Setting content marketing goals for your business is critical for online marketing success. Here are some tips to help you get started.
Take Stock
Take stock of the current state of your blog. What aspects are you happy with and which ones do you want to improve? Make a list of improvements and then prioritize them to see what goals you want to reach first.
Don't Set Goals for Other People
When creating content marketing goals it's easy to set these goals for other people instead of yourself. Remember your goals should not include getting a certain number of people to visit your blog or increasing your sales by a certain percentage. You can't control what other people do; only what you do.
Good content marketing goals are ones that are focused solely on your content creation work. Perhaps you want to create a certain number of guest blog posts in the coming year. Maybe you want to try out a certain number of new social networking channels. Maybe you want to write more often or perhaps you want to write a certain number of eBooks or whitepapers to go with your blog. These are just some of the many good goal options that focus on you, not on other people.
Assess Your Habits and Routines
As the old saying goes, “If you do thing the way you have always done them, you will get the results you've always gotten.” You will probably need to change some of your habits and routines in order to reach your writing goals.
Take the time to consider what schedule changes you will need to make in order to reach your new goals. These changes don't necessarily mean that you need to spend more time working; in fact, you may find that outsourcing some of your work to a professional content marketing agency such as Brandgy is the key to reaching your writing goals without neglecting important aspects of your business and personal life.
Be SMART
SMART stands for specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-bound. Once you've set your content writing goals, measure them against this principle to make sure they meet the criteria stated above.
Specific
Your goals need to be specific so you'll know if you've reached them or not.
Measurable
Your goals should involve numbers and metrics so you can clearly measure them.
Actionable
You have to be able to take action in order to reach your goals. If you can't take action to reach them, there is no point in setting them in the first place.
Realistic
You don't want to aim too low but you do need to make sure you can actually reach your goals. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for discouragement.
Time-bound
Set a time frame for reaching your goals. Depending on the nature of your goals, the time frame could be weeks, months or even years.
Break Your Goals Down
As was touched on above, each goal needs a time frame for its completion. However, the time frame does not need to be immediate or even in the near future. Bear in mind that it may take many years before you reach your long-term goals and that's OK. What matters is that you are taking steps in the right direction so that you will eventually reach your goals.
Break your goals down so you can work on them a bit each day or week. Doing so will help you know what to focus on each day and ensure that you are productive in your work. Breaking your goals down also gives you the encouragement you need to keep going in the right direction as you see the progress you are making towards reaching your content marketing goals.
Content Marketing Goals Assessment
Setting goals is not a one-time job that you do at the end of the year and then forget about until the next year. You will need to regularly asses the progress you are making towards your goals to see if you are heading in the right direction. Perhaps you begin working towards a goal and then realize part-way through that you are actually aiming at the wrong target. That's OK; simply stop what you are doing, decide where you need to go and then start taking steps towards getting there. If you discover your goal was unrealistic, change the goal or the time frame for reaching it. Conversely, if you reach a goal faster than you had originally planned, challenge yourself by setting a new goal.
Setting and reaching content marketing goals is both challenging and fulfilling. Take some time to have a look at this aspect of your work before the New Year and get in touch with us if you need some help in reaching your new goals. Our team can offer the practical assistance and encouragement you need to become the successful content marketer your company needs.
