“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter

Who hasn’t sat through (endured) a staff/department/team meeting where ideas flew like sparks from a
campfire? “You know what we could do?” “How about . . . ?” “Nah, not that but . . . Wait! I know!”
A million suggestions pop and crackle through the air. In the end, three ideas are randomly fanned into a
small flame. Maybe their promoter was the loudest or most convincing? The meeting adjourns
with a vague, “Report back next month.”

On what? How the concept didn’t even get off the ground because it had no structure and more
importantly, had not even been vetted?

Ideas are, by definition, thoughts or suggestions as to a possible course of action.
We know that not all ideas are good, and that’s fine. Tossing around thoughts and inklings and
notions gets our minds thinking. When ideas bounce off each other, they get tweaked and fine-tuned and
can emerge as plausible concepts. But we’re not finished yet—at least we shouldn’t be. Although too
often, as in the above-noted all-too-real scenario, the discussion is over. By some miracle, the very
vaguely defined ember is supposed to happen.

If an idea/concept/goal is worth pursuing, then it’s worth doing well. And that goes triple for marketing
strategies because otherwise, why bother? But, seriously, suppose you’re going to invest time, energy, and moolah
into a marketing campaign. In that case, it needs a solid foundation on which to build a logical form and a practical
structure in an organized fashion following vetted guidelines.

And that’s where the SMART marketing objective can help. Because you know you want to be smarter
about marketing, right?

First things first. Goals make any campaign or strategy vastly more successful, to the tune of 376% more
likely to succeed. But not just any goal will do. Because all goals are not created equally. The willy-nilly,
pulled-from-thin-air variety will be of little help. The same goes for goals that don’t register high enough
on the reality scale or aren’t subjected to a thorough unpacking. Such so-called “goals” don’t measure up
to the proven framework of the SMART objective. When used as a filter, the SMART mnemonic—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound—offers a smart way to vet the quality
of goals.

Let’s take a look at what these adjectives don’t indicate. In other words, what do un-smart goals look like?
(So, you’ll know what not to do!)

 Specific – Vague, ambiguous, generic goals lack the thinking-through details necessary
to have any impact. How can you know you’ve reached a goal that has no
specifics attached to it?

 Measurable – General “Let’s work harder and do better” type goals lack the substance to be
measured. How can its success be measured without a qualitative or quantitative attribute to the goal?

 Attainable – Shoot-for-the-moon goals that thrill the senses but fail the reality test based on the
current situation’s skills, resources, and timeframe are destined to fail. Why waste energy and
enthusiasm on something that has a major limp at the starting gate?

 Relevant – A goal can be an overall good, even great aspiration, but if it’s not
100% applicable to this specific scenario, it might as well head back to the stable. Until a time
when it meets the criteria spot-on.

 Time-bound – Let’s hit the specific, measurable, attainable, relevant goal by . . . hmm,
whenever. “Yeah, we’ll get there eventually.” Say what? That’s not the way to set smart
marketing goals. Go the distance and establish an end date.

Goals that don’t have a road map can end up like that family vacation experience when you were six. Dad
had a destination in mind, but so did Mom. Neither of them had time to formulate more than a vague plan,
with being so busy getting the bags packed, the chores done, and the house left in order. Neither
made the time for a thorough sit-down discussion, settling instead for hurried sentences tossed at each
other in passing. Neither secured a map (pre-GPS days) because the family had been that way some time
back, and surely the roads were still the same. But something went awry somewhere along the way.
(Imagine that!) The family arrived but not at either Mom’s or Dad’s destination. By the end of the
week—that quickly felt like 14 days—suffice it to say, you were begging to go home.

In the same way, a successful family vacation takes detailed planning, as does a specific marketing
campaign and, even more so, an overall marketing strategy. So, get SMART and make the most of the
time, energy, and money your company invests in marketing.

One of the smartest moves your staffing agency can make is to team up with ASJ Partners. Our decades
of experience in the industry, paired with your intricate knowledge of your community and clients, can’t
help but create a winning strategy that will raise your brand to the top. So reach out to our team today.