The road to being SMART
What is the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics?
- A goal is what you want to accomplish (monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.)
- A strategy is simply a plan that ensures what you are doing over time contributes to these goals.
- Tactics are the daily and weekly activities that help you execute your strategic plan to achieve your business goals.
What is the importance of setting SMART goals when creating a marketing campaign?
- In order to accomplish your goals, or even make a plan for that matter, you must have a way to measure your goals.
- By following the SMART system you ensure that:
- S: Your goals are clear and specific.
- M: Your goals can be measured.
- A: Your goals are achievable by actions.
- R: Your goals are realistic.
- T: Your goals are held to a time period.
What questions should be considered?
Specific – Can the detail in the information sufficiently pinpoint problems or opportunities?
Measurable – Can a quantitative or qualitative attribute be applied to create a metric?
Actionable – Can the information be used to improve performance?
Relevant – Can the information be applied to the specific problem faced by the manager?
Time-related – Can the information be viewed through time to identify trends?
(Charlie said that,2019)
Provide examples to portray how marketing tactics align to strategies in order to support set goals.
- One of the goals that we focus on every year at my company is customer commitment and delivering innovation. In order for us to achieve this goal we have to set strategies and tactics.
- Our overall strategy may look like:
- Achieve target milestone of identified new product development and product enhancement projects.
- And our tactics may look like:
- Engage with customers on new products and offer a trial to our key partners.
- Update website with new products.
- Run a LinkedIn add for our new products.
- Update email signatures with a link to new product site.
How can you ensure that your SMART goals are met using key performance indicators (KPIs)? Explain using examples to support your rationale.
- Utilizing the strategy and tactics for customer commitment and delivering innovation we can ensure our goals are SMART by measuring things like:
- Customer willingness to participate in trials
- Website traffic on new products
- Linkedin followers/engagement on new products add
- Link click counts on email signatures
- Number of sales
References:
Charliesaidthat. (2019, July 15) The Difference Between Marketing Strategy vs Tactics – An Example. Charliesaidthat. http://charliesaidthat.com/digital/digital/difference-between-marketing-strategy-vs-tactics-an-example/
PREVIEW:“Winding Road on a White Isolated Background. Road Way Location…” IStock, http://www.istockphoto.com/vector/winding-road-on-a-white-isolated-background-with-pin-pointers-gm691423398-127526455.
Thorpe, D. (2020, December 15). Be SMART About Your Goal Setting. Business Advisor, Mentor and Executive Coach – Doug Thorpe. https://dougthorpe.com/be-smart-about-your-goal-setting/
Dillon Rae 