Setting goals is a helpful and measurable asset on your way to being successful in anything you want to do in life. This can be especially helpful in business and marketing as well as in your personal life. Having goals can help you focus your ideas and your energy to help you reach the objectives you desire most. Do you know how to plan to get the most out of your goals? The first step is knowing what a goal is, and the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics.
Goals- Something you desire or want to achieve.
Are your goals SMART? SMART is an acronym that will help you set proper goals.
What is it that you want to accomplish? Is there something you want to afford to purchase, like a new property, or new piece of equipment? Is there something you want to accomplish, like raising your online sales, or getting more Instagram engagement? These are goals! Goals are something you work towards to get the change or outcome you desire.
How do you know that the goals you set are realistic and attainable? Use the acronym SMART to narrow the focus of your goal, and to make sure the desired outcome is within reach. Using SMART goals can set you up for success and make sure you avoid an embarrassing misstep that may tarnish your company’s reputation.
Example: Increase loyalty and repeat customers by 50% in a 6 month period.
Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (2019, November 18)
- S- Specific: Exactly what do you want to accomplish?
- M-Measurable: How will you know when you have accomplished this goal?
- A-Achievable: Is this something within your capabilities?
- R-Relevant: Is your goal appropriate?
- T-Time-bound: What is the specific time frame you hope to complete this goal by?
Strategy
Your strategy is your overall plan designed to help you meet your goals. This is different from the tactics you will use regularly to achieve your goals. Strategy is looking at the big picture of what you want to accomplish and making an actionable plan.
Example: Connect with customers more often through social media, email lists, and your companies’ website causing loyalty, and repeat purchases.
Tactics
Tactics are the tasks you complete daily or nearly daily to complete your strategy.
Example:
- Email clients twice weekly with sales and new item announcements.
- Post on social media about new products, sales, content about products (Twitter, facebook, youtube etc).
- Reply to all comments tweeted, on Instagram, or on YouTube. Reply to all emails from consumers.
- Offer special sales for customers who have already purchased items through mailed postcards or specialized ads on social media, or when they login to your website.
How do you track your goals?
One important step to track your progress is to use KPIs, or Key Performance indicators.
KPI’s are measurable statistics. You can have KPIs for many different aspects of your company.
Here are some examples:
- Average daily/weekly/monthly impressions on social media or websites, such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, company website etc.
- Recidivism to company website or social media
- Purchase history of consumers
- Hashtags, mentions, retweets
- Downloads of content
- Comments on social media, website, or mail
- Click throughs from other sites
KPIs can give you a myriad of information points to help you decide where to spend your marketing dollars and time (Enochson, H., & Heyden., 2020).
Breaking down your goals with these steps can help you be successful in whatever goals you want to accomplish!
Citations
(2019, July 15). The Difference Between Marketing Strategy vs Tactics – An Example. Retrieved January 24, 2020, from http://charliesaidthat.com/digital/digital/difference-between-marketing-strategy-vs-tactics-an-example/
Dirty and Thirty. (2016, January 20). Home. Retrieved January 24, 2020, from http://www.dirtyandthirty.com/lifestyle/art-reaching-goals/
Enochson, H., & Heyden. (2020). 27 Examples of Key Performance Indicators. Retrieved January 24, 2020, from https://onstrategyhq.com/resources/27-examples-of-key-performance-indicators/
Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (2019, November 18) (Retrieved January 24, 2020, from https://ghcc.org/5-steps-to-set-smart-objectives-examples/
Lyskov, A. (2019, December 30). Goal Setting for Data Scientists. Retrieved January 24, 2020, from https://towardsdatascience.com/goal-setting-for-data-scientists-b2ca1a3d96a1
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