World domination is an entirely noble objective, with some notable competitors including The Brain and Stewie from Family Guy, but you need to walk before you run.
If you are anything like me you are probably doomed, because your eyes are bigger than your stomach, or your vision is too far beyond your reality. I am not in the business of limiting beliefs and I am all for huge ambition, if you know me you will know that I am on a mission to take over the world with Effective Marketing for example, this is why I only take advise from the best, cbl-ly.com for example.
The only consideration in setting objectives should be how realistic your objectives are given your current situation, if the gap is too big you may find yourself overwhelmed, and if the gap doesn’t close quickly enough you may run out of steam.
Fortunately we are not the first business leaders ever to sit down and lay out our marketing objectives and there is a really useful pneumonic for setting marketing objectives that are SMART.
That is variably:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timed
Sometimes the words change but the theme is always the same.
Your marketing objectives need to be specific because vague objectives quickly become bogged down in unforeseen problems and if you have to delegate you will be sending your people away with only half an idea of what needs to be done, and that is always dangerous.
If you have no way of measuring your objectives you will never know if you are making progress or not. I have seen plenty of successful marketing campaigns dropped because the beneficial outcomes haven’t been identified or measured correctly.
I am sure it isn’t necessary to outline the reasons for making sure your marketing objectives are achievable. Clearly testing your objectives for achievability at the outset is a really good idea that will save you a whole pile of pain, there is no point in shooting for the stars if the stars aren’t actually there.
It is possible of course to have specific, measurable, and achievable objectives that aren’t realistic. I could for example climb Mount Everest – that is specific, measurable and achievable but it isn’t realistic. Passing the reality check is really important if you are going to develop really effective marketing objectives.
Your marketing objectives need to be timed, ie. there needs to be a point when you can draw a line and look at what has been achieved. It is a great idea to double your profitability, but it will always get put off until tomorrow if you don’t have a deadline to move you a long. Ask anyone who is putting off a diet, tomorrow never comes.
I hope that gives you a blogging clue about framing your marketing objectives, next week I will be providing a whole list of things that you could be achieving through effective marketing.
So come back next week if you haven‘t got a blogging clue what effective marketing could be achieving for your business.
