How to set and achieve marketing goals: the SMART objective
Updated: Oct 15, 2021
While preparing a #MarketingPlan, you should consider a business as a whole of people who assign themselves tasks (roles) to pursue a common goal (objectives).
An organization without objectives doesn’t work. Keep reading to discover what an objective really is and why it is so critical for a company.
Table of contents
THE GOAL-SETTING THEORY
Objectives are the strongest variable which affects an individual’s behavior in a working environment:
They give attention to a specific direction;
They stimulate focus and effort on a task;
They encourage persistency;
They facilitate the development of strategies.
How to set goals to improve performance and motivation
According to Edwin A. Locke (an American psychologist and pioneer in goal-setting theory), demanding ambitious goals lead to superior working performance compared to easy and elementary ones. He considers a goal difficult when an individual’s performance is set to 90%, taking into account that they have all the necessary skills to accomplish it. In this way, motivation becomes the critical factor for success or failure.
Clear and specific objectives also have a better impact on individuals and should be preferred over general ones. Abstract objectives, like “try to do your best” or “we can give our best”, don’t work.
To maintain this positive influence over time, feedback is needed on a consistent basis.
Individual motivation is not attributed to the participation toward the goal decision making process, but in the acceptance and belief in achieving said goal.
An individual’s willingness to pursue a certain goal is fundamental. In 2002, Locke and Gary Latham (a professor of Organizational Effectiveness in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto) identified three factors which indicate goal setting success:
The importance of the expected outcomes of goal attainment;
Self-efficacy: one's belief that they are able to achieve the goals;
Commitment to others: promises or engagements to others can strongly improve commitment.
Finally, a reward for achieving an objective is also important. In his Expectancy theory, Victor Harold Vroom (a business school professor at the Yale School of Management) states that the desirability of an outcome affects individuals’ motivation. Quoting the expectancy theory of motivation in Management, by Montana, Patrick J., Charnov and Bruce H:
This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted by the recipients.
THE S.M.A.R.T. MARKETING GOAL
In marketing, one of the criteria to guide goal-setting is S.M.A.R.T. This acronym means that an objective should be specific, measurable, attractive, reachable and timed.
Specific
What is to be done? Everyone should interpret the goal in the same way.
For example, let’s say you have a website and want to increase its traffic. You book a professional digital marketing consultancy and say: «I want more visitors». Probably the consultant will reply with: «Okay… and what do you mean?».
So, try to use real numbers, like: «I want to increase the visits on this page by 30%» or something similar.
Measurable
How can you know whether the outcome meets the expectations? You should be able to keep track of your progress. Once you have set your objective, monitor the performance: you can do it daily, weekly or monthly depending on the specific goal.
Attractive
What’s the outcome from achieving the goal? An objective must be appealing: its outcome should pay back (at least) the energy (physical/mental effort, assets, money...) spent to achieve it. If you’re setting goals for an organization, you should ask yourself whether it is aligned with the company’s mission and vision. Should it be done? Why? Is it relevant for the marketing strategy?
Reachable
Does the person have the right skill set to achieve the goal? Do we have enough resources to carry on the project? Objectives must be concrete and realizable. If the person lacks abilities or resources, Locke and Latham’s self-efficiency mentioned above will be missing.
Timed
When will it be done? When is it due? An objective should be time-oriented and have a clear activity schedule. Entrepreneurs or managers often mismanage deadlines and tasks pipeline, causing delays in project delivery. This is because they assign high priority to every goal.
Andrea Pietrini, managing partner at yourCFO Consulting Group, taught me the difference between urgent and important tasks. For a business, all tasks are important (or they should be), but only few are urgent. Urgent tasks must have the priority.
Example of S.M.A.R.T. goal
To build a highway section, 30 miles long, in 6 months from now by having available 30 skilled workers, full equipment and material, and a $50M budget.
Get your free S.M.A.R.T. marketing goal-setting template here.
HOW ASTRONAUTS SET AND ACHIEVE GOALS
From Locke and Latham, we understood there are at least three key points that explain the meaning of managing an organization by objectives:
Defining a goal means making a result “thinkable”