As a content marketer, it’s not sufficient to simply research, write, publish, and repeat. It is vital for you to constantly measure the impact which your content marketing is having on your company. In order to ensure that your content marketing is making the impact that you want it to have, you must have the correct content marketing strategy.
Content marketing goals are highly individualised. Your digital marketing priorities are heavily influenced by the size of your business, budget, available resources, previous tests and outcomes, plus many other factors that vary from business to business. In order to attain the most out of your content marketing strategy, you need to establish what your specific goals as well as tie them to the correct KPIs.
Setting The Right Goals To Meet Your Objectives
Whether you are working on your overall content marketing plan, or a particular part within it, it’s vital that you have clear objectives as well as objectives for each element in your strategy. These goals should be distinctly defined as well as realistic. In addition, you should be able to reach them within an acceptable time frame.
SMART objectives are simple as well as quick to learn. The objective is the beginning point of the marketing plan. Objectives which are SMART should seek to answer the question ‘Where do we want to go?’.
The purpose of SMART objectives include:
- To enable an organisation to control its content marketing plan.
- To assist with motivating individuals as well as teams to reach a common goal.
- To provide an agreed, consistent focus for all functions of a company.
Here’s what S.M.A.R.T is short for:
- Specific – Your goals should be clearly set out.
- Measurable – Your goals should be ascertainable so that you know when you’ve reached them or, alternatively, how far away from them you are.
- Achievable – You should be able to actually achieve your goals. They shouldn’t be unattainable ‘hopes’.
- Relevant/Realistic – Your content marketing goals should be relevant to your overall business goals.
- Time-sensitive – Your goals should be able to be achieved within a reasonable time period.