November 29, 2023 • 26 mins
🎯 Setting SMART performance goals in AEC marketing? Dive into this episode where I unpack the art of creating Measurable Performance Goals. 📈
Discover why hit rates & proposals don't always reflect true success and explore alternative metrics that can. 💡 From organizing information to tracking website traffic, get ready for actionable examples of goals related to pursuits, marketing communication, graphic design, and more. 🖌️
Tune in for some bonus SMART goal examples to elevate your team's performance and prepare for a career boost with our upcoming episode on salary negotiation tips. 💼
Want more AEC marketing goodness?
- New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
- Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
- Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
- Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
- Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
- Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey there, I'm Lindsay Diven and I'm passionate
about everything marketing,productivity and career growth.
With over 17 years ofexperience in the architecture,
engineering and constructionindustry, I know firsthand the
ins and outs of this excitingfield, from my early days as a
marketing coordinator tobecoming an award-winning
(00:23):
marketing professional.
In firm principle, I've learnedthe ropes through countless
late nights and challengingdeadlines.
Now I'm thrilled to bring youthe AEC Marketing Strategies
Podcast.
Here I'll be sharing simple yetpowerful, step-by-step
marketing strategies that youcan implement to achieve the
(00:44):
same level of success.
Consider me your go-tomarketing mentor, someone who
truly gets the unique challengesyou face in the AEC industry.
Whether you're an AEC MarketingPro or industry newbie, this
podcast is your personal coffeedate with your marketing bestie.
Together, we'll navigate theever-changing landscape of
(01:06):
online marketing and digitaltrends, ensuring you stay ahead
of the curve.
If you're ready to unlock themarketing secrets they never
taught you in college and tailorthem specifically to the AEC
industry, then you're in theright place.
Now let's get started.
It's that time of year againperformance review time, and
(01:29):
this time affects everyone, frommarketing managers, who have to
measure the performance oftheir teams, to individuals that
do self-evaluations and attendperformance review meetings.
Part of this process includesreviewing your goals and
accomplishments for the currentyear, but also includes goal
setting for the next year, andthis may include identifying
(01:52):
performance goals for yourselfor for your employees, and we've
all probably heard by now thatour goals should be smart,
specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.
However, crafting smartperformance goals for AEC
(02:12):
marketers isn't always easy.
Performance goals should bothpush the individual's
professional development as wellas align with the goals of your
firm, and this is why it can bedifficult to write those goals
for ourselves and for ouremployees.
Over the years, I've asked manymarketing managers and
(02:34):
researched other industries totry to craft measurable goals
for my team while meeting thestrategic goals for my firm.
So in this episode, I want tohelp make this process easier
for you and your manager.
It's loaded with informationabout the different ways you can
quantify your marketingactivities and success, and I
(02:56):
give you exact examples of smartperformance goals towards the
end of the episode that arerelated to pursuits, that are
related to marketing andcommunications and that are even
graphic design related.
So you'll want to make sure youlisten to the end of this
episode to get those examplesthat you can use for your own
performance goals or your team'sperformance goals.
(03:19):
So let's dig right into today'sepisode.
A widely used metric in our AECfirms is our firm's win rate or
hit rate, and these aregenerally measured by taking the
number of wins divided by thetotal number of proposals.
If you want to dig deeper intohit rates, I've linked up an
(03:39):
article that walks you throughhow to calculate hit rates at
your firm and you can find itover at the show notes page over
at marketerstakeflightcom,forward slash 2626.
And because hit rates are sowidely used, I have seen firms
use similar metrics like newcontracts, new sales or new
(04:02):
leads as performance goals formarketers.
However, I don't think it'sfair to tie sales or new
contract wins directly to amarketer's performance.
While you do play a criticalpart in the proposal process,
the contract award is the resultof the entire pursuit team's
(04:25):
efforts, including businessdevelopment, technical or
operations professionals andmarketing.
And also, what if your firmdoesn't submit that many
proposals throughout the year?
Your work may mostly benegotiated work, repeat work or
on-call or IDIQ type contracts.
(04:45):
So chances are, if you're notworking most of your time on
competitive proposals, then youare focused on other marketing
activities.
What are those marketingstrategies you are currently
implementing or should beimplementing.
Can you turn those activitiesinto quantifiable measurements
so you can track performance andsuccess?
And if you're not sure, juststay with me.
(05:08):
You'll definitely have someideas to quantify your marketing
activities by the end of thisepisode.
So let's talk about new leads.
Can your performance as amarketer be based on new leads
for your firm?
Well, the answer is yes and no.
If you look at marketingprofessionals in other B2B and
(05:31):
B2C industries, like software,marketers' performances are
often directly measured onqualified leads they pass to
sales.
Now, if your AEC firm has arobust lead-generating engine,
then it might be fair to giveyour marketing team some
realistic lead generation goals.
However, if your firm doesn'thave this or doesn't have it yet
(05:55):
, then it won't be fair tomeasure the marketer's
performance on leads generated,but may consider other metrics.
So let's get to those othermetrics, shall we?
First up is informationorganization.
Information is key topositioning and differentiating
your firm.
(06:15):
Not only information about whatyour firm does, but information
about clients, projects andcompetitors.
How this is organized and madeeasily available to those who
need it in your firm when theyneed it is critical in our
marketplace today.
So take a look at how yourinformation is currently stored
(06:39):
and accessed.
Can it be improved?
Can you gain efficiencies inhow you collect, store and
access information you use foryour pursuits, your proposals
and other marketing activities?
This type of informationorganization can be quantified.
Examples may includeconfiguring a new database or a
(07:01):
filing system on your server.
And speaking of informationorganization, let's talk resumes
and project information.
Having up-to-date and easilyavailable project history and
employee experience is vital toa successful marketing
department.
How many project sheets and orresumes did your team create or
(07:25):
update?
You can set a goal for aregular frequency of creating
new and updating existinginformation.
Then measure against that goaland, just like proposals, you
can consider maybe new brochuresand qualification packages in
your goal setting.
Ask yourself did your firm adda new service or market sector?
(07:49):
Did you update outdatedmarketing materials?
These materials convey yourfirm's story that differentiates
your firm in the marketplace.
You can quantify both thevolume of new materials created
as well as the value of yourfirm's any other impact they may
have caused, such as returnemails, follow-up meetings
(08:12):
scheduled, etc.
And if these qualificationspackages are electronic, how can
you incorporate tracking links,maybe using Adobe InDesign or
other PDF viewers like Issue orthose magazine kind of flip
websites.
They allow you to see who opensor clicks on links inside the
(08:35):
qualification packages.
So that was informationorganization, information
management.
Now, another area which haspretty much been a bust for 2020
has been is typicallyconferences.
You know, most in-personconferences for 2020 have been
cancelled and some are alreadybeing cancelled for 2021 or gone
(08:58):
virtual.
So, whether we ever go back toin-person events or even with
virtual events, you can quantifythe conference or the event
follow-up.
We and you probably spend a lotof time and resources preparing
for and attending these events,both in-person and virtual, and
(09:21):
then, when everybody,quote-unquote, gets back to the
office or the event is over, alot of times the follow-up gets
lost.
How can marketing, how can youin marketing, help turn the
follow-up process or thefollow-up phase into success?
What would that phase even looklike?
It wouldn't be reasonable toexpect a contract directly from
(09:46):
a conference or a virtual event.
But what should we expect?
You could measure the number ofleads collected, the number of
leads entered into your CRM oryour database, number of
follow-up emails, phone callsand even number of meetings
scheduled from the conference.
These can all be tracked andmeasured and, at the very least
(10:09):
you can compare conference toconference in year over year to
help you evaluate the return onyour investment, and it will be
interesting to measure year overyear or in-person conference
versus the virtual event.
It'll be interesting to startseeing those comparison.
Now let's turn to morequote-unquote traditional
(10:32):
marketing metrics, and one thata lot of us are familiar with is
website traffic.
If your marketing team isresponsible for updating and
maintaining your firm's website,I would go beyond just
reporting general traffic.
General website traffic alonedoesn't really mean anything.
You have to make it relative.
(10:54):
Do you want to grow the traffic?
If so, what percentage ofgrowth?
And how are you going toattract more visitors to your
site?
You can then measure and reportmonth to month or quarter to
quarter, if you're growing, bythe percentage of growth you're
aiming for and where those youknow and the method you're using
(11:14):
to attract more visitors.
You can report on those.
And then there is not onlyvisitors, but do you want your
visitors to your website to dosomething on your website?
Examples can maybe be watchinga video, providing an email
address in exchange for a casestudy download or applying for
an open job position.
(11:36):
Once you identify your goal foryour website traffic, then you
can evaluate how you are makingit easy for your website
visitors to take those actions.
You can track and report onthose actions, and the best
thing that that happens is whenyou start tracking you start to
see results, both good and badand then you can adjust your
(11:59):
strategies accordingly.
Now I could do an entire serieson website traffic and digital
marketing strategies, and thatmight be coming in the future.
We're just scratching thesurface on today's episode.
So too many of us just do thiswork and forget about the value
(12:21):
these type of activities bringto our firm.
Think about the last three,four, five assignments or tasks
you've worked on.
How can you quantify the volumeor the effect or the impact
it's had for your firm?
And let me know your ideas overon the show notes page over at
marketerstakeflightcom.
Okay, so hopefully that gaveyou some ideas of how to start
(12:48):
quantifying the work you'realready doing or want to do next
year.
Now let's boil it down into somesmart performance goals.
Remember that smart stands forsmart goals which are specific,
measurable, attainable,realistic and time based.
(13:10):
You just can't, you can't justbe measurable and time based.
They have to be specific,attainable and realistic.
The realistic part is why Idon't necessarily like to make
performance goals on new salesspecifically for marketing staff
.
It's just not realistic becauseso many other folks in our firm
(13:32):
are involved BD, technicalstaff, et cetera.
They're involved in the wholepursuit and proposal process.
So, anyways, I'll get off mysoapbox now and get to the good
stuff.
Let me share some examples ofsmart goals for AEC marketers,
and I'm gonna go through theexamples and I'm gonna group
them by different areas of atypical marketing department.
(13:54):
And I wouldn't recommend givingall of these goals to one
person, but wanted a way togroup them somehow, especially
since we are on the podcast andI can't just display a list.
So first let's start with somepursuit related smart goals.
So one example could be developcapture plans for all your must
(14:18):
win pursuits by the end ofquarter one, update them at
least quarterly so you can seethere it's very specific, time
bound and relative to you know,in supporting your firm's
strategic plans.
Another example could beconduct at least one quality
(14:39):
control, peer review of aproposal or presentation outside
of your market or office eachmonth.
Now, this is very valuable ifyou have a big marketing team
and so you have severalmarketing coordinators or senior
coordinators that are assignedspecific offices or markets and
you want to, you know, keep them.
You wanna have them do peerreview and even though they
(15:03):
might be assigned one market,you still want them to, you know
, just kind of know what's goingon in other markets.
So this is a really good goalfor that.
Another pursuit related goalcould be lead at least one
proposal debrief per quarter,and, whether you win or lose, I
love that goal.
Another goal example could beidentify your market's top 10
(15:28):
projects that you use in yourproposals by quarter one, update
all that project informationfor those top 10 projects by
quarter two and enter them orupload them into your firm's
database by quarter three.
So I like this one because thisgoes back to that information,
organization and management.
Okay, so those were somepursuit related smart goals.
(15:52):
Now let's talk about marketingcommunication related smart
goals.
So one example could be developand implement at least one
traditional or online marketingcampaign for your assigned
market in 2021.
The campaign plan should bewritten by quarter one and
implemented by the end ofquarter three.
Another example could becoordinate, including writing,
(16:18):
if necessary, at least threeblog posts for your office or
market in 2021, with the firstone completed by quarter two,
and so I like this.
When you have multiple, likethree blog posts, I like having
saying you know the first onecompleted by this.
That way, not all three blogposts come out in December.
(16:41):
Another example could be developreport metrics for online
marketing campaigns by quarterone.
Now, if you have onlinemarketing campaigns or digital
marketing campaigns, then thisis relevant.
Another example could beimplement content slash online
marketing training program formarketing coordinators, market
(17:03):
sector leads and key projectmanagers by quarter two.
This includes one marketingcampaign per market sector, to
be completed in 2021.
So this is really helpful ifyou have a marketing or a
communications manager ordirector that's solely
responsible for your onlinemarketing.
This is part educationinternally and then part
(17:25):
execution.
Another example goal could bedevelop system to capture
traffic from website andtransmit potential leads to
business developers by Q onequarter one.
So this is again if you havesome lead generating marketing
(17:46):
strategies in place.
You know this is a little bitmore of an advanced goal.
And then another example formarketing communications related
goals are could be increasewebsite traffic and email
subscriptions by 25% by the endof 2021.
And so I like this.
(18:07):
It's pretty broad.
It doesn't say like what kindof website traffic?
But it is saying, you know, wedon't want.
It's giving specific by 25%.
So it's not just saying, oh, weneed to increase website
traffic.
We're going to put a goalaround it.
We don't really know what it isright now, so you can get a
baseline and then you increaseit by 25%.
(18:29):
This is a good goal to start.
If this is the year you'restarting to actually do inbound
marketing or online marketing todrive people to your website,
so that is a good goal.
And I've used this goal in thepast and we just didn't know
what the growth would be.
So we just kind of arbitrarilypicked 25% and we just evaluated
(18:50):
it each quarter to see if wewere like way under or way over
and um, and adjusted accordingly.
Okay, so let's talk aboutgraphics related or performance
goals for graphic designers.
This was always my hardest areato develop goals in, so I
(19:11):
really leaned on my network andother industries for this.
So some goals related tographic design or graphic design
professionals could be um.
One example could be identifyone new graphics related
technology or trend and educatethe marketing team by the end of
quarter two.
Another example could be createa new market or office or
(19:35):
service line fact sheet designby quarter one.
Create a new resume templatedesign by quarter two develop a
creative holiday card or holidaycampaign by quarter three.
And then, last example could beattend at least one workshop or
conference related to graphicdesign trends by quarter four
(19:58):
and report your findings back tothe marketing team.
Okay, so another area thatmarketing tends to play in in a
firm is business developmentsupport, um, and so that could
be planning business development, coaching business development,
doing business development, um.
(20:18):
So if that is part of your jobor your department, some
examples of perform a smartperformance goals could be
example one lead the annualbusiness development planning
process for your assigned marketor assigned market or
geographic region.
Um plans need to be ready topresent to the board of
directors or principals orexecutives by December.
(20:41):
One Another example could beattend three to four conferences
or networking events related toyour assigned market, industry,
geographic area by quarterthree.
Again, this one might be alittle bit more difficult in
2021, um to attend in personevents, but, as some of us are
finding the virtual events areway easier to attend.
(21:09):
And then last are stretch goals,and I love stretch goals.
These are really to stretch theperson.
When I was a manager, tostretch each individual person
professionally like stretch themout of their comfort zone and
beyond their job their quoteunquote day to day job, and so
(21:31):
my first stretch goals exampleswere manage and implement one
new marketing initiative in thecurrent year and as a department
we identified two to three tofour big marketing initiatives
each year and then each of ourmarketing coordinators would
pick the one that theygravitated towards and they
would lead that initiative.
(21:51):
So let me give you examples ofsome of the bigger like
marketing department initiatives.
So one was to implement ourclient feedback process, and so
we had a senior marketingcoordinator who was like the
project manager for that andhelped orchestrate that
internally.
We had another seniorcoordinator who was very heavily
(22:14):
creative and design orientedand so she set up all of our new
resume templates and our mergetemplates out of vision.
So she led that initiative andso those were like big
initiatives and they wouldspearhead them.
They were like the projectmanagers of those initiatives
and I tried to align them withtheir personal interests, to
(22:36):
stretch them a little bit.
So I love stretch goals.
So that's one example.
Another example of a stretchgoal is to develop and conduct
proposal, storyboarding andwriting training sessions for
your marketing coordinators andtechnical proposal writers by
quarter two, let's say.
So who couldn't need more helpwith writing?
(22:56):
We all can help, need help withwriting, persuasive writing,
and so if you have somebody onyour team or you're personally
interested in writing, go andattend some training and then
teach internally and so juststretch goals are kind of a
little bit more personal,focused to stretch the person,
but still somewhat align withwhat the firm needs and the
(23:20):
department needs.
Now I think a good number ofgoals for each person is
somewhere between three to fivegoals and if they're big enough
and they have to be big goals,and big I mean stretches the
person beyond their currentcapabilities while meeting the
firm's goals.
So I don't like it when peoplecome to me and they have 10
(23:45):
goals because either they're toosmall and their tasks right, or
they should just be on theirto-do list or so that they have
10 and they're small, or theyhave 10 and they're just never
gonna achieve them.
So it makes the performancereview at the end of the year
just a little disappointing, andwe use the goals in determining
(24:07):
pay raises and bonuses.
So I was very conscious of let'sdo what we think can be
achievable.
Maybe a little that makes usfeel uncomfortable and try to
stretch ourselves because theygot evaluated on them.
So just be cognizant of thatand how that is applied at your
firm.
So I hope these examples giveyou some ideas to start
(24:31):
developing smart goals foryourself or for your marketing
team.
And if you want even more helpwith even more examples of goals
for every position in a typicalAEC marketing department, from
marketing assistant to director,graphics, bd and communications
go over and check out mymarketing recruiters starter kit
(24:54):
over at marketerstakeflightcomforward slash, recruit or find
the link in my show notes.
And the starter kit includes aguide, instructions, resources
and swipe files including 30plus measurable performance
goals for each level andfunction, again, of a typical
(25:14):
AEC marketing department, andeach performance goal is based
on the smart goal settingprinciples I described in
today's episode.
Okay, so I've shared with yousome ways you can quantify
marketing success and somespecific performance goal
examples for your marketingdepartment.
Do you have any othermeasurable performance goals
(25:36):
that you have come across oryou've used that are specific to
AEC marketers?
Let me know if any of theseideas I've shared with you today
generate any new ideas for yourown use, and I would love to
hear what you come up with.
So leave those ideas.
Whether you've used them in thepast or you came up with some
(25:57):
new ideas, leave them over atthe show notes page over at
marketerstakeflightcom.
Forward, slash, forward, slash.
Two, six, cause we lovelearning from each other.
And in just a few episodes I'mgonna be bringing on a guest to
talk about how to ask for asalary increase or promotion,
(26:19):
even during these COVID times.
So make sure you're subscribedto the podcast so you don't miss
that episode.
And a lot of it starts withgoals.
So it's, you know.
I think it's gonna be in twoepisodes.
So, okay, until next week.
Bye for now.
Hey there, I'm Lindsay Diven and I'm passionate
about everything marketing,productivity and career growth.
With over 17 years ofexperience in the architecture,
engineering and constructionindustry, I know firsthand the
ins and outs of this excitingfield, from my early days as a
marketing coordinator tobecoming an award-winning
(00:23):
marketing professional.
In firm principle, I've learnedthe ropes through countless
late nights and challengingdeadlines.
Now I'm thrilled to bring youthe AEC Marketing Strategies
Podcast.
Here I'll be sharing simple yetpowerful, step-by-step
marketing strategies that youcan implement to achieve the
(00:44):
same level of success.
Consider me your go-tomarketing mentor, someone who
truly gets the unique challengesyou face in the AEC industry.
Whether you're an AEC MarketingPro or industry newbie, this
podcast is your personal coffeedate with your marketing bestie.
Together, we'll navigate theever-changing landscape of
(01:06):
online marketing and digitaltrends, ensuring you stay ahead
of the curve.
If you're ready to unlock themarketing secrets they never
taught you in college and tailorthem specifically to the AEC
industry, then you're in theright place.
Now let's get started.
It's that time of year againperformance review time, and
(01:29):
this time affects everyone, frommarketing managers, who have to
measure the performance oftheir teams, to individuals that
do self-evaluations and attendperformance review meetings.
Part of this process includesreviewing your goals and
accomplishments for the currentyear, but also includes goal
setting for the next year, andthis may include identifying
(01:52):
performance goals for yourselfor for your employees, and we've
all probably heard by now thatour goals should be smart,
specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.
However, crafting smartperformance goals for AEC
(02:12):
marketers isn't always easy.
Performance goals should bothpush the individual's
professional development as wellas align with the goals of your
firm, and this is why it can bedifficult to write those goals
for ourselves and for ouremployees.
Over the years, I've asked manymarketing managers and
(02:34):
researched other industries totry to craft measurable goals
for my team while meeting thestrategic goals for my firm.
So in this episode, I want tohelp make this process easier
for you and your manager.
It's loaded with informationabout the different ways you can
quantify your marketingactivities and success, and I
(02:56):
give you exact examples of smartperformance goals towards the
end of the episode that arerelated to pursuits, that are
related to marketing andcommunications and that are even
graphic design related.
So you'll want to make sure youlisten to the end of this
episode to get those examplesthat you can use for your own
performance goals or your team'sperformance goals.
(03:19):
So let's dig right into today'sepisode.
A widely used metric in our AECfirms is our firm's win rate or
hit rate, and these aregenerally measured by taking the
number of wins divided by thetotal number of proposals.
If you want to dig deeper intohit rates, I've linked up an
(03:39):
article that walks you throughhow to calculate hit rates at
your firm and you can find itover at the show notes page over
at marketerstakeflightcom,forward slash 2626.
And because hit rates are sowidely used, I have seen firms
use similar metrics like newcontracts, new sales or new
(04:02):
leads as performance goals formarketers.
However, I don't think it'sfair to tie sales or new
contract wins directly to amarketer's performance.
While you do play a criticalpart in the proposal process,
the contract award is the resultof the entire pursuit team's
(04:25):
efforts, including businessdevelopment, technical or
operations professionals andmarketing.
And also, what if your firmdoesn't submit that many
proposals throughout the year?
Your work may mostly benegotiated work, repeat work or
on-call or IDIQ type contracts.
(04:45):
So chances are, if you're notworking most of your time on
competitive proposals, then youare focused on other marketing
activities.
What are those marketingstrategies you are currently
implementing or should beimplementing.
Can you turn those activitiesinto quantifiable measurements
so you can track performance andsuccess?
And if you're not sure, juststay with me.
(05:08):
You'll definitely have someideas to quantify your marketing
activities by the end of thisepisode.
So let's talk about new leads.
Can your performance as amarketer be based on new leads
for your firm?
Well, the answer is yes and no.
If you look at marketingprofessionals in other B2B and
(05:31):
B2C industries, like software,marketers' performances are
often directly measured onqualified leads they pass to
sales.
Now, if your AEC firm has arobust lead-generating engine,
then it might be fair to giveyour marketing team some
realistic lead generation goals.
However, if your firm doesn'thave this or doesn't have it yet
(05:55):
, then it won't be fair tomeasure the marketer's
performance on leads generated,but may consider other metrics.
So let's get to those othermetrics, shall we?
First up is informationorganization.
Information is key topositioning and differentiating
your firm.
(06:15):
Not only information about whatyour firm does, but information
about clients, projects andcompetitors.
How this is organized and madeeasily available to those who
need it in your firm when theyneed it is critical in our
marketplace today.
So take a look at how yourinformation is currently stored
(06:39):
and accessed.
Can it be improved?
Can you gain efficiencies inhow you collect, store and
access information you use foryour pursuits, your proposals
and other marketing activities?
This type of informationorganization can be quantified.
Examples may includeconfiguring a new database or a
(07:01):
filing system on your server.
And speaking of informationorganization, let's talk resumes
and project information.
Having up-to-date and easilyavailable project history and
employee experience is vital toa successful marketing
department.
How many project sheets and orresumes did your team create or
(07:25):
update?
You can set a goal for aregular frequency of creating
new and updating existinginformation.
Then measure against that goaland, just like proposals, you
can consider maybe new brochuresand qualification packages in
your goal setting.
Ask yourself did your firm adda new service or market sector?
(07:49):
Did you update outdatedmarketing materials?
These materials convey yourfirm's story that differentiates
your firm in the marketplace.
You can quantify both thevolume of new materials created
as well as the value of yourfirm's any other impact they may
have caused, such as returnemails, follow-up meetings
(08:12):
scheduled, etc.
And if these qualificationspackages are electronic, how can
you incorporate tracking links,maybe using Adobe InDesign or
other PDF viewers like Issue orthose magazine kind of flip
websites.
They allow you to see who opensor clicks on links inside the
(08:35):
qualification packages.
So that was informationorganization, information
management.
Now, another area which haspretty much been a bust for 2020
has been is typicallyconferences.
You know, most in-personconferences for 2020 have been
cancelled and some are alreadybeing cancelled for 2021 or gone
(08:58):
virtual.
So, whether we ever go back toin-person events or even with
virtual events, you can quantifythe conference or the event
follow-up.
We and you probably spend a lotof time and resources preparing
for and attending these events,both in-person and virtual, and
(09:21):
then, when everybody,quote-unquote, gets back to the
office or the event is over, alot of times the follow-up gets
lost.
How can marketing, how can youin marketing, help turn the
follow-up process or thefollow-up phase into success?
What would that phase even looklike?
It wouldn't be reasonable toexpect a contract directly from
(09:46):
a conference or a virtual event.
But what should we expect?
You could measure the number ofleads collected, the number of
leads entered into your CRM oryour database, number of
follow-up emails, phone callsand even number of meetings
scheduled from the conference.
These can all be tracked andmeasured and, at the very least
(10:09):
you can compare conference toconference in year over year to
help you evaluate the return onyour investment, and it will be
interesting to measure year overyear or in-person conference
versus the virtual event.
It'll be interesting to startseeing those comparison.
Now let's turn to morequote-unquote traditional
(10:32):
marketing metrics, and one thata lot of us are familiar with is
website traffic.
If your marketing team isresponsible for updating and
maintaining your firm's website,I would go beyond just
reporting general traffic.
General website traffic alonedoesn't really mean anything.
You have to make it relative.
(10:54):
Do you want to grow the traffic?
If so, what percentage ofgrowth?
And how are you going toattract more visitors to your
site?
You can then measure and reportmonth to month or quarter to
quarter, if you're growing, bythe percentage of growth you're
aiming for and where those youknow and the method you're using
(11:14):
to attract more visitors.
You can report on those.
And then there is not onlyvisitors, but do you want your
visitors to your website to dosomething on your website?
Examples can maybe be watchinga video, providing an email
address in exchange for a casestudy download or applying for
an open job position.
(11:36):
Once you identify your goal foryour website traffic, then you
can evaluate how you are makingit easy for your website
visitors to take those actions.
You can track and report onthose actions, and the best
thing that that happens is whenyou start tracking you start to
see results, both good and badand then you can adjust your
(11:59):
strategies accordingly.
Now I could do an entire serieson website traffic and digital
marketing strategies, and thatmight be coming in the future.
We're just scratching thesurface on today's episode.
So too many of us just do thiswork and forget about the value
(12:21):
these type of activities bringto our firm.
Think about the last three,four, five assignments or tasks
you've worked on.
How can you quantify the volumeor the effect or the impact
it's had for your firm?
And let me know your ideas overon the show notes page over at
marketerstakeflightcom.
Okay, so hopefully that gaveyou some ideas of how to start
(12:48):
quantifying the work you'realready doing or want to do next
year.
Now let's boil it down into somesmart performance goals.
Remember that smart stands forsmart goals which are specific,
measurable, attainable,realistic and time based.
(13:10):
You just can't, you can't justbe measurable and time based.
They have to be specific,attainable and realistic.
The realistic part is why Idon't necessarily like to make
performance goals on new salesspecifically for marketing staff
.
It's just not realistic becauseso many other folks in our firm
(13:32):
are involved BD, technicalstaff, et cetera.
They're involved in the wholepursuit and proposal process.
So, anyways, I'll get off mysoapbox now and get to the good
stuff.
Let me share some examples ofsmart goals for AEC marketers,
and I'm gonna go through theexamples and I'm gonna group
them by different areas of atypical marketing department.
(13:54):
And I wouldn't recommend givingall of these goals to one
person, but wanted a way togroup them somehow, especially
since we are on the podcast andI can't just display a list.
So first let's start with somepursuit related smart goals.
So one example could be developcapture plans for all your must
(14:18):
win pursuits by the end ofquarter one, update them at
least quarterly so you can seethere it's very specific, time
bound and relative to you know,in supporting your firm's
strategic plans.
Another example could beconduct at least one quality
(14:39):
control, peer review of aproposal or presentation outside
of your market or office eachmonth.
Now, this is very valuable ifyou have a big marketing team
and so you have severalmarketing coordinators or senior
coordinators that are assignedspecific offices or markets and
you want to, you know, keep them.
You wanna have them do peerreview and even though they
(15:03):
might be assigned one market,you still want them to, you know
, just kind of know what's goingon in other markets.
So this is a really good goalfor that.
Another pursuit related goalcould be lead at least one
proposal debrief per quarter,and, whether you win or lose, I
love that goal.
Another goal example could beidentify your market's top 10
(15:28):
projects that you use in yourproposals by quarter one, update
all that project informationfor those top 10 projects by
quarter two and enter them orupload them into your firm's
database by quarter three.
So I like this one because thisgoes back to that information,
organization and management.
Okay, so those were somepursuit related smart goals.
(15:52):
Now let's talk about marketingcommunication related smart
goals.
So one example could be developand implement at least one
traditional or online marketingcampaign for your assigned
market in 2021.
The campaign plan should bewritten by quarter one and
implemented by the end ofquarter three.
Another example could becoordinate, including writing,
(16:18):
if necessary, at least threeblog posts for your office or
market in 2021, with the firstone completed by quarter two,
and so I like this.
When you have multiple, likethree blog posts, I like having
saying you know the first onecompleted by this.
That way, not all three blogposts come out in December.
(16:41):
Another example could be developreport metrics for online
marketing campaigns by quarterone.
Now, if you have onlinemarketing campaigns or digital
marketing campaigns, then thisis relevant.
Another example could beimplement content slash online
marketing training program formarketing coordinators, market
(17:03):
sector leads and key projectmanagers by quarter two.
This includes one marketingcampaign per market sector, to
be completed in 2021.
So this is really helpful ifyou have a marketing or a
communications manager ordirector that's solely
responsible for your onlinemarketing.
This is part educationinternally and then part
(17:25):
execution.
Another example goal could bedevelop system to capture
traffic from website andtransmit potential leads to
business developers by Q onequarter one.
So this is again if you havesome lead generating marketing
(17:46):
strategies in place.
You know this is a little bitmore of an advanced goal.
And then another example formarketing communications related
goals are could be increasewebsite traffic and email
subscriptions by 25% by the endof 2021.
And so I like this.
(18:07):
It's pretty broad.
It doesn't say like what kindof website traffic?
But it is saying, you know, wedon't want.
It's giving specific by 25%.
So it's not just saying, oh, weneed to increase website
traffic.
We're going to put a goalaround it.
We don't really know what it isright now, so you can get a
baseline and then you increaseit by 25%.
(18:29):
This is a good goal to start.
If this is the year you'restarting to actually do inbound
marketing or online marketing todrive people to your website,
so that is a good goal.
And I've used this goal in thepast and we just didn't know
what the growth would be.
So we just kind of arbitrarilypicked 25% and we just evaluated
(18:50):
it each quarter to see if wewere like way under or way over
and um, and adjusted accordingly.
Okay, so let's talk aboutgraphics related or performance
goals for graphic designers.
This was always my hardest areato develop goals in, so I
(19:11):
really leaned on my network andother industries for this.
So some goals related tographic design or graphic design
professionals could be um.
One example could be identifyone new graphics related
technology or trend and educatethe marketing team by the end of
quarter two.
Another example could be createa new market or office or
(19:35):
service line fact sheet designby quarter one.
Create a new resume templatedesign by quarter two develop a
creative holiday card or holidaycampaign by quarter three.
And then, last example could beattend at least one workshop or
conference related to graphicdesign trends by quarter four
(19:58):
and report your findings back tothe marketing team.
Okay, so another area thatmarketing tends to play in in a
firm is business developmentsupport, um, and so that could
be planning business development, coaching business development,
doing business development, um.
(20:18):
So if that is part of your jobor your department, some
examples of perform a smartperformance goals could be
example one lead the annualbusiness development planning
process for your assigned marketor assigned market or
geographic region.
Um plans need to be ready topresent to the board of
directors or principals orexecutives by December.
(20:41):
One Another example could beattend three to four conferences
or networking events related toyour assigned market, industry,
geographic area by quarterthree.
Again, this one might be alittle bit more difficult in
2021, um to attend in personevents, but, as some of us are
finding the virtual events areway easier to attend.
(21:09):
And then last are stretch goals,and I love stretch goals.
These are really to stretch theperson.
When I was a manager, tostretch each individual person
professionally like stretch themout of their comfort zone and
beyond their job their quoteunquote day to day job, and so
(21:31):
my first stretch goals exampleswere manage and implement one
new marketing initiative in thecurrent year and as a department
we identified two to three tofour big marketing initiatives
each year and then each of ourmarketing coordinators would
pick the one that theygravitated towards and they
would lead that initiative.
(21:51):
So let me give you examples ofsome of the bigger like
marketing department initiatives.
So one was to implement ourclient feedback process, and so
we had a senior marketingcoordinator who was like the
project manager for that andhelped orchestrate that
internally.
We had another seniorcoordinator who was very heavily
(22:14):
creative and design orientedand so she set up all of our new
resume templates and our mergetemplates out of vision.
So she led that initiative andso those were like big
initiatives and they wouldspearhead them.
They were like the projectmanagers of those initiatives
and I tried to align them withtheir personal interests, to
(22:36):
stretch them a little bit.
So I love stretch goals.
So that's one example.
Another example of a stretchgoal is to develop and conduct
proposal, storyboarding andwriting training sessions for
your marketing coordinators andtechnical proposal writers by
quarter two, let's say.
So who couldn't need more helpwith writing?
(22:56):
We all can help, need help withwriting, persuasive writing,
and so if you have somebody onyour team or you're personally
interested in writing, go andattend some training and then
teach internally and so juststretch goals are kind of a
little bit more personal,focused to stretch the person,
but still somewhat align withwhat the firm needs and the
(23:20):
department needs.
Now I think a good number ofgoals for each person is
somewhere between three to fivegoals and if they're big enough
and they have to be big goals,and big I mean stretches the
person beyond their currentcapabilities while meeting the
firm's goals.
So I don't like it when peoplecome to me and they have 10
(23:45):
goals because either they're toosmall and their tasks right, or
they should just be on theirto-do list or so that they have
10 and they're small, or theyhave 10 and they're just never
gonna achieve them.
So it makes the performancereview at the end of the year
just a little disappointing, andwe use the goals in determining
(24:07):
pay raises and bonuses.
So I was very conscious of let'sdo what we think can be
achievable.
Maybe a little that makes usfeel uncomfortable and try to
stretch ourselves because theygot evaluated on them.
So just be cognizant of thatand how that is applied at your
firm.
So I hope these examples giveyou some ideas to start
(24:31):
developing smart goals foryourself or for your marketing
team.
And if you want even more helpwith even more examples of goals
for every position in a typicalAEC marketing department, from
marketing assistant to director,graphics, bd and communications
go over and check out mymarketing recruiters starter kit
(24:54):
over at marketerstakeflightcomforward slash, recruit or find
the link in my show notes.
And the starter kit includes aguide, instructions, resources
and swipe files including 30plus measurable performance
goals for each level andfunction, again, of a typical
(25:14):
AEC marketing department, andeach performance goal is based
on the smart goal settingprinciples I described in
today's episode.
Okay, so I've shared with yousome ways you can quantify
marketing success and somespecific performance goal
examples for your marketingdepartment.
Do you have any othermeasurable performance goals
(25:36):
that you have come across oryou've used that are specific to
AEC marketers?
Let me know if any of theseideas I've shared with you today
generate any new ideas for yourown use, and I would love to
hear what you come up with.
So leave those ideas.
Whether you've used them in thepast or you came up with some
(25:57):
new ideas, leave them over atthe show notes page over at
marketerstakeflightcom.
Forward, slash, forward, slash.
Two, six, cause we lovelearning from each other.
And in just a few episodes I'mgonna be bringing on a guest to
talk about how to ask for asalary increase or promotion,
(26:19):
even during these COVID times.
So make sure you're subscribedto the podcast so you don't miss
that episode.
And a lot of it starts withgoals.
So it's, you know.
I think it's gonna be in twoepisodes.
So, okay, until next week.
Bye for now.
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