• Precise – Goals must be written clearly and make reference to a specific area of the business. Rather than: “This year, we’ll improve our online marketing,” contemplate how much more effective and goal oriented “By the end of Q2 2019, we will have 30% more engaged followers and a 15% increase in website traffic” is. When creating your On-Brand goal, be as concise and specific as possible. The more specific the goal, the more likely you are to achieve it.
• Quantifiable – Quantifiable goals can actually be measured and, as a result, tracked. In the example above, increasing website traffic by 15% is measurable, increasing engaged followers by 30% is measurable. You are able to identify the starting point (current following/current website traffic) and whether you have reached the end result (current following + 30%/current traffic + 15%).
• Achievable – On-Brand goals must be realistically attainable based on your existing skills, resources, and timeframe. If you received 500 visits to your company website last month, you can’t reasonably expect to get 50,000 visits the next month. Similarly, if you’ve generated an average of 10 leads every month, jumping to 2,000 leads in one month is unlikely. Many businesses do this to push employees to “go as far as they possibly can.” (Sound familiar?) In reality, all this does is discourage. On-Brand goals are goals you can actually achieve. They encourage success.
• Relevant – To be effective, On-Brand goals must be relevant to the business. If the goals focus on a result that the business can’t handle, the goal is irrelevant. For example, if your current website can’t handle more traffic, you may want to rethink your goal to increase web traffic by 15%. Perhaps the goal becomes needing to identify and implement a new website solution within the next three months.
• Time-based or Time-Bound – Goals must have a deadline or time frame by which they should be achieved. Without that specific deadline, the goal becomes a moving target and unlikely to be reached. If you are looking to increase your website traffic by 15%, how you reach that goal will differ depending on whether you intend to do so in 3 months or in 3 years.
• Identifiable – After your goals have been implemented, your target audience must be able to readily and easily identify the source of the content they are engaging with. This means that careful planning must go into every design aspect of what is put out to the world and how this information will be perceived. For example, if you are looking to increase your engaged followers by 30%, you must keep in mind that your content is not the only one they are seeing. Therefore, is everything they are seeing in that moment completely brand related? Will you have made a lasting impression? Is it worthy of sharing?
• Valuable – People rarely remember what you said or did, but they remember how you made them feel. Trust is the most important currency in the 21st century, and the person you’re serving must feel the genuineness of your character and experience your competence first hand. Generate value for others three times before asking for anything in return. If your service is unique, your brand will be solidified.
• Consistent – A brand is a promise of an experience and is directly connected to trust. If you want to build a successful brand, first be clear on the brand personality. What are the ABC’s: attributes, behaviors and characteristics of the brand? Then ensure that every interaction a client has with the brand infuses those ABC’s into it. Consistency builds trust and solidifies the brand.
