First, a few words about me. I’m Sanjay L., a digital marketer and the founder of thesanjayl.com a blog focused on finance, business, and money.
I share my experiences and insights on building my businesses. Let’s connect and grow together!
For my blogging business, I had tons of ideas at the beginning, but no clear direction.
In my mind: I want to grow my blog, increase traffic, acquire clients and also boost my social media following all at once.
But without a structured a structure plan, it felt overwhelming and that’s the moment I discovered SMART Goals.
If you face a similar problem like me, then this article is for you. (otherwise, you can skip this article)
Setting SMART goals changed the way in everything from my blog to my marketing strategy.
Are you curious about how I use SMART goals and how you can implement them too?
What are SMART Goals?
- Specific — Clear and precise without any confusion
- Measurable — Track the progress to stay motivated
- Achievable — Realistic goals that challenge you but possible to reach them.
- Relevant — Goals that align with your business objectives
- Time-Bound — Set a deadline to create a sense of urgency.
When I started to set my goals by using this framework, it gave me direction and helped me to focus on what mattered the most to grow my business.
Why Specific?
It’s easy to say,
“I want to grow my blog”, but what does it mean?
The first step in setting a smart goal is to be specific
for Eg: Instead of saying, “I want more blog traffic,” I’ll say “I want to increase my blog traffic by 20% in the next month by publishing one post per week”
When your goals are more specific it gives more clear target. It’s like having a roadmap in your hand. This specificity helped me focus on the content that would drive more traffic and engage my audience.
Why Measurable?
Once you have a specific goal, you need to check whether it’s measurable. It support you to track your progress and adjust your strategy if necessary.
For Eg: “I want to more Instagram followers” change to “I want to gain 500 new Instagram followers in the next 2 months”
If you can’t measure your progress, how do you know if you’re getting closer to your goal?
Being able to measure my progress kept me motivated to work because I could see how far I came.
Why Achievable?
It’s important to dream big, as well as the goals needs to be achievable. In the first month of my blog, I set a goal to get 100,00 visitors in next 6 months. Guess what?
I achieved nothing because, without any solid traffic base, website optimization, few blog post and more reason to fail.
Instead, I focus on smaller, more achievable goals like increasing traffic by 10% every month and also achieved it by increasing 1022% in 30 Days
Setting achievable goals can prevent you from discouragement. If your goals are realistic, you’re more likely to stay motivated and follow through.
This is how I’ve managed to grow my blog steadily over time.
Why Relevance?
When I first started my business, I wasted most of the time on task that didn’t make progress to my long-term goal. Now, I make sure every goals should align with overall business plan.
If my primary focus is to build authority in finance nich, my goals are going to creating a content relevant to finance.
It’s easy to get distracted nowadays, Relevant goals keep you in straight track which going to your goal by focusing on what matters.
Why Time-Bound? You May Know that
Setting a deadline for your goals gives you a sense of urgency.
For Eg: Instead of saying “I’ll increase my blog traffic in few months”, I’ll say “I’ll increase my blog traffic by 20% in November”
Having a timeline creates a healthy pressure to take action as soon as possible. It keeps me accountable and pushes me to hit my targets within a reasonable timeframe.
How SMART? Helped Me
When I structured my goals with SMART, everything became clean and clear. I stopped feeling overwhelmed by the number of things I had to do and started breaking them down into smaller, achievable steps.
A quick example of my goals:
- Specific — Increase my Blog traffic
- Measurable — Increase by 20%
- Achievable — Based on past data, this is realistic
- Relevant — It aligns with my online business goal
- Time-Bound — Achieve this within 3 months
I can track my progress, sometimes customize my strategy and stay motivated because I’m working towards a clear goal for a practical outcome.
Conclusion
If you’ve been feeling stuck in your business or life without seeing the results, try to set SMART goals.
It’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to stay focused, make progress, and build the business you’ve always wanted.
Believe me, once you start breaking your big dreams into actionable, measurable steps, you’ll feel how much easier it is to achieve success.
What’s one SMART goal you can set for your business today? Comment it!
Thanks for reading!!, Before you go:
- You can CLAP for FREE 👏
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- Visit my blog: thesanjayl.com
- If you have any thoughts comment it, I’ll respond within 4 hours
