How to set and achieve marketing goals: the SMART objective
- Alberto Carniel
- Nov 5, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 29, 2025
While preparing a #MarketingPlan, it helps to think of a business as a system of people who assign themselves tasks (roles) to pursue a common goal (objectives).
An organization without objectives doesn’t really work.
Keep reading to discover what an objective is, why it matters, and how to set goals that don’t die in a Google Doc after two days.
Table of contents
THE GOAL-SETTING THEORY
Objectives are one of the strongest variables affecting an individual’s behavior in a working environment.
They:
Give attention to a specific direction;
Stimulate focus and effort on a task;
Encourage persistence;
Facilitate the development of strategies.
How to set goals to improve performance and motivation
According to Edwin A. Locke (American psychologist and pioneer in goal-setting theory), demanding and ambitious goals lead to superior performance compared to easy ones.
A goal becomes “difficult” when performance is set around 90%, assuming the person has the necessary skills to accomplish it.
At that point, motivation becomes the real variable that determines success or failure.
Another key point: clear and specific objectives work better than vague ones.
Abstract goals like “try to do your best” or “we can give our best” sound inspiring… but they don’t give anyone a direction.
They’re the corporate version of “let’s see how it goes.”
To keep objectives effective over time, consistent feedback is essential.
Also, motivation isn’t really about participating in goal decisions. It’s about accepting the goal and believing you can achieve it.
In 2002, Locke and Gary Latham identified three factors that predict goal-setting success:
The importance of the expected outcomes of goal attainment;
Self-efficacy, meaning the belief that you’re able to achieve the goal;
Commitment to others, because promises and public commitments can strongly increase follow-through.
Finally, rewards matter. In his Expectancy Theory, Victor Harold Vroom argues that people are more motivated when the outcome is desirable and clearly connected to performance.
In plain language: if the reward feels random or irrelevant, motivation collapses.
This theory emphasizes the need for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those deserved and wanted by the recipients.
As quoted in Management, by Montana, Patrick J., and Charnov, Bruce H.
THE S.M.A.R.T. MARKETING GOAL
In marketing, one of the most useful criteria to guide goal-setting is S.M.A.R.T.
This acronym means an objective should be: Specific, Measurable, Attractive, Reachable, Timed.
Meaning of the acronym S.M.A.R.T.
Specific
What is to be done?
Everyone should interpret the goal in the same way.
Example: you have a website and you want to increase traffic. You book a professional digital marketing consultancy and say: “I want more visitors.”
Most likely, the consultant will reply: “Okay… what does ‘more’ mean?”
Use real numbers: “I want to increase visits to this page by 30%.”
Measurable
How will you know whether the outcome meets expectations?
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Once the objective is defined, monitor progress (daily, weekly, monthly… depending on the goal).
Attractive
What’s the payoff of achieving the goal?
An objective must be appealing: the outcome should pay back (at least) the energy and resources invested (time, effort, assets, money).
If you’re setting goals for an organization, ask:
Is it aligned with the company’s mission and vision?
Should it be done, and why?
Is it relevant for the marketing strategy?
Reachable
Do we have the skills and resources to achieve it?
Objectives must be concrete and realizable.
If the person lacks abilities or resources, self-efficacy (Locke and Latham’s concept) will be missing—and the goal will become a motivation killer.
Timed
When will it be done? When is it due?
An objective should be time-oriented and supported by a clear schedule.
Entrepreneurs and managers often mismanage deadlines because they assign high priority to everything.
The result: delays, stress, and a task list that reads like a tragedy in three acts.
Andrea Pietrini, managing partner at yourCFO Consulting Group, taught me the difference between urgent and important tasks.
In business, most tasks are important (or should be), but only a few are urgent.
Urgent tasks must have priority.
Example of S.M.A.R.T. goal
To build a highway section, 30 miles long, in 6 months, by having 30 skilled workers, full equipment and material, and a $50M budget.
HOW ASTRONAUTS SET AND ACHIEVE GOALS
From Locke and Latham, we can extract at least three key concepts about managing an organization by objectives:
Defining a goal makes a result “thinkable.” If it’s not clear, it’s not real.
Don’t confuse the objective with the method. The objective is the destination. The method is the journey—the plan and tools that make reaching the goal possible.
There is no such thing as an objective that is “too complex.” Complexity depends on the person (and the resources) dealing with it.
What’s incredible is that these ideas apply to private life too—and Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, proves it.
Some sound advice from an astronaut: Chris Hadfield explains how you can achieve goals
Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut, engineer, and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot.
Pretty cool, right?
His approach is simple and brutally effective: you are the result of what you’ve done in the past.
Achieving goals isn’t a straight line.
It’s an irregular path made of attempts, small wins, mistakes, and recoveries.
This is how I explain it:
The X axis represents time.
The Y axis represents achievements.
The grey line shows the overall trend of performance.
The black line shows the real path: ups, downs, detours, and small steps that eventually bring you to the goal.
If you look at yourself now and then look back, everything makes sense: your job, your body, your relationships—everything is a reflection of prior actions.
It’s because of the choices you make today that you turn into what you want to become tomorrow.
But the most powerful concept I learned from Hadfield is this: even if the odds are against you, it doesn’t matter. You can still make it—if you keep moving in the right direction.
I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be an astronaut, but I realized the odds were terrible. So, I thought, well, let's head in the direction that I like…
CONCLUSIONS
In private life and in business, the odds are always terrible.
That’s exactly why S.M.A.R.T. goals make a difference—both short-term and long-term. They turn “we should do something” into “we are doing this, by then, and we’ll know it worked because these numbers changed.”
I’m curious: how do you achieve goals in your organization?
Do you use any task management software? Share your experience in the comments below.
References
Locke, Edwin A. and Latham, Gary P. A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. Prentice Hall, 1990.
Locke, Edwin A. and Latham, Gary P. “Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation.” American Psychologist, 2002.
Vroom, Victor H. Work and Motivation. Wiley, 1964.
Montana, Patrick J. and Charnov, Bruce H. Management. Barron’s Educational Series, edition varies by year.
Hadfield, Chris. Talks and interviews on goal achievement and preparation, widely available in recorded formats.
Comments