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SMART Definition

Properly defined goals may become the indicators of your company’s achievements and development. The most popular and easiest to apply, especially in technology companies, is the SMART principle. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely defined.

““Marketers who set goals are 376% more likely to report success than those who don’t. And 70% of those successful, goal-setting marketers achieve them.” CoSchedule

Specific

The goal should be specific and detailed. Consider what you want to achieve and why. Your objective cannot be vague. Do not just focus on lose goals like, increasing customer satisfaction or increasing sales. Hone in on an objective: 10% increase in sales of X services compared to 2016. Now you are in sync with the SMART rule.

Measurable

If you can’t measure it, it is difficult achieve. How would you know you when have reached your target? The level of its implementation should be expressed in numbers with a certain indicator. The minimum requirement is that the goal is possible to be checked.

Achievable

Too ambitious goals makes you sceptical about its realisation and undermines your motivation. It must be achievable under current market conditions and with the resources such as time, technological, finance as well as staff.

Realistic

You need to feel that your goal is challenging for you. It cannot be too easy, but it cannot be too abstract either. The value of the goal must be definite for the person responsible for its implementation. It is necessary to set a goal with which the employees who will implement it can identify. Only when your employees feel that the goal is right and makes sense, they will effectively pursue it.

Timely defined

It is essential to develop a schedule in which there would be indicated the starting point, the finish line of the process and its individual stages. Common mistake is to assume too little time for the realisation of your goal, which causes frustration and annoyance among the staff. You cannot forget that the goal is supposed to be challenging, but achievable.

When setting goals, try to bring added value to your company. If they are not beneficial to your business they are not real goals. SMART means clever. And that is what your aims should be. They should lead to the development and growth of your company in a smart way.

Editor’s Note:

SMART is most effective when applied to your content marketing strategies.