Most website owners often mimic or copy what their competitors are doing and hope to achieve similar or better results. Unfortunately, what works for others might not give you the same results. So if your strategy is copying what others are doing and aiming to achieve what they’ve achieved, we’ve got bad news for you.
The first step toward achieving anything is to set SMART goals. Working hard is essential, but working smarter is even more so. You can only create plans to grow and earn more revenue if you have a clear goal in mind. Let’s discuss SMART goals in this article.
Content
- What is a SMART goal?
- The importance of setting SMART goals
- SMART goal examples
- Blog traffic SMART goals:
- Monetization SMART goals:
- SEO SMART goals:
- Facebook video views goal
- Email subscription goal
- Webinar sign-up goal
- How to make a SMART goal
- Use specific wording
- Include measurable goals
- Aim for realistically achievable goals
- Pick relevant goals that relate to your business
- Have a timeframe and a deadline for your goals
- Common SMART goal mistakes
- Conclusion
What is a SMART goal?
SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. The SMART framework’s elements work together to create a well-planned, clear, and measurable goal.
The laser-focused specificity of this goal-setting framework sets it apart from others. Setting SMART goals allows you to refine your thoughts, focus your efforts, make better use of your time and resources, and increase your chances of achieving what you set out for.
Let’s discuss each letter in greater detail.
S – SPECIFIC
Be specific about what you want to achieve when setting a goal. Consider this to be your goal’s mission statement. Make sure you’re as straightforward as possible about what you want to accomplish. The more specific your goal, the better you’ll be able to comprehend the steps required to achieve it.
This isn’t a comprehensive plan for achieving a goal, but it should include an answer to the following frequently asked “w” questions:
- Who — Consider how many people are involved in achieving this goal (especially a group project).
- What — Consider what you want to accomplish, and don’t be afraid to get specific — for example, 100000 monthly visitors by the next three months.
- When — You’ll get more specific about this question in the “time-bound” section of defining SMART goals, but at the very least, you should set a deadline.
- Where — This question may not always be relevant, especially if you’re setting personal goals, but if there’s a specific location or event in mind, include it here.
- Why — What is your goal’s motivation? When it comes to employees, the answer will almost certainly be something along the lines of company advancement or career development. But as a publisher, it’s obvious to grow bigger and generate more income from ads, affiliate programs, and more.
M – MEASURABLE
You must set measurable objectives, so you can track your progress and stay motivated. Evaluating your progress will help you stay focused, meet your deadlines, and experience the thrill of getting closer to your goal.
Setting milestones along the way will allow you to re-evaluate and adjust your course as needed. Remember to reward yourself in small but meaningful ways when you reach your goals.
Questions like these should be addressed in a measurable goal:
- How much is it?
- How many are there?
- I’m not sure how I’ll know when it’s finished.
A – ACHIEVABLE
This focuses on how important a goal is to you and what you can do to achieve it, which may need learning new skills and changing your mindset. Consider how you’ll reach the goal and whether you have the necessary tools and skills. Think about what it would take to acquire those skills if you don’t already have them. For example, you’ll need to know or learn graphic design to create better infographics.
Your goal must also be realistic and attainable. Nothing is impossible, but you shouldn’t set goals that are beyond your reach. For example, we cannot set a goal to be worth as much as Apple or Amazon in the next two years.
You might be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can help you get closer to your goal if you set an achievable goal.
In most cases, an attainable goal will provide answers to questions like:
- What is the best way for me to achieve this goal?
- Based on other constraints, such as financial limits and time, how realistic is my goal?
R- RELEVANT
Focus on something relevant to the larger business goals. We all need help and support to achieve set objectives, but it’s also essential to maintain control over them. Make sure that your plans propel everyone forward while also ensuring that you meet your goals.
T – TIME-BOUND
Consider a race without a finish line, as the Temple Run smartphone game. In real life, it would be chaos, wasting both the runner’s energy and the organizer’s resources. The same can be said for SMART goals.
It’s critical to set a deadline. Ask yourself when you want to achieve this goal what can be accomplished in that time frame. It’s also helpful to review what has been accomplished halfway through the deadline. Adding time constraints adds to your sense of urgency.
The importance of setting SMART goals
SMART goals are important regardless of your status in life- CEO, career starter, student, e.t.c. You won’t know if you’re making progress daily unless you have clear objectives to guide you.
Your objectives don’t have to be difficult to achieve. Between “becoming president” and “earning $200 monthly from ads,” there’s a lot of ground to cover. Publishers who set clear goals for themselves have a better chance of achieving them regularly, in our experience.
Setting SMART goals is vital because they:
- Assist you in working with specific intentions rather than broad or ambiguous objectives.
- Set benchmarks to measure your success.
- Help you set reasonable goals that are both realistic and attainable.
- Remove any tasks that are unnecessary or irrelevant to the task at hand.
- Establish a clear beginning and end to follow to achieve your objectives.
SMART goal examples
Blog traffic SMART goals:
- Specific: Increase the number of blog visitors from organic traffic by 2,000 (30%) in 2 months.
- Measurable: The goal is to increase traffic by 30% in 2 months.
- Achievable: Increase weekly publishing frequency from three to five times a week. The writers’ workload will be increased from three to five posts per week.
- Relevant: Increasing blog traffic will raise brand awareness and generate more leads, sales, and closing more deals.
- Time-bound: The deadline is at the end of next month.
SMART Goal: By the end of this month, the blog’s traffic will have increased by 30% due to increasing weekly publishing frequency from five to eight posts per week.
Monetization SMART goals:
- Specific: Increase revenue from ads by 8% by September (three months)
- Measurable: The goal is to increase ad revenue by 8% in 3 months.
- Achievable: Test new ad placements on the homepage, Add new ad codes to internal pages, place ads on well-performing blog articles and publish five more posts on the same topics.
- Relevant: Increasing ad revenue will raise more income and reinvest the money to improve our website and services.
- Time-bound: The deadline is September 1, 2022.
SEO SMART goals:
- Specific: Improve the indicators of mobile site optimization (at least 90%) after six months.
- Measurable: The goal is to improve website speed on mobile by 90% in 6 months.
- Achievable: Optimize all images on the website. Remove unnecessary scripts.
- Relevant: Improving page speed will help us rise higher in SERPs, which will lead to more traffic, users, and revenue.
- Time-bound: The deadline is six months.
Facebook video views SMART goals
- Specific: I’d like to increase our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that have historically attracted the most email subscribers to increase the number of email blog subscribers.
- Measurable: We want to increase our subscriber base by 50%.
- Attainable: Our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40% since we started using this strategy three months ago.
- Relevant: Increasing the number of email blog subscribers will increase traffic, brand awareness and generate more leads.
- Time-bound: It will be three months.
SMART Goal: By increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers, there will be a 50% increase in the number of email blog subscribers in three months.
Email subscription SMART goals
- Specific: I’d like to increase our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that have historically attracted the most email subscribers to increase the number of email blog subscribers.
- Measurable: We want to increase our subscriber base by 50%.
- Attainable: Our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40% since we started using this strategy three months ago.
- Relevant: Increasing the number of email blog subscribers will increase traffic, brand awareness, and lead generation for our sales team.
- Time-Bound: Three months.
SMART Goal: By increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers, we’ll see a 50% increase in the number of email blog subscribers in three months.
Webinar sign-up SMART goals
- Specific: To increase the number of people who sign up for the Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it on social media, via email, on individual blogs, and Facebook Messenger.
- Measurable: We want to see a 15% increase in sign-ups.
- Attainable: When we only promoted our last Facebook Messenger webinar through social media, email, and our blog, we saw a 10% increase in sign-ups.
- Relevant: Sales have more opportunities to close when our webinars generate more leads.
- Time-Bound: By April 10th, the day of the webinar.
SMART Goal: We’ll see a 15% increase in sign-ups by April 10th, the day of our webinar, by promoting it on social media, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.
How to make a SMART goal
• Use specific wording
When writing SMART goals, keep in mind that they are “specific” in the sense that you are attempting to reach a destination. “Improve at my website” isn’t a SMART goal because it’s not specific. Ask yourself instead, “What are you getting better at?” How far do you want to improve?
• Include measurable goals
SMART goals should be “measurable” in the sense that they can be tracked and quantified. Because you can’t measure the increase, “increase blog traffic from email” isn’t a SMART goal by itself. Instead, consider the following question: How much extra email marketing traffic do you want?
If you want to track your progress, quantify your objectives, such as increasing visitors, leads, or customers by X percent.
• Aim for realistically achievable goals
A SMART goal that is “achievable” takes into account your ability to achieve it. Ascertain that the X-percentage-point increase is based on reality. Otherwise, you might bite off more than you can chew if you don’t establish your goals on your analytics rather than industry benchmarks.
• Pick relevant goals that relate to your business
Relevant SMART goals are those that relate to your website’s overall business goals and take into account current industry trends.
• Have a timeframe and a deadline for your goals
You stay on track with a “time-bound” SMART goal. It’s great to improve on a plan, but not if it takes a long time. When you give your goals deadlines, it puts a healthy amount of pressure on you and your team to meet them. This practice helps you make long-term progress that is consistent and significant.
Common SMART goal mistakes
• Setting unattainable goals
Extreme goals can be divided into two categories. Sometimes, the goal appears to be impossible to achieve because it is so far away. And then there’s the goal that’s so ridiculously simple that you might wonder why it’s even a goal in the first place.
Difficult SMART goals are not inherently wrong; in fact, the more complex a goal is, the better. However, setting challenging goals is not feasible because you may become dissatisfied if you’re not making progress toward the goal.
Meanwhile, the problem with straightforward goals is that they undermine the entire concept of goal-setting. You should be challenged just enough by your plans to feel motivated to achieve them. Test, push, and motivate yourself.
• Having no time frame
Having no timeframe or an extensive timeframe specified in your goal will cause the effort to be reprioritized or make it difficult for you to determine whether your team is on track.
• Ignoring circumstances
Another serious mistake is NOT taking into account some circumstances, for example, seasonality. We cannot set an achievable goal and a realistic time frame without considering seasonal downturns and events like pandemics, conflicts, and new regulations. This mistake is critical for publishers because they get many website visits in the sales or holiday season: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year. Here’s an article that describes factors that affect your CPM.
Conclusion
Setting specific goals is the key to success, regardless of whether your ultimate goals are financial, personal, or based on some indicators (traffic, for example). Once you reach your SMART goal, you can expand and start knowing that your strategy is a solid foundation.
