Go From SMART to SMARTER in 2024
As 2024 gets underway, business leaders are turning their focus toward setting goals. Indeed, there is wide consensus among the business community about the importance of having goals. In a recent Harvard Business Review survey, 82 percent of executives consider the use of strategic goals as extremely critical to their organization’s success.
However, research also tells us that an astounding 90 percent of senior executives admit they fail to reach all their strategic goals due to poor implementation. Perhaps a "SMART-ER" approach to goal-making is needed.
Do You Need SMART-ER Goals?
You may already be familiar with the concept of setting SMART goals. Let’s look at how the SMART approach relates to direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and marketers.
Specific: Be Targeted. As a D2C business, you must be precise and targeted in setting your marketing goals — with the audiences you need to reach, the media mix you employ, and the action you want consumers to take. Specificity leads to success.
Measurable: Quantify Your Success. It’s important to define those key indicators that tell you whether your D2C marketing strategy is working. These metrics might include clicks, leads, conversions, sales, call volume, website visits, or other parameters.
Achievable: Know What’s Attainable. This requires having the right team, skills, and resources in place. If you see any gaps, you may want to bring in outside expertise to fill them.
Relevant: Make It Matter. Consider how your marketing goals align with your overall business objectives. Having relevant goals will help you focus on investments that generate the best return.
Time-Based: Stay on Track. Establish a schedule with key milestones and deadlines for reaching your goals. This will create a sense of urgency and help keep your team on track and accountable along the way.
From SMART to SMART-ER
SMART goals are a great foundation on which to build your D2C strategy. But let’s take it one step further and look at how SMART-ER goal setting can make all the difference.
Efor Evidence-Based. To reach your goals, you’ll need to employ proven methodologies built on best practices, as well as data. Guesswork and gut feelings will only get you so far in D2C. You need a methodology that has been tried and tested to deliver measurable returns.
Rfor Refinement. The D2C media landscape is continually evolving, which means you’ll need to be able to quickly adapt and adjust. When your campaigns and efforts hit a plateau and stop short of your goals, you must refine and calibrate your tactics, media mix, and/or message to continue driving results.
Track Your SMART-ER Progress with Data
Moving from SMART to SMART-ER goals requires continual tracking and monitoring of your D2C strategies to see what’s working, what isn’t, and where to adjust. Avoid the mistake that so many companies make: setting then forgetting about your goals.
According to a Phoenix Business Journal survey, 80 percent of organizations fail to track their business goals. A major culprit for this failure is lack of data. Conversely, companies that leverage data and analytics have a much higher chance of not just meeting their goals but exceeding them. In one Forrester survey, businesses that used data management tools to make decisions were 58 percent more likely to surpass their revenue goals than companies that didn’t track data.
Clearly, data is key. But knowing how, where, and when to collect, capture, and interpret this data can be a challenge for D2C brands, especially in today’s hyper-fragmented, extremely complex, and ever-shifting media landscape. Partnering with an outside media expert who uses a proven, data-driven methodology and tools may be just the answer to your data dilemma.
Along with D2C and multichannel knowledge, an experienced media partner with an analytical approach can leverage data to help you set those SMART-ER goals. What’s more, that partner should be able to help you track and make sense of the data to drive continually better results and ultimately exceed your D2C marketing objectives.
Original article: https://www.resultsmagazine-digital.com/results/library/item/march_2024/4182568/
