The "SMART" acronym stands for "specific," "measurable," "attainable," "relevant," and "time-bound." Each SMART goal you create should have these five characteristics to ensure the goal can be reached and benefits the employee. Find out what each characteristic means below, and how to write a SMART goal that exemplifies them.
Table of Contents
SMART goals are concrete targets that you strive to achieve over a certain period of time. These goals should be carefully drafted by a manager and his/her direct report to set them up for success. "SMART" is an acronym that describes the most important characteristics of each goal.
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Specific
SMART goals are "specific" in that there's a hard and fast destination the employee is trying to reach. "Get better at my job," isn't a SMART goal because it isn't specific. Instead, ask yourself: What are you getting better at? How much better do you want to get?
If you're a marketing professional, for example, your job probably revolves around key performance indicators or KPIs. Therefore, you might choose a particular KPI or metric you want to improve on -- like visitors, leads, or customers. You should also identify the team members working toward this goal, the resources they have, and their plan of action.
In practice, a specific SMART goal might say, "Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email ..." You know exactly who's involved and what you're trying to improve on.
Measurable
SMART goals should be "measurable" in that you can track and quantify the goal's progress. "Increase the blog's traffic from email," by itself, isn't a SMART goal because you can't measure the increase. Instead, ask yourself: How much email marketing traffic should you strive for?
If you want to gauge your team's progress, you need to quantify your goals, like achieving an X-percentage increase in visitors, leads, or customers.
Let's build on the SMART goal we started three paragraphs above. Now, our measurable SMART goal might say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email by 25% more sessions per month ... " You know what you're increasing, and by how much.
Attainable
An "attainable" SMART goal considers the employee's ability to achieve it. Make sure that the X-percentage increase is rooted in reality. If your blog traffic increased by 5% last month, for example, try to increase it by 8-10% this month, rather than a lofty 25%.
It's crucial to base your goals off of your own analytics, not industry benchmarks, or else you might bite off more than you can chew. So, let's add some "attainability" to the SMART goal we created earlier in this blog post: "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email by 8-10% more sessions per month ... " This way, you're not setting yourself up to fail.
Relevant
SMART goals that are "relevant" relate to your company's overall business goals and account for current trends in your industry. For instance, will grow your traffic from email lead to more revenue? And is it actually possible for you to significantly boost your blog's email traffic given your current email marketing campaigns?
If you're aware of these factors, you'll be more likely to set goals that benefit your company -- not just you or your department.
So, what does that do to our SMART goal? It might encourage you to adjust the metric you're using to track the goal's progress. For example, maybe your business has historically relied on organic traffic for generating leads and revenue, and research suggests you can generate more qualified leads this way. Our SMART goal might instead say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's organic traffic by 8-10% more sessions per month." This way, your traffic increase is aligned with the business's revenue stream.
Time-bound
A "time-bound" SMART goal keeps you on schedule. Improving on a goal is great, but not if it takes too long. Attaching deadlines to your goals puts a healthy dose of pressure on your team to accomplish them. This helps you make consistent and significant progress in the long term.
For example, which would you prefer: increasing organic traffic by 5% every month, leading to a 30-35% increase in half a year? Or trying to increase traffic by 15% with no deadline and achieving that goal in the same time frame? If you picked the former, you're right.
So, what does our SMART goal look like once we bound it to a timeframe? "Over the next three months, Clifford and Braden will work to increase the blog's organic traffic by 8-10%, reaching a total of 50,000 organic sessions by the end of August.
If you want a more concrete understanding of SMART goals, check out the examples below. You can always revisit this blog post and reference them when it's time to set your goals.
SMART Goal Examples That'll Make You a Better Marketer
1. Blog Traffic Goal
Specific: I want to boost our blog's traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from 5 to 8 times a week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from writing 2 posts a week to 3 posts a week, and our editor will increase her workload from writing 1 post a week to 2 posts a week.
Measurable: An 8% increase is our goal.
Attainable: Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency from 3 to 5 times a week.
Relevant: By increasing blog traffic, we'll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
Time-Bound: End of this month
SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our blog will see an 8% lift in traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from 5 posts per week to 8 posts per week.
2. Facebook Video Views Goal
Specific: I want to boost our average views per native video by cutting our video content mix from 8 topics to our 5 most popular topics.
Measurable: A 25% increase is our goal.
Attainable: When we cut down our video content mix on Facebook from 10 topics to our 8 most popular topics six months ago, our average views per native video increased by 20%.
Relevant: By increasing average views per native video on Facebook, we'll boost our social media following and brand awareness, reaching more potential customers with our video content.
Time-Bound: In 6 months.
SMART Goal: In 6 months, we'll see a 25% increase in average video views per native video on Facebook by cutting our video content mix from 8 topics to our 5 most popular topics.
3. Email Subscription Goal
Specific: I want to boost the number of our email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that historically acquire the most email subscribers.
Measurable: A 50% increase is our goal.
Attainable: Since we started using this tactic three months ago, our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40%.
Relevant: By increasing the number of our email blog subscribers, our blog will drive more traffic, boost brand awareness, and drive more leads to our sales team.
Time-Bound: In 3 months.
SMART Goal: In 3 months, we'll see a 50% increase in the number of our email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers.
4. Webinar Sign-up Goal
Specific: I want to increase the number of sign-ups for our Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.
Measurable: A 15% increase is our goal.
Attainable: Our last Facebook messenger webinar saw a 10% increase in sign-ups when we only promoted it through social, email, and our blog.
Relevant: When our webinars generate more leads, sales has more opportunities to close.
Time-Bound: By April 10, the day of the webinar.
SMART Goal: By April 10, the day of our webinar, we'll see a 15% increase in sign-ups by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook messenger.
5. Landing Page Performance Goal
Specific: I want our landing pages to generate more leads by switching from a one-column form to a two-column form.
Measurable: A 30% increase is our goal.
Attainable: When we A/B tested our traditional one-column form vs. a two-column form on our highest traffic landing pages, we discovered that two-column forms convert 27% better than our traditional one-column forms, at a 99% significance level.
Relevant: If we generate more content leads, sales can close more customers.
Time-Bound: One year from now.
SMART Goal: One year from now, our landing pages will generate 30% more leads by switching their forms from one-column to two columns.
6. Link-Building Strategy Goal
Specific: I want to increase our website's organic traffic by developing a link-building strategy that gets other publishers to link to our website. This increases our ranking in search engine results, allowing us to generate more organic traffic.
Measurable: 40 backlinks to our company homepage is our goal.
Attainable: According to our SEO analysis tool, there are currently 500 low-quality links directing to our homepage from elsewhere on the internet. Given the number of partnerships, we currently have with other businesses, and that we generate 10 new inbound links per month without any outreach on our part, an additional 40 inbound links from a single link-building campaign is a significant but feasible target.
Relevant: Organic traffic is our top source of new leads, and backlinks is one of the biggest ranking factors on search engines like Google. If we build links from high-quality publications, our organic ranking increases, boosting our traffic and leads as a result.
Time-Bound: 4 months from now.
SMART Goal: Over the next four months, I will build 40 additional backlinks that direct to www.ourcompany.com. To do so, I will collaborate with Ellie and Andrew from our PR department to connect with publishers and develop an effective outreach strategy.
