By Cheyanne Flerx

What makes the difference between a goal and a dream? Goals help to make our dreams a reality. Without a goal, you can’t make any actionable steps towards achieving that dream. For example, when someone asks a little girl what she wants to be what she grows up, and she replies with, “I want to be a Veterinarian,” in all reality, it’s a dream at this point.

It’s not until that little girl gets older and starts to reevaluate her career goals seriously and makes the decision to become a Veterinarian. To achieve this lifelong dream, she needs to plan ahead of time by getting good grades in high school, completing her undergrad, finding a job in the industry, getting scholarships, applying to vet school, and so and so forth.

It takes years even to start preparing to apply to vet school. But the point is, she couldn’t just one day say I’m going to become a vet and BOOM she becomes a vet.

The same rule of thumb applies to goal setting when creating your marketing plan for your veterinary practice or brand. You have to take your marketing goal and break it down into realistic and actionable steps and make it happen.

A good marketing plan doesn’t involve you only putting out a poster in your lobby or only posting on social media once or twice telling people you are having a sale on flea and tick products. That alone won’t bring in business. A good marketing plan involves setting a realistic goal, planning action steps that include multiple marketing mediums, and a timeframe for completion.

When I’m setting up my goals, I like to use a formula called a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

I have found this to be the most effective and beneficial way for me to make my goal happen!

S.M.A.R.T. stands for…

Specific: What do you want you to do?
Measurable: How will you measure it? (Use metrics or data targets)
Attainable: How much will you grow by?
Relevant: How does it apply to your business? Why is the goal important to you?
Timebound: When will this be completed by?

Using this formula will take any goal you have in mind and help you to make it attainable and feeling like a winner!

I’ve used this exact formula to create very successful marketing plans to sell more services, products, grow social media pages, and more!

All you need to do is answer the questions in the formula, place your answers together, and you have your goal in statement form!

For example, if you wanted to sell more flea and tick preventives, here is how you can create a S.M.A.R.T. goal:

Specific: What do you want you to do? Sell more Bravecto.
Measurable: How will you measure it? (Use metrics or data targets) Track increased sales with my practice management software.
Attainable: How much will you grow by? 15% from last year’s sales
Relevant: How does it help your patients and clients? Why is the goal important to you? It will increase compliance on flea and tick prevention.
Timebound: When will this be completed by? January 1- January 30

So your new S.M.A.R.T. goal now is: Your clinic will increase Bravecto sales by 15% in January 2020 over January 2019.

Hurray! You have a realistic goal that is clear and easy to understand!

Now, you can begin to plan out a strategy to implement your goal and determine how you are going to market your Bravecto or whatever you set to achieve in your S.M.A.R.T. goal.

Does your mind enter a mental buffering state when you attempt to implement your marketing plan?

What if I told you we had a plan already made up for you? A plan where you can plug your information and start pumping out your marketing content?

Girl, do I have good news for you then!

We have several marketing planners full of ideas to help you create and implement your goal and get you on your way to reaching the stars!

Check out your new best friend here.