The Most Important And Often Unrecognized Aspect of Setting And Achieving Goals

When it comes to achieving marketing goals, people tend to overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in five.

You could easily say this about any type of goal, but it’s especially true in marketing because it is an inherently vulnerable activity. 

One must embrace uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure to offer up our gifts and talents to others. 

When our emotional bids go unanswered or get shot down, we have to pick ourselves back up and do it all over again. 

This is why it’s imperative to not only set goals, but also indicators of success. 

Indicators of success are signs that you are on the right path. 

For example, indicators of success for a brand messaging project are - 

- the right people engaging with your outreach

- a higher percentage of people engaging with your outreach

- an increase in the amount of an average invoice

Each of these indicators leads to increased long term profit of your marketing efforts. 

BUT - 

The idea that you’ll get your message and platform and process right the first time or even the first year is unrealistic. If you’re lucky, you’ll get one thing right. That one thing is what you build on. 

Indicators of success help you see progress and therefore stay engaged and motivated to keep at it.