Set Smart-er goals

Andy Ball, managing director at Balls2 Marketing, says: be Smart with your marketing goals for 2022.

New year, new me. Most of us say this every January to some extent; this is the year I will eat healthier, exercise more or finally learn that instrument I’ve been meaning to for the last few years.

We’ve all been there. Falling into the trap of setting ourselves a new year’s resolution that, more often than not, goes out the window after a few weeks.

This puts many of us off even attempting New Year’s resolutions in the first place. The reason so many of us fail though, is that the resolutions we are setting aren’t the right ones.

Resolutions such as ‘I want to get fitter’ are too vague and we struggle to see our progress, as it’s difficult to measure success. If you changed it to something like ‘I want to go to the gym three times a week’, it will be much easier to achieve. This is an example of a Smart goal: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound.

This same principle can be applied to your marketing goals. This month, most of us will be planning our marketing strategies for 2022, and setting goals is often the first step of any plan, so it’s important to set the right ones.

Taking the time to set goals that tick all these boxes will make it easier to improve and measure your progress throughout the year so you can stay on track.

Once you have nailed down that goal, it’s easier for everything else to fall in place.

You can then narrow it down into short-term, medium-term and long-term tasks to help you know exactly what you need to do over the next week as well as the next few months. And when you look back on how you are getting on, you have something to measure against.

So, if you want to get the most from your marketing strategy this year, don’t make the same mistake as you do with your new year’s resolutions. Be Smart to help you achieve your goals.