The New Year is approaching fast, so it’s time we start talking about your goals. It’s undeniable that they play a key role in attaining success, they keep you excited and focused, and when you know what you need to do – you’re more likely to get it done. So, how should you strategically plan to crush your 2022 goals? You play it SMART.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Actionable
• Realistic
• Timed

Each word requires you to do some thinking. Grab a pen. Now that you’re ready, let’s fill this out.

Your goal(s) should be clear and specific. The clearer, the easier it will be for you to answer the five “W” questions:

• What do I want to accomplish?
• Why is this goal important?
• Who is involved?
• Where is it located?
• Which resources or limits are involved?

For example: If you’re a business owner that has a lot of competition, a specific goal would be, “I want to re-evaluate the marketing tactics around my business so we can become the top seller in my industry and community and continue to grow.”

Your past, current, and future stats should all be measurable. You need to be able to track your progress, see what is left to be desired, and work off what isn’t working. While you start getting into the new year, referring back to these measurables will help you stay on track and allow you to continue with what is working and strategize what isn’t.

Here, you will decipher the three “H’s”:

• How will I measure my progress?
• How many times I should check
• How will I know when I’ve accomplished my desired goals

For example: You might hire a marketing company to help you reach these goals, so trusting their team to keep track for you is key. Especially when they send you a monthly report, showing you the progress and what needs to be altered. 

Having a series of goals is great, especially when you’re heading into a new year. However, you want to make sure your goals are actionable and achievable. You can get ambitious, but make sure it’s not too ambitious and still allows you to take action.

You need to ask yourself:

• How can I crush this goal?
• How ambitious is the goal, based on any restraints – like financial factors.

For example: Based on your business’ financial situation, can you afford to hire a marketing team? Or evaluate your time; if you don’t have the bandwidth to strategically market your own business on your own, you know hiring a professional team to help you get to where you need to be quicker and successfully, is your best bet.

Being realistic and making sure it’s actionable goes hand-and-hand. You want to make sure your goals are, in fact, actionable, but you also want to make sure your goals are realistic. If they are not realistic, you’re going to have issues trying to achieve them. It’s also important to make sure your goals make sense to your business, currently. To figure that out, you should be able to answer ‘yes’ to these questions:

• Is this worth it?
• Am I in the right mindset to make these goals?
• Will this help with every aspect of my business?
• Do I believe this is the right next step for my business?
• Will I have the time to devote what is needed of me during the process?

For example: You want your business to top your competitors but is this the right time to re-evaluate and strategically figure out how to do that? Whether you try to do it on your own or hire a marketing company, what does your personal bandwidth look like? Cna you pull this off right now?

Each goal you make must have a deadline. If one of your goals is to have a better email marketing process with great results, you need to figure out what is feasible. For example, you can’t see that deadline 2 months from now, as you’ll need to trial and error and learn from results. So, you need to look through your goals and be able to answer these questions:

• When should I set each goals’ deadline?
• What can I do 3 months from now?
• What about 6 months from now?
• What can I do NOW?

For example: What can you do to prepare your business to top your competitors? First, if you’re going to hire a marketing company, you’ll need to do your research and book meetings ASAP. Second, if your goal is to re-brand or change your social game up, it might be a good idea to make an announcement on your social platforms like, “Great things are coming… stay tuned!” Also, make a spreadsheet with your goals and the ideal timeframe you desire to CRUSH them.

Now that you’ve learned how to play it SMART, it’s time to get the ball rolling. The sooner you can solidify goals and answer the questions above, the sooner you will get to crushing them. Three Summers Creative is a full-service creative marketing agency that obtains all of the skills, tools, knowledge, and experience you need to play it SMART with your business. Need to re-brand? We can do that. How about a new website design? We can take care of that too. Want to revamp your social? Say no more. Give us a call or reach out to us on our website, today. We’re excited to take on a new project and help you crush your goals.