February is on the horizon. How many of us set digital marketing goals for 2022? And how many of those have already fallen to the wayside? You’re not alone! If you’ve forgotten your goal, or want to set them now, here are a few tips to set and keep your goal on track.
Make it S.M.A.R.T.
Nearly all of us have heard SMART goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Keep these parameters in mind when setting your marketing goal.
Identify your goal.
This is where you should keep SMART goals in mind. Make sure your goal has concrete steps to get there, and don’t bite off more than you can chew. For example, increasing your email open rates by 50% might not be achievable. Maybe 5% is more reasonable. This brings us to our next tip…
Establish baselines.
When you know what your baselines are, you can create a more achievable goal. Take stock of what you already have. If you’re focused on content marketing, like driving more traffic to your site via organic search, look at your Google Analytics to see how many visitors are finding your site via search. The same goes for other goals – look at the data you already have.
Utilize whatever marketing tools that are relevant. Google Analytics, Hootsuite, MailChimp, Google Ads, etc.
Get specific.
Now that you have an idea of your baseline marketing metrics, you have a better idea of what’s realistic. If you want to increase readership on your blog, perhaps you aim to write two blog posts per week. Know the metric you will track, which will help you define your success. Perhaps it’s looking at your Google Analytics traffic to see how many users visit your blog. To increase readership, you’ll also set time to create distribution channels to ensure your content is being pushed out to readers.
Don’t forget to be realistic.
In an ideal world, you’d have hours to devote to your marketing goal. Easier said than done! If your goal is too ambitious, you risk not achieving it. Be honest with how much time you’re able to devote to it. Carve time out of your calendar to put the work in.
Make your plan.
Have tools in place to get your goal accomplished. Is there a clear path to accomplish it? Make sure you’ve identified the steps that are necessary to achieve your goal. Even if you have the plan and steps memorized, write it down. Find a project management tool to keep steps and tasks organized.
Measure your progress.
Create a way to measure your progress and check in with marketing goals regularly. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy – a simple spreadsheet where you note your progress.
You’ve got this! Make 2022 the year you achieve all your marketing goals.
