You need more than just SMART goals

Hey 👋

Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #13 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.

I’m back - 5lb heavier and with 36 New Year Resolutions.

I hope you enjoyed a few festive weeks off.

As it’s early January, we’ll start with goal setting; which goals will increase your chances of digital success in 2024?

👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.

📩 And if you’ve been forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

Before we get to the main event, if you’re looking to start 2024 on the front foot, revisit the last couple of newsletters here:

> Content is the key to success in 2024

> 2024 social media trends

Don’t set stupid goals 🎯

We all know the importance of S.M.A.R.T goals.

But the most common goal-setting error isn’t setting ‘unsmart’ (stupid?) goals, it’s only setting passive goals.

Let me explain…

Most of the goals we set are results based:

• Grow social media following by 30%

• Increase website conversion rate to 8%

• Hit £10,000 donations per campaign

They are helpful to aim at, but they are end goals. Final results. 🏁

We only know we’ve hit them when it’s over.

When we set these types of goal, we’re leaving a big gap between where we are at the moment and where we want to be.

Which leads me to the importance of lead goals and lag goals.

What I’ve described above are lag goals.

They’re important, but much less effective without lead goals.

A lead goal is something that will directly contribute to the success of a lag goal. It’s a goal that signifies progress, not an end result.

Let’s take “grow social media following by 30%” as an example.

Some lead goals might be:

• Run one collaborator campaign per month

• Create 3 IG reels per week

• Increase reach by 50%

• Hit follower conversion rate of 10%

Lead goals are not your strategy, they are not your plan - they are added accountability to your plan, and a way of measuring success along the way.

It’s highly unlikely we’d achieve a 30% increase in social media audience without hitting those lead goals.

By hitting your lead goals, you’re far more likely to hit your lag goal.

Without them you’re throwing a dart blindfolded, only knowing if you’ve hit the board when you take it off.

Look at your goals for 2024 - are they lag, or lead?

To improve your digital performance, make sure you have both.

See you next week ✌️

What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂

📖 Emma’s starting Stolen Focus by Johan Harri after a recommendation from a friend. Time to wrestle back that attention span!

📺 Dan’s watching season 3 of the Morning Show on Apple TV+. It’s unfortunately not as good as season 1, but slightly better than season 2.

Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍