Unclear goals get unclear results. If you’ve been feeling stuck or like you’ve not been making enough progress in your business, it could well be that you need to set SMARTER goals.
Today we’re diving into how you can amp up your goals so that you can improve your marketing productivity and make massive progress in your business.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Michael Hyatt
Content Strategy from Scratch Workbook
Daily Achievers’ Weekly Action Planner
[Theresa] If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, then you know how we feel about setting effective goals.
If this is your first visit with us, I’ll sum it up for you. In order for you to achieve the success you desire without the drama and overwhelm, you must begin by creating clear and effective goals.
[Meghan] That’s right. If you want to make consistent, steady progress in your business and your marketing, then you need to set smarter goals. That means thinking about what you want so that you can craft clear goals. Goals that you actually write down in order to properly plan a path for achievement.
The Facts About Setting Goals
[Theresa] There is a ton of research on the topic of setting effective goals. So, don’t just take our word for it.
Gail Matthews’ Goals Research Summary found that those who wrote down their goals were 20% more likely to accomplish them.
This same study also found that those who created actionable tasks for their goals and sent weekly reports to an accountability partner achieved 40% more than those who didn’t.
[Meghan] Those are significant numbers. Imagine what it would mean for your business and livelihood if you were able to perform 40% better! But that’s not all.
Locke and Latham studied the effects of goal setting over an 11 year period. They found in 90% of the studies they conducted that those who set relevant and challenging goals outperformed those who set easy goals.
Those with written goals are 20% more likely to accomplish them.
[Theresa] Also interesting was a study conducted by the University of Texas. Their results proved the correlation between persistence in business and goal setting. In other words, a person’s goals were what drove their continued effort. As a result, those people with clear, relevant goals achieved more success.
[Meghan] In all of the studies we looked at, there was one consistent theme — goal clarity. That makes sense, right? Because before you can set smarter goals, you need to get clear on what you want those goals to be.
Without clear goals, you can’t possibly hope to take the right actions and do the work that matters.
The Consequences of Unclear Goals
[Theresa] When you don’t set clear goals, there will be ramifications. Some of the consequences to your business are:
- Unidentifiable priorities
- Decreased marketing productivity
- Loss of time
- Doing unnecessary work
- Ineffective marketing efforts
- Ending up where you don’t want to be
I can tell you from first-hand experience that it’s crushing to realize that you’ve built a business you don’t want. That is exactly what happened to me.
I kinda sorta knew what I wanted to do. But I never spent time truly thinking about what I wanted from business and life. So, I never had any concrete long or short term goals.
If I did, I would have been able to make a plan to achieve them. That plan would have helped me do work that mattered and stay on my path. Or at least quickly identify when I strayed from it.
Instead, I didn’t just get off track. I wasn’t anywhere near a track to begin with. I wasn’t heading in a direction I wanted to go, I was led willingly someplace else chasing all the shiny objects. Simply because I had unclear, wishy-washy goals.
[Meghan] I had a similar experience with my previous brand Smart Bird Social. We’ve gone through this!
So believe us when we say that when you have unclear goals there aren’t just professional consequences. There are emotional ones as well. Some of those are:
- Lack of confidence
- Being unmotivated
- Diminished sense of purpose
- Increased frustration
- Shortage of creativity
As you can see, there are many unpleasant results of not setting clear goals. But don’t worry. We’ve got you!
While the best time to set goals for your business was at the beginning, the second best time is right now. And that’s what we’re going to help you do today — set SMARTER goals.
SMART Goals vs SMARTER Goals
[Theresa] You’re probably familiar with SMART goals. A quick Google search will yield hundreds of millions of results.
Today, however, we’re going to introduce the concept of SMARTER goals. This is a concept I was introduced to by Michael Hyatt, who has authored several books on leadership, productivity and goal setting.
We’re going to do something a little tricky for a podcast. At least I think so. And that is to explain the similarities and differences between SMART and SMARTER goals.
I’d like to add here, that there is nothing wrong with setting SMART goals. If you’ve been doing that for your business already, you’re in great shape. Just think of SMARTER goals as kicking your SMART goals up a notch.
OK…here we go!
What is a SMART Goal?
[Meghan] Let’s start with a quick review of what SMART goals are. SMART is an acronym that stands for:
Specific: goals that are clear, precise, defined
Measurable: goals that have specific criteria to help you measure your progress
Achievable: goals possible to achieve
Realistic: goal within reach and relatable
Timely: goals with a clear, defined timeline or deadline
A SMART goal takes a target that is ambiguous and makes it clear. When you have clear goals, it’s easier to achieve them.
What is a SMARTER Goal?
[Theresa] Right. But what do you get when you take SMART goals and make them even better? You get SMARTER goals.
SMARTER, also an acronym, stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Relevant
Time-keyed
Exciting
Risky
In the SMARTER version of goals setting, Specific and Measurable remain the same, but the rest of the acronym changes.
What’s Different About SMARTER Goals?
Achievable is replaced with Actionable. Rather than asking yourself if you’re able to achieve the goal, you instead ask yourself if you can take action on it. That gets you to think about the possible steps you can take.
Realistic is replaced with Relevant. You’re still considering whether or not a goal is something within reach. However, you’re also paying attention to whether or not the goal is relevant to your bigger picture. In other words, will this goal get me to where I want to be?
Timely is replaced with Time-keyed. Instead of only focusing on a timeline or deadline, you’ll consider every way you can add time to a goal. There are many ways to time-key a goal. For example, you could add a:
- Specific time of day
- Day of the week
- Number of days to completion
- Due date
- Number of times something occurs
- Measurement
In order to set SMARTER goals, you now have two more categories because there are two more letters!
The “E” stands for Exciting. Your goals should excite you in some way. That excited feeling can come from the anticipation of its completion or from what achieving that goal will help you do, have or be.
Goals that are exciting foster motivation — even in the most trying of times.
And last, but not least is the addition of a second “R” for Risky. Remember this piece of research that we mentioned in our opening: People who set relevant and challenging goals outperform those who set easy goals.
I always say that a goal should be achievable, but take your breath away a little bit. Of course, you don’t want to take a risk so big that you’re guaranteed to fail. But don’t be afraid to stretch a bit outside of your comfort zone.
Whew! That was a lot. How did we do?
[Meghan] I think that went pretty well.
What will make this even better is an example!
[Theresa] I totally agree. Meghan is going to get us started.
How to Set SMARTER Goals
[Meghan] Let’s say that you’ve been thinking about growing your email list.
While it’s a great idea, it’s not a goal. It’s too vague and obscure. So let’s take this idea and turn it into a SMART goal:
I will add 100 subscribers to my email list this year.
This goal certainly meets the SMART goal criteria of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. However, it could be much better.
[Theresa] Let’s set a SMARTER goal instead:
I will add 1500 new, relevant subscribers to my email list over the next 90-days via monthly webinars and bi-monthly guest blogging opportunities.
Do you see the difference?
It’s Specific in the following ways:
- The number of subscribers you wish to add
- How you plan to add those subscribers
- The addition of the word “relevant” to describe the type of subscribers you’re looking for
This goal checks off the Measurable category.
It’s clearly Actionable because it states the specific activities that will be used to grow the list — webinars and guest podcasting.
It’s certainly Relevant because the overall goal will help you achieve the idea of growing your list.
The following criteria make this goal Time-keyed:
- 90-days
- Monthly
- Bi-monthly
Now, is this goal Exciting? Yes! Adding 1500 subscribers in 90-days is a bit more challenging than adding 100 subscribers in a year. Right?
How about Risky? It sure is as it’s a much loftier aspiration. But playing it safe won’t reap the reward.
[Meghan] That’s so true. We hope that you’ve followed along today and are inspired to set your own SMARTER goals. It’s an easy technique that will help you design highly effective goals. This means more progress in the direction you want to go.
And, since we’re talking about setting goals, I just want to throw this in here too. The free Content Strategy from Scratch workbook helps you set goals for your content marketing. I’ve created this workbook specifically for those of you who have trouble with this stuff! In fact, I’ve given you multiple choice goals that are nearly done for you. So, download that workbook if you need help setting content goals.
It’s Never Too Late to Set SMARTER Goals
Okay, so if you’ve been operating without goals in your business, it’s time to take action. You can’t do anything about the past. All you can do is move forward from today.
[Theresa] That’s right! Consider setting SMARTER goals for your business so you:
- Have a clear direction
- Can plan with ease
- Improve your marketing productivity
- Increase your focus
- Make decisions easier
- Gain personal satisfaction
- Make substantial progress
- And so much more
Schedule some time to think about what you want to achieve in your business. That will make the goal creation process easier and much more fun.
You can do it!
If you need some help with organizing your day, get my Daily Achievers’ Weekly Action Planner. I’ll link to it in the show notes and on the website.
That’s it for today, friends.
Do you set goals for your business? Let us know in the comments.
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