Often times in business we get caught up in the evolution of day to day activities. We lose track of why we are doing what we are doing. This is no different when it comes to marketing a business. While marketing can be a contributing factor to increasing revenue, it often is looked at second or third or further down the operation food chain against everything else within a business. Marketing can be forgotten about based on how a business is performing. The idea of marketing in business can become of reaction to suffering sales. It usually comes to the forefront when businesses are suffering and wondering why they are not getting new leads. Marketing can become an afterthought to business if the current marketing strategy is working with maintaining current revenue. The balance of marketing to gain new business must be incorporated into the business plan. Businesses must evolve and grow. Marketing is the key element to businesses growing.
In order to keep marketing in the forefront of a business, it is important to develop marketing objectives. There are many different strategies or techniques to develop marketing objectives for a business. However, there is one way within the marketing industry I prefer most.
S.M.A.R.T.
The marketing strategy I prefer most is SMART. SMART is an acronym for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Specific
“The purpose therefore of setting SMART objectives is to clarify where you want to be, providing a measurable objective that can be monitored and plans developed to help meet the business goals.” (Win Marketing, 2019)
Being specific in your goals is important to the interpretation of the business team. The more clear and simple you can make the goals, the better off you are in your team interpreting the goals accurately and achieving those goals. Making your goals measurable will add value as you achieve those goals. By making your goals measureable, you have a tangible destination for what you are trying to achieve. Measurable and Achievable go hand in hand as you want goals you can measure; also, you want to have achievable goals. Nothing can decrease the morale of a team more than never reaching goals. We have to be realistic in goal setting as to measure and achieve the goals set for the team. Companies will set unachievable goals time and time again. This does nothing good for the company. Realign what is valuable to the company in your goal setting and make them achievable. Be realistic in your goal setting. Even the smallest goal achieved is making progress toward the bigger goals and will build morale within the team. Having smaller realistic goals can lead up to an overall accomplishment or main goal. One thing SMART doesn’t really cover which I would like to add is ‘celebrate the wins’. Celebrating the wins will increase morale, team activity, and build momentum. Last of the SMART objectives is to be time specific. This is usually hard to gauge with being achievable and realistic. Often times, the time constraints are the number one unrealistic projection within SMART. I would always recommend a consensus among the team when it comes to being time specific. If you project too much time, then marketing projects may be delayed. If you forecast too little time, then you are making the objectives unrealistic and unachievable. Being time specific does engage when a goal needs to be complete. Otherwise, you have goals which never are completed. While you can change the time specifications, I would recommend reevaluating the goal and determining why it wasn’t met within the time constraints before extending goal times. Also, you may want to recognize smaller accomplishments within the goal and realign the goal to more realistic time constraints based on the remainder of tasks due to be complete.
On the contrary to using something like SMART, the ethical dilemma with not using a clear and objective goal setting strategy is everyone will assume their own goals and strategies. This can cause confusion and discourse among the employees. It can decrease morale as equity sensitivity becomes rampant. Through experience, I have seen this as each department will take on its own personality and culture sometimes even well outside the direction of the company. This can lead to disgruntle employees. Human resource issues can arise due to lack of clarity in objectives and tasks. If the mission is specific and clear, measurable, achievable, and realistic for accountability, and time specific; then, the message should be clear to all involved.
