You cannot know if you have arrived if you do not know where you are going. This is especially true in construction marketing. Letting people be aware of your construction brand and services is never enough. In fact, it is tough, if not possible, to measure the results of your marketing campaign if you are not establishing your goals. We assumed you already heard the concept of SMART marketing goals. Many businesses worldwide, including construction, are now pushing for more SMART goals to drive their marketing strategies significantly.
But what does it all means? And why must you strive to make all your marketing goals SMART goals? Let us take a closer look at why your goals must be SMART, the most common metrics you can use, and some easy tips for setting up your SMART marketing goals that can significantly impact your construction business.
Why Should Your Goals Be SMART?
SMART is an acronym, short for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. SMART goals are more than just a simple marketing buzzword you often hear. By ardently following this framework of these goals, your construction business can set realistic goals and based on actual data.
The time you spend crafting SMART marketing goals will pay off in keeping your workers focused, and helping you understand whether your goals are on target, and figuring out how specific marketing efforts are performing.
Well-crafted marketing goals help you stay on track whenever there are challenges in your business and be less likely to run from fire to fire.
What are the SMART goals?
We have already shared with you what SMART goals mean and we will define each to understand how it works. So, to break this down even further, SMART goals are:
- Specific: When setting your goals, you have to make sure that these goals are clear, including what you are hoping to accomplish. Target a particular area for continuous improvement and include realistic deadlines and numbers. The more details you get, the better.
- Measurable: What KPIs and benchmarks can be used to measure your goal progress? Are there programs obtainable to integrate with your present marketing channels to measure the data of your goals?
- Attainable: Your goals are your stepping stones that are actionable and manageable. On the other hand, you want to make sure your goals are realistic and within your reach without risking demotivation or burnout from your team. It only shows that you should not settle for anything less or set the bar so low that it comprises the effectiveness of your efforts.
- Realistic: Always be straightforward. Make sure your goals are realistic for you and your team. These goals should fall within the ultimate goals for your business. If your construction business relies solely on your leads, you may want to focus on the goals to boost and qualify lead quality. Since your business is construction, you will only specify goals that improve your construction brand.
- Time-bound: Always give yourself a deadline as to when you want to achieve these goals. This helps you plan your tasks and see whether you are on target for hitting your goals.
Common Digital Marketing Metrics You Must Know
Digital marketing metrics are the data you acquire to analyze your campaign’s performance further. These metrics could vary based on your goals and the campaign you have in mind. It is important for you to remember that these metrics can either be classified as valuable or vanity. We will explain more below:
Vanity Metrics vs. Valuable Metrics
Vanity metrics refer to the results that usually look good on the surface level, but they do not make or break your current strategy. On the other hand, valuable metrics refer to the results that provide you with a much deeper understanding of your campaign’s weaknesses and strengths to make data-driven decisions and fully optimize based on your findings.
These two digital marketing metrics will tell you a story. Understanding what metrics are most relevant or valuable to your performance can help you achieve your marketing objectives and goals. To conclude, context is the key to vanity versus valuable metrics.
But, what can you categorize as a marketing goal? We present to you some of the common marketing goals of a construction company:
- Increase brand awareness
- Shorten the sales funnel
- Increase lead volume/quality
- Reduce the percentage of lost sales
- Increase the profitability
Creating Your SMART Marketing Goals
As you take time to craft your marketing goals, always keep the SMART framework. Here are some tips you can follow to create your SMART marketing goals effectively:
1. Use Specific Numbers
You have to build measurable goals. Let us say you want to increase your site traffic further and get a lot of leads. That is too vague because how will you ever know if you have reached these goals? Instead, say that you want to increase the site traffic by 25% by next year or that you desire a 35% increase in leads in 6 months.
The more details you can provide, the better.
2. Measure, Measure, Measure
Your goals might be specific, but you are out of luck if you cannot measure your results. So, always make sure that each goal has a measurable outcome and that you have enough data and the right tools required to measure marketing effectiveness.
3. Make them Attainable
For sure, you wanted to triple your sales within two months, just like any other business nowadays. However, that goal is rarely attainable. Building this kind of expectation is unrealistic. Setting unattainable goals waste can waste your time and the chance to create a sound marketing plan. Also, it can poorly impact the motivation and morale of your employee.
4. Make sure they are relevant
To put it simply, your target goals must strongly support your business objectives. Is your business trying to improve branding, emphasize Keyword Research, increase lead generation, or anything else? When you have a clear idea of your target objectives, you can set relevant goals that can help you get there.
5. Include Dates
You should include timelines for your goals. You want to probably increase the number of your email marketing campaigns to three per month or perhaps improve your target sales by 25% next year. Including timeline dates let you and your team know if your target goals are on track and when to solidify your marketing efforts to reach many goals within time.
6. Allow your goals to support one another
Great marketing goals tend to overlap rather than stand alone. Preferably, every goal you have now must be one piece of a larger construction marketing plan. Your target goals must complement each other and not detract from each other. For instance, if your goal is to change the design of your construction website, you might also focus on web development for functionality purposes.
7. Consider your budget
Do you ever consider doing 100 hours of marketing work per month within a 10-hour marketing budget? That is not even realistic. As soon as your target goals are set, determine the particular tasks you will have to do to accomplish your marketing goal. Make sure to create time estimates for every task too.
8. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
And as you work toward your SMART marketing goals, make sure to communicate your progress with the rest of the team constantly. Let everybody knows what challenges you are experiencing and what milestones you have already hit. Make sure everybody else on the team is comfortable doing the same thing.
Additional Tips for Setting Your SMART goals
Here are some additional tips we prepared only for you:
- There is always room for improvement in your marketing strategy, particularly when you set your marketing goals for the first time. Always keep working to improve further the level of details of your objectives and goals.
- Your efforts can yield different metrics. So, decide what metrics are more significant and applicable to your performance and measurements.
- Consistently following the rule of SMART marketing goals can help you understand more of the impact of your objectives and goals for your business.
Start Setting Your Own SMART Marketing Goals
Understanding the SMART framework is very crucial and it is equally important to know where to begin. So, how do you decide what is the most important? How can you effectively measure your progress? How will you know if your target goals are completely unrealistic and attainable?
Here at ConstructionMarketing.io, we know that SMART goal-setting can seem daunting at first. That is why we are here to help you. With our knowledge and experience, we can help you decide what type of goals you want to create, set realistic goals, and gather baseline data.
Achieving your goals comes so easy with our top online marketing services:
- Social media marketing
- Blog Content Creation
- Local SEO
- Web design and development
- Google My Business
Partner with us today! We are excited to exchange insights with you regarding your marketing goals!