Great marketers can predict the future. It’s true. By some magic marketing, experts have the right ads in the right place at the right time and make the companies they work for very wealthy. Ok, so it is not exactly magic, but it is metrics and the fact that marketers use metrics to create smart goals for their campaigns. It sure looks like magic, though. Most good stuff does.
Businesses know what they want. And they often think they know how to get it. They don’t.
Marketing is the art of turning needs into wants, wants into needs, and everything into a goal. And if you want the goal to be achieved, cook it a little longer and make it a smart goal. A smart goal is a statement that informs the required tactics that will be needed.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
Let’s muse about this. And talk about some ways we can turn a boring goal into an awesome smart goal. The key is to ask questions. It does not matter if you are asking yourself questions or someone else. The answers help narrow the topic to its real meaning.
Example:
- Boring Goal: Go on vacation!
- Questions: Where, when, why, how? What is your budget?
- Answers: The beach. December of this year. I need a break from work. I have $3000 to spend.
- Metrics: The beach is close, and I can drive. I have vacation time to take. 4 local beach resorts cost less than 2500 to stay at.
- The smart goal becomes. I want to take a vacation to Miami Beach in December and stay at the Windjammer Resort.
Step one in that example will never happen. Step five I may actually do. All kidding aside, I may have written myself into a vacation by making this post.