attainable
Using the abilities and resources at your disposal, you can achieve an achievable goal. It ought to specify the tools that will be employed to carry out a task.
How can you make the objectives of your marketing team realistic? Here are some illustrations.
By utilizing our network of brand ambassadors, we can increase the amount of social media mentions of our product by 50%.
By using the transcripts from weekly podcast episodes, you may double the amount of blog entries that are produced each week, from one to two.
By optimizing huge photos on pages, you can reduce the load time for the primary product pages to under two seconds.
Relevant
A meaningful aim supports your organization’s mission and core values and is crucial to its sustainability. It will clarify why the objective is significant to your business.
How may the objectives of your marketing team be made pertinent? Here are some illustrations.
To make sure the sales staff fulfills its revenue targets, 20% more organic search traffic should be directed to the main services page.
To attract Gen Z users, increase brand visibility on TikTok by 50%.
To improve referral traffic to well-liked product sales pages and enhance sales, increase connections to the e-commerce store from blogs by 50%.
Time-Bound
A time-bound goal establishes a schedule to ensure responsibility as well as a clear deadline to complete the aim.
Additionally, it will guarantee that everyone engaged maintains their motivation to complete the necessary tasks for success.
How can the objectives of your marketing team be time-bound? Here are a few of the older instances that have been made time-bound.
By the conclusion of the second quarter, raise the number of social media visitors to the website from 1,000 to 3,000 each month.
By the end of 2023, the number of blog entries published each week will have increased from one to two thanks to the use of transcripts from regular podcast episodes.
To ensure that the sales team fulfills its revenue targets for Q2, increase organic search traffic to the main services page by 20% in the first quarter.
Conclusion
Using the resources you have available, SMART goals can assist marketing teams in developing goals that can be realistically accomplished within a given timeframe.
Make sure your goals are explicit, measurable, reachable, pertinent, and time-bound. Once the deadline passes, schedule time to monitor your progress and evaluate the outcomes.
You can optimize your future SMART objectives for overall growth and success by conducting deeper analysis of your goals and results.
Further Resources
A Comprehensive Guide To Marketing Attribution Models: Setting SMART SEO Goals For Your Enterprise Business
The Top 9 SEO KPIs You Should Be Monitoring
