Since the early days of the Web, many busniesses praise its merits, including the ability to measure everything. We can measure clicks, downloads, sales, mouse movements, the number of time spent on the page, in short, not bad at all! It is easy to see quickly overwhelmed by an incredible amount of information. Every week I hear leaders tell me they are afraid to connect to their performance measurement tool simply because it is easy to get lost with the data surplus!
The solution: we must stop calculate everything, and instead focus on what has value for your business. This value is set by your goal of why you are on the web. Yet, especially in the world of small business, many companies have no targets. At the beginning of the strategic planning process, the famous reply "Getting more customers and sales" often comes up. Honestly, we are in business to something other than that?
It's time to update your web goals and think SMART!
A goal S.M.A.R.T. is defined by five characteristics: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-. Use SMART goals allows you to prevent them from being vague and they do not realize.
The solution: we must stop calculate everything, and instead focus on what has value for your business. This value is set by your goal of why you are on the web. Yet, especially in the world of small business, many companies have no targets. At the beginning of the strategic planning process, the famous reply "Getting more customers and sales" often comes up. Honestly, we are in business to something other than that?
It's time to update your web goals and think SMART!
A goal S.M.A.R.T. is defined by five characteristics: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-. Use SMART goals allows you to prevent them from being vague and they do not realize.
Having a goal is as essential as having a GPS in your car: it allows us to guide our way. The more specific you, the more likely you are to get there. Besides, if you've ever used a GPS, you know that there is a difference between getting to "Montreal" or go to the "2990 Notre-Dame Street West." It's the same with your goal. Having more sales, that's fine, but having $ 50,000 sales and more is better!
Having a specific goal is to think about:
Who will be involved?
What exactly you want to accomplish with this objective?
Where will this goal?
When is this going to happen?
What do you need to accomplish?
Why do you want to accomplish this goal?
If your goal is too vague (for example, I want to draw traffic to my website) it's probably because you forgot to set criteria to measure it. These criteria are your key performance indicators (KPIs English), and they allow you to accurately measure the achievement of your goals.
Questions such as "How much? "" How can I know if my goal is reached? "Or" What is the limit of my goal? "Allow you to define your performance indicators. For example, if your goal is to increase the involvement of visitors on a blog, it is possible to use indicators such as the number of shares of your articles on social networks, the number of comments left to measure performance. More sharing rate articles is high and the better the feedback, the more one considers the visitor engagement is strong.
Take another example. You decide to open a cat photo sharing site where people can open an account and easily add photos of their favorite animal. The performance indicators related to this objective are the number of shared photos, but also the number of account openings, as it must have an account to add a photo.
Objectives and performance indicators are linked. We must establish the indicators according to the objective. This is the most effective way to be able to measure and thus whether it was achieved or not.
Achievable
In addition to being specific and measurable, your goal should also be achieved. Although your goal may sometimes seem ambitious, only you can judge him according to your abilities and your resources. This is why it is useful to make a list of what you need to achieve your goal and thus to successfully estimate a budget accordingly.
It should also take the time to identify barriers that may impede the achievement of the objective. What hurt you? Be prepared to make a formal commitment to achieve your goal and if necessary make the changes needed to win success. Otherwise, think about changing your goal.
Realistic
A realistic goal means that it is adapted to your reality. Although a goal may be attainable if it is too demanding, or too much demand major changes to your business, it is not realistic. For example, a 25% increase in your traffic may be attainable, but if you have not updated your site for five years, it would be unrealistic to think that your goal is valid.
More objective web is connected to the overall objectives of the company, the more realistic because it is among the company's priorities. Whether at the market positioning, growth in market share and revenues or to be able to distinguish themselves from the competition, the web should be able to contribute to the overall strategy of the company.
Your goal should be time-limited, meaning that it must have a deadline. Setting a timetable motivates you to take action: When you do not set a deadline, there is no pressure to achieve the goal.
What can you do NOW to achieve your goal? In 2 weeks? In 3 months? The important thing is to set a timetable. Do not be afraid to adjust your aim and timing based on the results. And once reached, do not forget you fit a new!
An example S.M.A.R.T.
Let the classical goal of "Having more customers" under a SMART glance Your revenue is currently 2 million. You decide you want to have an increase of 5% of your turnover (S) by selling your products on your ecommerce site. If your shopping cart average is $ 100, this means that you will need 1,000 new sales (M), which is attainable (A) and realistic (R) if you consider that this objective must be achieved in next 12 months (T).
And yours ...
Be careful not to have too many goals, otherwise it will become difficult to establish your priorities. You'll never have the feeling of having done and you will probably always seem to feel overwhelmed.
Having a specific goal is to think about:
Who will be involved?
What exactly you want to accomplish with this objective?
Where will this goal?
When is this going to happen?
What do you need to accomplish?
Why do you want to accomplish this goal?
If your goal is too vague (for example, I want to draw traffic to my website) it's probably because you forgot to set criteria to measure it. These criteria are your key performance indicators (KPIs English), and they allow you to accurately measure the achievement of your goals.
Questions such as "How much? "" How can I know if my goal is reached? "Or" What is the limit of my goal? "Allow you to define your performance indicators. For example, if your goal is to increase the involvement of visitors on a blog, it is possible to use indicators such as the number of shares of your articles on social networks, the number of comments left to measure performance. More sharing rate articles is high and the better the feedback, the more one considers the visitor engagement is strong.
Take another example. You decide to open a cat photo sharing site where people can open an account and easily add photos of their favorite animal. The performance indicators related to this objective are the number of shared photos, but also the number of account openings, as it must have an account to add a photo.
Objectives and performance indicators are linked. We must establish the indicators according to the objective. This is the most effective way to be able to measure and thus whether it was achieved or not.
Achievable
In addition to being specific and measurable, your goal should also be achieved. Although your goal may sometimes seem ambitious, only you can judge him according to your abilities and your resources. This is why it is useful to make a list of what you need to achieve your goal and thus to successfully estimate a budget accordingly.
It should also take the time to identify barriers that may impede the achievement of the objective. What hurt you? Be prepared to make a formal commitment to achieve your goal and if necessary make the changes needed to win success. Otherwise, think about changing your goal.
Realistic
A realistic goal means that it is adapted to your reality. Although a goal may be attainable if it is too demanding, or too much demand major changes to your business, it is not realistic. For example, a 25% increase in your traffic may be attainable, but if you have not updated your site for five years, it would be unrealistic to think that your goal is valid.
More objective web is connected to the overall objectives of the company, the more realistic because it is among the company's priorities. Whether at the market positioning, growth in market share and revenues or to be able to distinguish themselves from the competition, the web should be able to contribute to the overall strategy of the company.
Your goal should be time-limited, meaning that it must have a deadline. Setting a timetable motivates you to take action: When you do not set a deadline, there is no pressure to achieve the goal.
What can you do NOW to achieve your goal? In 2 weeks? In 3 months? The important thing is to set a timetable. Do not be afraid to adjust your aim and timing based on the results. And once reached, do not forget you fit a new!
An example S.M.A.R.T.
Let the classical goal of "Having more customers" under a SMART glance Your revenue is currently 2 million. You decide you want to have an increase of 5% of your turnover (S) by selling your products on your ecommerce site. If your shopping cart average is $ 100, this means that you will need 1,000 new sales (M), which is attainable (A) and realistic (R) if you consider that this objective must be achieved in next 12 months (T).
And yours ...
Be careful not to have too many goals, otherwise it will become difficult to establish your priorities. You'll never have the feeling of having done and you will probably always seem to feel overwhelmed.