When identifying specific marketing objectives to support your long-term goals, it is common practice to apply the widely used SMART mnemonic. You will know that SMART is used to assess the suitability of objectives set to drive different strategies or the improvement of the full range of business processes.
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We've got marketing tools and techniques to support you in defining and measuring your marketing objectives, such as our step-by-step module, defining Google Analytics goals, part of the Google Analytics Learning Path. Find out more about our Google Analytics training and other marketing essentials to help you create a winning strategy.
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When setting future digital marketing objectives, such as in a digital marketing plan, it’s useful to look hard at each measure and ask “is it essential?”. The SMART mnemonic helps as a test or filter which you can use to assess the quality of measures. The Smart Insights definition of SMART is:
Keep your strategic objectives SMART, link your objectives to strategies and KPIs, and make sure all of your team know exactly what the target is. Smart Insights have marketing tools and techniques to keep your team on track. Managers can utilize our advanced module forecast results and ROI for digital marketing activities, for Business Members, to set goals. Our dedicated strategic and channel-specialist training supports each member of your marketing team to drive results. Find out more.
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Start NowOf course, different people interpret objectives differently. You can refer to the Wikipedia definition of SMART marketing objectives. Our handy graphic summarizes the five different SMART components we recommend for your marketing objectives.
We recommend integrating your marketing objectives across the RACE Framework. By structuring your objectives by customer lifecycle stage, you can track granular KPIs and customer-centric data to inform your marketing strategy throughout reach, act, convert and engage. After all, your objectives are different for prospecting and retargeting, right? If you don't apply RACE to your objectives, you're missing a trick. We've got marketing solutions to support you to create a winning marketing strategy, find out more.
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Start NowHere are some typical examples of SMART objectives, including those to support objective setting in customer acquisition, conversion, and retention categories for digital marketing:
It’s worth guarding against the mistake I sometimes see with student assignments where, rather than listing objective examples like those above, the student will create separate objectives under a heading of each of SMART - this doesn’t work… Better is to group objectives logically, sometimes separating overall business and marketing objectives and digital marketing objectives.
You can add to your tests of choosing the right marketing objectives using these 10 measure design tests developed by performance management specialist Professor Andy Neely. For SMARTER metrics, ask these questions for your KPIs as you develop them.
These tests show there are additional filters on top of SMART that are useful to choose the best measure. I particularly like the "So-what test, another way of explaining relevance and Gaming - a common issue with target setting that isn’t considered by SMART!
Finally, some have developed the SMARTER objectives definition that shows the need to re-examine the relevance of SMART objectives through time:
| Letter | Most Common | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| S | Specific | Significant, Stretching, Simple, Sustainable |
| M | Measurable | Motivational, Manageable, Meaningful |
| A | Attainable | Appropriate, Achievable, Agreed, Assignable, Actionable, Adjustable, Ambitious. |
| R | Relevant | Results-Based, Results-Oriented, Resourced, Realistic, Reasonable. |
| T | Time-Bound | Timed, Time-Framed, Time-Specific, Timetabled, Time-limited, Trackable, Tangible. |
| E | Evaluate | Ethical, Enjoyable, Engaging, Evidenced |
| R | Reevaluate | Reviewed, Rewarded, Revisit, Recordable, Rewarding, Reaching. |
This definition certainly shows the many alternative digital marketing objectives definitions - you may want to compare against these!
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We've got marketing training to support you in setting your marketing objectives, tweaking and improving your marketing strategy in line with your goals, managing your team, managing your results, and staying one step ahead in a challenging environment for all marketers.
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By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. Dave is editor of the 100+ templates, ebooks and courses in the digital marketing resource library created by our team of 25+ digital marketing experts. Our resources are used by our Premium members in more than 100 countries to Plan, Manage and Optimize their digital marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is a keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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