Category Archives: Marketing

When starting a new project it is always important to visualize what you want the end goal to be. We’ve all had those dreams that seem unattainable but that was only because we didn’t have a plan of attack! The same concept applies to marketing as well – if you don’t have an idea of your end goal and how to achieve it, then how will you know when you’re making progress? 

One way to track progress, set goals, and help yourself stick to them is by using SMART goals. 

What are SMART goals? 

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. Using SMART goals to help you visualize your steps to your goal will help you avoid creating plans that are too vague, aggressive, or poorly thought out. Plans that are not well fleshed out can seem daunting and lead to discouragement.. 

In marketing, SMART goals are used to achieve both an improvement in a company’s revenue and also an increase in their brand awareness with consumers. These goals for companies are usually based on what are known as Key Performance Indicators, KPIs. 

Companies who provide services may set goals around a specific increase in lead form entries. A product based company may set goals around an increase in a specific product sold following a campaign for it. For example, an X amount of increase in chicken wing sales after a new wing campaign is launched.

For brand awareness, a company may set a goal for engagement around their new campaign. They could also set goals around creating a higher quality email list, or a higher rank on Google following a new SEO approach. One tip for using KPIs for your company is to try and align your Revenue KPIs and Brand KPIs so that the effect your efforts are having on the company are more clear and easier to communicate. 

What does SMART mean? 

Specific – 

Be as specific as possible when setting a goal. The more narrow your focus the easier it will be to identify steps necessary for achieving it.

Measurable – 

What evidence will let you know that you are making progress towards your goal? If your focus is narrow enough then it should not be difficult to determine what you will measure success by. 

This is where those KPIs come into play. Determining KPIs for revenue goals are usually straightforward but choosing ones for brand goals can be more subjective. For example, if your goal is to create a higher quality email list then you could measure it by how many people are opening the email and clicking on the attached links. Set an increasing goal for each new email sent out and keep a record of your progress! 

Attainable – 

Is the goal you have set for your company attainable at this moment? Are there other steps to take first before you can reach this goal? Use past data to determine the possibility of reaching the goals you have set and if they seem like too big of a stretch, reevaluate. The objective is to have challenging goals but not to the point of discouragement. 

Relevant – 

Does this goal contribute to your long term goals for your company? Will achieving this goal be valuable for your broader objectives? 

Time-base – 

How much time will it take to achieve this goal even with a determined approach? Will this goal require a long research period before the actual implementation? If your goals seem to be more long-term, like 6 months to a year, then it may be beneficial to add in some shorter term goals to keep yourself and your team motivated. Setting up a realistic time frame for your goals will help you minimize time wasted and build confidence as you begin to see success. 

For full service marketing solutions turn to the pros of SMART Marketing! 

Serving Upstate South Carolina, Georgia and the greater United States since 2010

TikTok has been around since 2018 but it was formally known as Musical.ly, an app where people would lip sync to songs. Since its rebranding to TikTok the app has experienced exponential grow in popularity.

TikTok now boasts 689 million users worldwide, putting it ahead of platforms such as Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter in terms of monthly active users. Although the 689 million does not include China where the app operates under a different name, Douyin, and has 600 million DAILY users.

Together TikTok and Douyin have 1.29 billion active users. Users of the app spend an average of 52 minutes on the app each day, which is the same amount of time as Instagram and a little behind Facebook at 58.5 minutes.

These numbers are amazing considering the fact that Instagram and Facebook have been popular for much longer than TikTok, in fact it took Instagram six years to reach the amount of users TikTok gained in three. It even took Facebook, the king of social media, four!

Although the growing audience is always a good sign for marketers or business owners looking to explore new avenues, the demographic of the audience is very important as well.

The average user of TikTok is between the ages of 29 and 10 years old, skewing the audience for this app very young. While this audience may be perfect for some businesses, for others it is not ideal.

This younger audience takes to the app to watch engaging short videos of people making recommendations, cooking, dancing or even just talking. There are many large trends on the app people take advantage of to grow their following.

These trends can include dances, use of a specific sound over a personal video and/or use of a filter. The trends change rapidly but there is a tab on the app dedicated specifically to trending sounds and hashtags to keep you up to date.

Audiences on TikTok only respond well to authenticity. They do not want to see fakeness in videos, so advertising on TikTok would require more personable videos from business owners and their employees. Videos showcasing the process of making or packaging your product, videos of you performing a service or videos of employees being themselves.

For example, businesses such as dog groomers, power washers and jewelers have all found success on TikTok because people are interested in their work. Everyone loves a cute puppy, and many people find the process of grooming one relaxing. People also love to watch videos of power washers, or any other type of cleaning as well, because they find them relaxing and sometimes motivating to clean their own home. Whether they are a smaller business or quite large, jewelers find success on TikTok by showcasing breathtaking rings and their various styles, or by showing the process to make or clean their jewelry.

TikTok has created an editing software designed to help business owners create paid ads on their platform. These ads will appear as the first thing users see when they first open the app or as they scroll through videos and if they click on it, they will be brought to a screen with a little bio of your company and the rest of your videos.

Although these ads do work and help you get in front of TikTok users, posting an organic video and using popular hashtags to help it go viral will help your company find more loyal and enthusiastic customers.

Again, TikTok users are all about authenticity, so connecting with them on a personal level and promoting your business will make them more willing to like, comment and share your video, which in turn will help you get in front of more potential customers.

Overall, if you are interested in getting on to TikTok, I believe if you do some research, find out what other companies like yours are doing on the app and how successful they are, and if you are willing to put a lot of time into creating high quality content, and your target audience is between the ages of 18 to 24 or *younger….. then TikTok is a great place for you! Getting thousands of views is very easy on this quick pace app and many small businesses have found overwhelming support on the platform!

Smart Marketing Advertising Agency is located in Anderson, SC. We help clients with social media marketing, website design, branding, and implementing a strategic marketing plan.  Yes – we can help you with your TikTok campaign too!