Marketing Plan Secrets - How To Set SMART Marketing Goals

At the beginning of every year, marketers are confronted with the same old story: planning and setting goals.

Have you planned your marketing budget and defined your goals and objectives? What targets would you like to hit or even exceed this year?

Goals are a necessity - they push us to expand our comfort zone and grow, and keep us focused on achieving our dreams. On the other hand, goals become useless if they aren't grounded in reality. The more specific and realistic your goals are, the better your chances to reach them.

The key is to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym and it stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable,

Realistic and Timebound.

Let's define a goal for our business and see how we can improve it by making it smart. We will use the following example:

Increase wallet share of existing customers from New York by 10 Percent at the end of this year.

Does our example meet the SMART criteria? Is this goal powerful enough for our employees to feel totally committed to achieving this marketing objective?

Here's how to boost the impact of this single goal:

• Specific - 90 Percent of our existing customers from New York are dentists. We are going to focus on the dentists, as they are responsible for 95 Percent of our profits. Identify the latest needs and preferences our dentists from New York have and market services such as evening and weekend seminars to maximize profits.
• Measurable - Our current wallet share is 30 Percent. The new target is 33 Percent, meaning we need an extra 10 Percent share. We already specified that in the example.
• Attainable - We have experienced keynote speakers in our team, some of them former dentists. Marketing assistants are working closely with speakers to create valuable new programs and seminars to meet new requirements in the field of dentistry.
• Realistic - A new dentist was hired part-time to help our current team acquire state-of-the-art dentistry skills to provide best in class seminars. The required marketing resources are available and teams are ready to implement.
• Time-bound - The date is set for the end of this year. The increase in wallet share is to be achieved within 12 months. Progress will be tracked every month in an excel sheet and shared regularly - on a monthly basis - with all team members.

Clearly defined goals will provide direction for you and your employees. They will help you tailor your online and offline marketing activities accordingly.

No use focusing on promotional activities and all kinds of fancy marketing strategies if you don't master the fundamentals. Define your business and marketing goals and make sure they are SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.