It goes without saying – though we will say it here – goal setting for small business digital strategy is one of the most important tasks for small business leadership and digital strategists. Small business digital strategy maintains many moving parts and is an ongoing delivery process with frequent adjustments. Thus, the best digital strategy consulting firms ensure that small businesses are well acquainted with how to set goals for small business digital strategy.
Why is Setting Digital Strategy Goals Important?
Small business owners already juggle their time between several priorities. Your small business cannot afford to waste time on digital project management components that do not align with the overall digital strategy plan or business goals. Setting SMART goals, that are adjusted as necessary according to real data analysis, provide the basis of a digital strategy roadmap and the digital strategy implementation. Our blog on understanding digital marketing for small business reviews SMART goals if you would like a refresher.
So here is why setting digital strategy goals are important…We mentioned that there are several moving parts to digital strategy. For example, where your small business digital strategy focuses on digital marketing strategy, your marketing team could be responsible for email marketing, audience segmentation, statistical analysis for website analytics, bid strategy for paid ads, social media management, and brand strategy all for one campaign.
This singular example demonstrates the level of complexity possible for any digital strategy including for digital marketing, digital website migrations, digital marketing and sales automation, or digital transformation for small business. Goals help your small business focus on achieving a specific outcome in a reasonable amount of time rather than overextend resources or your budget on derailments.
Stay focused. Create goals.
Examples of Digital Strategy Goals for Small Business
Your goals must be realistic and achievable (i.e. SMART goals). Use past performance, industry standards for similar projects, your allocated budget, or even the company vision as your foundation for goal setting. Some small businesses make the mistake of aiming too high for initial digital strategy and quickly become overwhelmed or lose significant portions of the budget with little results.
Remember: there are several moving parts. Does your small business have limited resources for your digital strategy? If yes, it is best to start small and achieve your digital strategy goals in increments. That is one of the reasons agile digital strategy is better for small business.
Here are examples of functional or enterprise-wide digital strategy goals that are SMART and achieve valuable outcomes for small business:
- Digital Marketing
Problem: Profit has steadily decreased since the 4th quarter of the previous year, though your email list has increased. Your small business is now entering 3rd quarter.
Plan: Re-engage your loyalist audience through an email promotion campaign.
Digital Strategy Goal: Gain a 30% click rate and 8% conversion rate in the initial launch.
- Digital Transformation
Problem: Your small business is currently using manual processes to input interconnected data relevant to supply chain and marketing.
Plan: Implement a company-wide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that integrates with supply chain customers.
Digital Strategy Goal: Enable 95% adoption of the ERP system within 6 months of planning.
- Digital Web Redesign
Problem: Your small business website is experiencing a higher than usual bounce rate.
Plan: Conduct a site audit to determine the source of the issue(s) and whether next steps require a redesign for the website.
Digital Strategy Goal: Reduce bounce rate by 25% of current rate within 30 days of website redesign completion.
There is a difference between these digital strategy points of focus. Learn More: Digital Strategy vs Digital Marketing: What’s the Difference?
How to Use Digital Strategy Goals
As you can see from above, problem identification is one of the starting points of the process to developing digital strategy goals. Next, identify and center your users or target audience to begin developing your SMART goals. Your digital strategy goals are unique to your small business. Align available resources to the goal and re-examine the plan as digital implementation occurs to ensure that the goal is achievable.
Your digital strategy goals can be used to:
- Adjust the digital strategy plan
- Measure value of deliverables and progress
- As reference for future digital strategy planning
- Provide a clear focus to your employees or digital project manager