What SMART Objectives Are and How to Apply Them

SMART objectives are goals written to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, and they let a marketing and sales team know exactly what it is pursuing, how it will know whether it succeeded and by when. When a company closes the year without the expected results, the useful question is not who failed but whether the efforts were based on clear objectives that made it possible to measure success.

Imagine the year-end meeting of a B2B services company. The sales manager presents sales, the marketing manager presents clicks and downloads, and the general manager asks whether all of that was good or bad. Nobody can answer with certainty, because the goal for the year was "to grow" and that word cannot be verified. If the result was not the desired one, there is no need to be so hard on yourself, because some years are different from all the previous ones. But it is worth asking whether the efforts were supported by clear objectives that helped measure success in the results.

When taking any action in a company it is important to ask what the objective is. Many companies seek results, but without a clear objective the team does not know where to direct its efforts, and strategies become ineffective because they are based on mistaken or unrealistic goals. ICX's experience shows that, in the first instance, companies either do not have clear objectives or do not know how to define them. That is why this article explains S.M.A.R.T. goals and how this acronym is implemented in practice, with the suggestion to keep the acronym in your head and use it when designing all your objectives. It covers what they are, why they matter in an inbound marketing strategy, how to set them and four concrete examples, and it can be read alongside the InboundCycle guide on smart objectives that ICX used as a reference, and with the research by Locke and Latham on goal setting.

What are SMART objectives?

SMART is a methodology that helps you not forget the essential elements when creating any effective objective. The term was first used by George T. Doran in 1981, in the article "There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives," published in Management Review in November of that year. In its original version the letters stood for specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related, and over the years variants became popular such as achievable instead of realistic and time-bound instead of time-related (APM, history of SMART goals). The version explained here, with Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound, is the one most used in marketing.

SMART objectives are necessary because having them clear helps you not lose your way day to day. Often, during daily tasks, unforeseen events or urgent tasks arise, and SMART objectives help keep the focus on what absolutely must be done or studied in order to measure the success of the strategies. Another advantage is that they give the whole team a point to aim at and, in that way, allow resources and time to be distributed better.

Goal-setting research supports this logic. In their 35-year review, Edwin Locke and Gary Latham conclude that specific and difficult goals produce better performance than simply asking people to do their best, with effect sizes between 0.42 and 0.80 in meta-analyses, provided there is commitment to the goal and feedback on progress. They also warn that the effect is smaller on very complex tasks, where people must first discover the right strategy (Locke and Latham, American Psychologist, 2002). The lesson for management is that a SMART goal is not enough without follow-up and a team committed to it.

Why are SMART objectives necessary in an Inbound Marketing strategy?

Today buyers are more informed than ever, and all their questions are a click away. They no longer need the company to find them, and traditional tactics have become increasingly obsolete, to the point that the only thing they end up achieving is driving buyers away. The way they buy has changed so much that they now do their own research, because the internet gives them the information they need, and this is where Inbound Marketing comes into play.

When the company provides relevant, quality, educational content, people come to it. If the strategy is carried out properly and with clear objectives for what you want to achieve, it is much more likely that those prospects will move through the funnel, become qualified prospects and, ultimately, paying customers. Therefore, SMART objectives must be very well defined and include specific metrics or KPIs on what you are trying to improve, in addition to being easy to quantify and measure. By being clear and concise, they eliminate the gray area in measuring results at the end of each period.

Think of a software company that publishes two articles per week without a defined goal. After six months it has a hundred articles and does not know whether they were useful. Another company with the same capacity decides to generate thirty qualified contacts per month from a downloadable guide, and after six months it knows which topic worked, how much each contact cost and what to repeat. The difference is not in the team's talent but in having written an objective that could be verified. Anyone who wants to see the full picture of a campaign can review the infographic of the 8 pillars of an Inbound Marketing campaign.

How do you set SMART objectives for your strategies?

Once you know what you want to achieve, do not forget that objectives must meet a series of characteristics, one for each letter of the acronym.

Specific

Be clear about your objective and leave no room for ambiguity. Each objective should be as well-defined as possible and consistent with your business, and the more specific it is, the better your control over what you intend to achieve. To get there, answer five questions. What, that is, detail what you expect to achieve. Which, that is, the resources needed to reach the objective, including the real obstacles that might prevent it. Who, that is, the person or people on the team who will make sure the objective is met, which in many cases is yourself. Where, that is, whether the objective is associated with a particular area of the business. And why, that is, what benefits you will obtain by completing it.

Measurable

The objective needs to help you know whether an action is going as planned. As attributed to William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, "what is not measured cannot be improved," and that is why the objective must be tied to a numerical value that lets you see the impact of the effort made by the team. Ask yourself which KPIs or indicators can be used to measure its efficiency, and remember that the more detailed an objective is, the easier it will be to track over time. To determine how you will measure the objective, ask yourself what numerical value you can assign to the result and how you will determine what a good result is or that the objective was met.

Achievable

How sure are you that the objective you developed can be reached? At this point honesty is very important, because objectives can be ambitious, but not impossible. Self-assess your company and your current metrics, and do not get discouraged by feeling that you fell short on an objective that was unrealistic from the start. An achievable objective answers four questions. How the goal can be reached. How feasible it is. Whether it is reasonable with respect to the company's internal and external situation. And whether you have the necessary skills and tools, without skipping any earlier stage or step.

An example shows what an unrealistic objective would look like when analyzing the company's current situation. Say you plan to increase website traffic to 2 million people by next month, but last month's visits were only 5,000. If the monthly increase has been just 10% in previous months, the sensible thing would be to reframe a more achievable objective, such as 6,000 people for next month. At the historical pace of 10% the expected result would be about 5,500 visits, so the figure of 6,000 represents a demanding but reasonable goal.

SMART Inbound Marketing objectives are feasible and realistic. Understanding benchmarks and prior analysis before setting objectives is key, because failing to define realistic objectives will make any subsequent measurement yield negative results and this will affect the company's morale. To learn those benchmarks in your site traffic you can rely on the ICX traffic and Pareto analysis toolkit, which helps identify the 20% of factors that generates 80% of the results.

Relevant

For an objective to be relevant it must be aligned with the company's overall strategy and mission. Choose an objective that matters. Relevance is also related to the objective's time limit. For example, if the company's objective is to increase profits, it makes sense to focus on improving the conversion rate. Several questions help. Why, which defines what it is about and whether it is important or not. Whether the individual objective is important for achieving the overall objective. Whether it is the right time to propose it and whether it is pertinent to the company's current position. Whether it fits the reality or context in which it finds itself. And whether carrying it out will help achieve what the company needs.

Time-bound

Objectives should not last forever. Setting an objective is about meeting it within a set period. Setting a deadline prevents certain tasks from being postponed by new problems that seem urgent, and pushes the team to commit and not lose focus. Find the right period by reviewing your previous metrics, and remember that goals must be achievable but challenging within the chosen time frame. When formulating the objective, ask yourself when it should be reached, what the timeline is, whether three months, six months or two years, and whether there are steps along the way that must be done first.

Examples of smart or SMART objectives

The first example is about website traffic. The specific part is to increase the web page's traffic. The measurable part is knowing the current amount of organic traffic and the percentage increase sought for next month. The achievable part is resolved by asking whether there is attractive content for those people to visit the site. The relevant part is answered by what the company would gain from having more traffic. And the time frame is one week.

The second example is about actions to improve lead capture. The specific part is to increase the number of qualified leads through the website. The measurable part is to get 30 new leads. The achievable part is to offer a new ebook as gated content. The relevant part is to increase potential customers. And the time frame is one month.

The third example is about increasing online sales. The specific part is to increase sales of a particular item. The measurable part is to achieve 25% more sales. The achievable part is to go from 2,000 to 2,500 units per month. The relevant part is to grow the portfolio of new customers in order to begin the expansion of a new plant. And the time frame is the next three months.

The fourth example is about branding and attraction. The specific part is to increase the attractive content on the site. The measurable part is to publish three blogs per week. The achievable part is for each team member, three people in total, to write one blog per week. The relevant part is to improve the site's SEO and its indexing in search results. And the time frame is the next twelve months.

How to make sure objectives are met

Now that you know how to set your company's SMART goals, it is important to make sure they are being achieved. There are many ways to increase the chances of reaching them. One technique is to post these objectives on an internal wall within the company or include them in weekly meetings, on the condition that they are visible. Another is to keep the team focused, because setting the objective is only half the battle. A clear action plan, with deliverables for each team member, lets everyone know how to start the process and work efficiently toward the same objectives, and gives them a clear understanding of the expectations and the path to get there.

The goal literature adds a nuance worth incorporating into the follow-up routine. Locke and Latham found that goals accompanied by periodic feedback outperform goals without it, because people need to know their progress in order to adjust effort or strategy (Locke and Latham, 2002). In practice, this translates into a short weekly review of each indicator, with an owner who explains deviations and proposes adjustments.

What it means for senior management

For the general manager, SMART objectives are a governance tool more than a writing tool. They let the committee distinguish between activity and result, allocate budget based on evidence and compare team performance in a common language. An objective that cannot be measured cannot be defended before the board, and one that has no deadline becomes a permanent intention.

They also demand an alignment decision. Each marketing objective, such as traffic, leads or content, should be connected to a sales objective, such as opportunities or revenue, and this to a company objective, such as margins or growth. When that chain exists, the team understands why it publishes three blogs per week, and when it does not exist, the effort is perceived as an expense. Management should ask for that chain in writing before approving the annual plan.

How to start on Monday morning

Gather the sales and marketing team for one hour and take the three most important objectives of the quarter. For each one, write a single sentence that contains all five letters, that is, what will be achieved, what figure demonstrates it, with what resources, why it matters and by when. Discard or rewrite any objective that lacks one of the five.

Then, define a weekly dashboard with a single indicator per objective, an owner and a review date. Place that dashboard somewhere visible, whether a wall or a shared screen, and devote ten minutes of the weekly meeting to reviewing it. At the close of the quarter compare what was achieved with what was planned and record what you would change in the next objective, because that learning is the real asset.

How ICX helps

ICX Consulting, a commercial strategy and customer experience firm headquartered in Miami, supports companies in defining measurable objectives for their marketing and sales teams, and in configuring the dashboards that allow them to be tracked. The work includes planning inbound marketing strategies, designing indicators and, when appropriate, automating them in HubSpot. If you would like to review whether your company's objectives meet the five criteria, request a diagnostic with an ICX consultant.

Frequently asked questions

What does the acronym SMART stand for?

It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. In Doran's original 1981 proposal the letters were specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related.

Who created SMART objectives?

George T. Doran introduced them in 1981 in Management Review, in an article aimed at those who write management goals and objectives.

Why must an objective be achievable?

Because an impossible objective demotivates the team and makes any subsequent measurement look like a failure. The goal can be ambitious, but it must start from current metrics and from the resources the company has.

How often are SMART objectives reviewed?

It is advisable to review them weekly in a short meeting and evaluate them at the close of each period. Frequent feedback makes it possible to correct course before the deadline arrives.

A well-written objective turns an intention into a verifiable commitment, and that difference usually separates teams that explain results from those that achieve them. If you want your commercial and marketing goals to be clearly measurable, talk to an ICX consultant and review together where to start.