For every type of internet marketing we write about and do, we always stress setting goals. If you don’t have an internet marketing goal, how will you know you are making a difference.

Begin with the end in mind.
Dr. Stephen Covey from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

When you are setting goals keep these things in mind:

Make the commitment to reach your goal – Zig Ziglar lists this as the first step to achieving goals and it is an important point to act upon. “One person with a commitment is worth a hundred who only have an interest” – Mary Crowley

Analyze your current position – if you don’t know where you are starting, it will be hard to draw a map to where you want to go.

Set realistic but ambitions goals – If your goals aren’t really achievable, you will not really engage in trying to reach them. However, if your goals are too easy, you won’t have any reason to really work to reach them. Find your sweet spot where you are engaged and excited about reaching your goals.

Create strategies to reach your goals – for each goal you set, the strategies you use to reach them is the road map from where you are to your goal. When you are setting goals for internet marketing, you might use strategies like targeted blogging, growing and engaging with your social media following, creating effective calls to action. Make a plan for how your are going to achieve your goal and create the processes that will help you do it.

Identify obstacles – When you are thinking about your goals, keep in mind the resources that may be required to achieve them and plan accordingly. How much time, money and other resources may be needed? What about knowledge? Do you have the knowledge you need to accomplish your goal. Maybe you don’t have the right mindset for achieving your goals.

By identifying the obstacles you may encounter while striving to reach your goals, you can build into your plan ways to overcome the obstacles. No plan is perfect and no goal is reached without any challenges. Plan for the challenges in advance.

See yourself achieving your goal - Visualize how it will be to reach your goal. What will it look like and feel like. This is a way to train your brain to achieve the successful finish for your goal. Athletes use this type of visualization before they race or begin a game. Visualizing their success helps them achieve success.

Set a deadline – Most people don’t love deadlines, me included. However having a deadline holds you accountable. If you have to have something done by a certain time, you are more likely to achieve the task in a timely manner. If you have no deadline, you don’t have to be accountable.

Be prepared to change – Sometimes in life there are just things that happen that you can’t predict. An extreme example of this is the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. One day you are working towards achieving your business goals and the next day your goal is simply survival. Be willing to change when necessary after careful consideration of the circumstances. Even the best plan doesn’t survive reality.

Measure your success – Analyzing your progress on a regular basis will help you know how to tweak your strategies. See what is working and not working. If you aren’t measuring, you have no way to know when you reach your goal. Our friend Herb Lawrence at the ASU Small Business Development Center said in is small business blog yesterday that “if you can’t measure it  . . . it isn’t worth doing.” Measurement is another way to hold yourself accountable.

Each time you reach a goal your confidence will grow so that you
can do bigger and better things. Remember what you get by reaching
your destination isn’t nearly as important as
what you become by reaching your goals
–what you will become is the winner you were born to be!
~ Zig Ziglar

Key Take-Aways:

1. Set Goals, set goals, goals.
2. Plan your work and work your plan (My daddy, Eddie Dicus, said this all the time).
3. Measure, measure, measure.

Next Steps:

1. Go to Wharton Marketing to download the Facebook 101 for Business eBook and the SEO 101 eBook to help you gain some of the knowledge you need to reach your internet marketing goals.