Goal setting is one of the most important stages of digital marketing.

Actually, let me rephrase that.

Goal setting is the single most important phase of digital marketing.

Think about it this way – what’s the point of doing something as strategic, complex, and creatively taxing as digital marketing if you don’t know what you’re trying to get out of it? How will you know what direction you need to take with your efforts? How will you know when you get where you’re wanting to go?

See what I mean?

Everything in digital marketing rises and falls on the strength of your goals – which is why we want to help you get them right. Take a look at our five attributes that all laundry marketing goals should have, and then start setting your own.

Spynr’s 5 Laundry Marketing Goals to Live By:

#1: Make Goals Specific

It’s far too easy to set goals in broad terms like “make more money” or “get more customers”. While those are certainly goals, they aren’t very helpful when it comes to providing motivation or facilitating a plan of action.

There’s also no end in sight with these goals, so you can never really know the level to which you’ve achieved them.

Take aim at very specific aspects of your business that need to improve when you sit down to set goals. If you want more customers, put a number to it. Need to make more money? Put a figure down on paper. If you’d like to have a better social media presence, then be honest with yourself about what that looks like for you.

The less ambiguous your goal, the better chance you have of achieving it.

#2: Set Goals that are Measurable

Measurability of goals addresses an area that businesses tend to trip up on in early stages of goal setting.

This is vital though. How will you know that you’ve achieved your goals if you’re not willing or able to measure how you’re doing?

In traditional business arenas, like revenue and new customers, measurability can be pretty simple. It’s easy to track how many customers you have per day, how much money you’re making, and so forth. However, when those same businesses sit down to set goals for digital marketing, they tend to set “safe”, unmeasurable goals like “Grow our Social Media” or “Get more Likes”. Those aren’t goals, they’re a wish list.

Set specific targets for your business. Have less “We want more customers” type of wishes, and instead say “We want 10 new customers per month.” Then you’re setting solid, measurable goals.

#3: Keep them Attainable

Every now and then when we help a business set goals, they’ll put down excessive figures that even they know aren’t possible. The thought behind these goals is usually along the lines of “we know these goals will push us, even if it’s not quite possible to meet them.”  While it seems great, this mentality is far more damaging than most people want to think.

You shouldn’t place expectations ob your business and employees that are simply unattainable. That philosophy is ultimately demoralizing. If you set goals that you know you can’t meet every year, then eventually you’ll stop trying to push to meet them. When the expectation is for the goals to be left unmet, then no one will put forth the effort to achieve or surpass them.

Aim high with your goals, but not so high that you send your business crashing down when you don’t meet them.

#4: Stay Realistic With Your Limits

Along the same line of thinking, you need to stay within the bounds of your business when setting goals. While it’s tempting to look at the degrees of success that others have, you want to make sure that any goal you’re aiming towards fits inside the business you already have.

Consider the state of your business’s infrastructure, customer base, and online audience when making a decision on your goals. If you’ve created an actionable plan to diversify and offer new services or products, then that’s great. If you haven’t, then don’t expect your company to perform well without time to adapt.

#5: Set Time Boundaries

Timing with goals is another aspect we see neglected because it’s the ultimate form of accountability.

You should ask yourself: How long do I want to give myself to meet these goals? Creating a time limit is important because it again emphasizes responsibility and a sense of urgency.

Remember to be specific here too. If you only set a yearly goal without monthly or quarterly checkups, you risk creating an unmotivated environment for the first 11 months of the year, and then a mad year-end rush in December. That mentality never works out well.

Put down incremental goals for your business to achieve in the next 1, 3, 6, or 12 months. However you decide to break up your goals, benchmarks will help you stay focused and motivated to get the job done.

Goals are the really and truly the lifeblood of growth. You really can’t succeed in the digital world without them. If you need some help setting your business’s next milestones, keep in mind that the Spynr team is always around to help!