Just like we make short- and long-term life goals –– such as getting a promotion, marrying, or completing education –– we must set attainable objectives for our coaching business, such as a strong social media game.
Using social networks is not enough; we must also measure results to analyze our businesses’ growth. And goals help us measure success. These goals are even more efficient when they’re SMART, an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Learn how to set social media goals for your coaching business, and check out our six tips for creating SMART goals for effective marketing.
Why set SMART social media goals
You might think it’s easy to tell what’s working on social media. When a post takes off or your audience interacts with content, isn't that enough of a marker?
Indeed, these instincts lead you in the right direction, but goal-setting provides accurate metrics and takes the guesswork out of wondering whether your campaigns are performing well. Here’s what social media goals do for your marketing efforts:
- Track your return on investment (ROI): Contextually, ROI is used to evaluate the profits earned on an investment. If you run paid marketing campaigns, you'll want to know your ROI. Although the results may or may not be attractive, you’ll learn about your best- and least-performing content.
- Shape your workflow: Starting a marketing campaign on social media channels can be daunting. There are many ways to go about it –– from paid ads and partnerships with influencers to more grassroots-level efforts, such as launching giveaways or other calls to action (CTAs), to drive user engagement. No matter which way you turn, setting goals helps you organize campaigns and administer funds.
- Hold you accountable: Coaches are experts in holding others accountable, so it shouldn’t be surprising to people that charting goals helps keep individuals on track to achieving their social media objectives. It’s easy to slip up on social media when you have other pertinent work, so checking in on your progress holds you to the marketing efforts you set out to implement.
How to set goals for social media marketing
You help clients outline objectives around their health, finances, or career, which means you’re an expert at goal-setting. But you may need help understanding social media algorithms. Check out these tips, and leverage your subject matter expertise and adapt it for social media.
- Think about the long term: You’ll set small, measurable, and achievable goals, but you should have an overall objective. Are you trying to attract more clients or take your business global with a successful coaching blog? Knowing this big picture will help you set more finite goals and action items to get there.
- Review your current performance: Chances are you’re already on social media. Access social media analytics tools on apps, and track your engagement stats, such as likes, comments, and shares on your post. All you need to do is head to the platform’s analytics dashboard and assess metrics. These data points help you set a baseline.
- Set SMART social media marketing goals: Start drafting your goals using the SMART model. For instance, your end-of-month goal could be gaining 100 followers on Instagram or improving your overall engagement rate by one percent. Using figures such as these also ensures your goals are measurable. Then, it’s time to consider your goal’s practicality. If you think you’re taking on too much, scale back. You can always set a bigger goal later. And set time limits for the objectives so you can check in on your progress and timely measure your results.
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6 tips for creating SMART goals for effective marketing
Terms such as “specific” and “achievable” may seem subjective. How can a coach know if their new goal checks these boxes? Here are a few tips coaches use to increase their social media presence:
- Drive traffic: Set a percentage by which you’d like to increase traffic to your social media pages. From there, decide your next steps. For example, you could place a targeted ad on Facebook, focus on improving SEO (search engine optimization) by adding relevant and trendy keywords in your blogs, or ask followers to share your content or profile.
- Grow brand awareness: Increasing brand awareness means informing more people about your coaching practice by creating a solid company image. Once you’ve established your logo, color scheme, and company fonts, update your web and social media presence to be part of this coherent image. Remember, use the same colors across all your socials, allowing potential clients to recognize your brand easily.
- Improve community engagement: Use analytics to determine the most effective post or blog with the maximum engagement rate, and create more content along the same lines. Launch a campaign to increase user interaction by a certain percentage within a defined time frame.
- Build a reputation: If you’re just starting, design a stellar website, professional-looking social media accounts, and a solid LinkedIn page. Put your information out on coaching directories. If you have testimonials from previous clients, add them to your site and social networks and show off that excellent customer satisfaction. Consider writing a coaching blog to establish your authority. Finally, track your success by setting a goal for engagement on these social media and internet spaces.
- Post more consistently: Foster a new habit and aim to post regularly to stay fresh in your followers’ memory. For instance, if you tweet once a week, increase the cadence to at least three times a week. Create a content calendar including all your socials, and schedule posts to never miss an opportunity.
- Track metrics: Once you set everything in place, analyze results to understand your conversions, which is when users take actions, such as signing up for a webinar or booking a session. Assess your conversion rate or clickthrough rate to measure your social media campaign’s success.
How to measure goals for social media marketing strategies
Monitor results by conducting research and applying your mathematical skills, but you’re a busy coach and don’t have much free time. Leverage analytics tools to pull data from your social media campaigns in an understandable way. You'll already have access to analytics if you have a business account on specific social media platforms. But if you don’t, use one of the following:
- Google Analytics: This tracks users’ website traffic and ROI.
- Keyhole: This all-in-one analytics tool allows users to monitor metrics on several profiles.
- Hootsuite Analytics: With this tool, you can track your social media success on various platforms in one place.
- Brandwatch: The platform provides insights and lets users publish social media content directly.
A CRM can help, too!
No matter the goal you set for your coaching business (which we hope you achieve), a customer relationship management (CRM) tool’s support is invaluable.
Practice’s Customer Management Software, made with coaches and small businesses in mind, allows you to securely save data from new leads, communicate with clients, and improve your business’ overall experience with smoother and more seamless processes. Try it today.
