S.M.A.R.T Goals and Why Four15 Digital Recommends Them

June 08, 2022

Let’s get started, what are S.M.A.R.T Goals?

S.M.A.R.T is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Four15 Digital recommends this common method that is used to form a better strategy when considering your goals for the future, and how you will get there.

Specific

To start, you want your goals to be as specific as possible. The goal is to clearly explain what you are trying to improve. Many people make the mistake of setting goals that are way too vague and end up making it harder to track their progress as they move towards their goals. 

Here are some examples of good and bad digital marketing goals:

Good Examples:

  • “This month I want to make create performance max campaigns”
  • “I want to double lead generation sign-ups from last month”
  • “I want to lower cost/conversion by 10% this quarter”

Bad Examples:

  • “I want to implement digital marketing”
  • “I want to get more website traffic”
  • “I want to get more clicks on landing pages”

Measurable

At Four15 Digital, we are constantly tracking results from campaigns and implementing digital strategy in order to optimize the account. For your goals to be measurable, they must be able to be tracked. These can be quantitative or qualitative. This is a very important part of setting your goals because if you can’t track your progress, you won’t know where you stand in your journey to success. For example, if you have a big goal that will take a year or two to accomplish, you should set up benchmarks along the way. Benchmarks will allow you to track your results and see where you can make improvements. 

Achievable 

The goals must be realistic. It is always nice to have an end goal in mind, but it might take a few steps to get there! If there hasn’t been any history of results that are close to your goal, it’s better to make the goals a little more realistic. The idea of setting a goal is to reach it. So, if you set up benchmark goals that are achievable and can be reached more often, you will feel motivated to keep reaching new goals. 

Relevant

Relevant goals are essential because they must align with your business and what you are trying to achieve. For example, if your campaign objective is to achieve a “25% increase in website traffic”, you wouldn’t want to set a goal regarding conversions because it’s not relevant to your campaign goal. You want your goals to be relevant so the right actions take place.

Time-Bound

Now your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant. Now you need to set a realistic time frame for the goal to be reached. If you set your time frame too short, then your goals will not be achieved. If they are too long, then you will not be as productive since there won’t be any sense of urgency. Four15 Digital recommends asking questions about your goal and evaluating the amount of work that needs to be done will help you gauge the time frame that works for you.