In the A – Z of Marketing O is For Objectives

Why are objectives so important for your business? Over the past years at Appletree, there have been times when we were unsure as to what we want to achieve, we became sidetracked with chasing numbers and making money. Obviously that’s important in business, although it was not what was best for Appletree at the time. After working with S R Consulting, on a Business Plan we are now sure of where we are going at Appletree. We have clear objectives which means we can plan our marketing to achieve them.

The best way to get the greatest impact from objectives is to make them S.M.A.R.T objectives.

S.M.A.R.T objectives need to be thought about in a lot more detail than ordinary objectives and they enable you to have a clearly defined target of where you want your business to be. They allow you to set up ways to measuring the success of your objective. S.M.A.R.T means:

Specific. Your objective need to be specific. It cannot be vague and un-clear. Specific objectives have a much higher chance of success. To make your objectives specific you can use the six Ws: who, what, where, when and why.

Measurable. You need to have some concrete criteria for measuring the success of your objective. You should set up targets such as: How many shall I sell? How much should I make? By when should it be done?

Achievable. They can be made achievable by working out the steps to reaching the target. This can also help you figure out where the objective has failed in previous attempts.

Realistic. You need to ensure your objectives are realistic. There is no point in making an objective like ‘sell 200 pens in 1 month’ if you have only sold three pens in the last few years. A much more realistic objective would be ‘sell 4 pens a month.’

Timed. Your objectives need to have a detailed timescale or deadline to them. When you don’t have a time frame in place the objective can seem less important as time goes on and workers enthusiasm may slip.

To put these steps into action, take a look at an objective your business may have.  Something like:

‘Increase sales of new book’

Using the S.M.A.R.T objective steps think about how specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timed your objective is. After following the steps you should be able to come up with an improved S.M.A.R.T objective like:

‘Increase sales of new book by 25% by the end of June 2014’

These steps should help you change your original objectives into S.M.A.R.T objectives and help you and your business reach its goals more easily.

Do you use S.M.A.R.T objectives in your business?

Next time P is for … ?