In the next of our deep dive series, we’re going to dig into targets.
Targets (also called Objectives) give vital focus to your campaign. In my book, ‘Marketing Strategy’, I identify four key reasons why it’s important to nail down your targets:
- Targets provide a sense of purpose and direction for your whole campaign.
- Targets help departments pull together towards the same aims in strong and consistent ways.
- Targets give benchmarks for control, enabling organisations to see exactly how their campaigns are performing.
- Targets motivate staff - particularly if they are tied to performance measures.
Traditionally, targets are devised using the SMART framework. SMART helps brands to devise objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
SMART is undoubtedly a useful framework. But it fails to take the wider context of each objective into account.
That’s why I’ve devised the SCALE framework. I know that nobody wants to do more work at the strategy stage than they have to - but I really would advise SCALEing your objectives before you launch your campaign. It’s very easy to do - and a bit of extra thought at this stage could save you a ton of work down the line!
Read on, to learn about what SCALE stands for, how you use it, and why you need it:
Building objectives that SCALE
The SCALE framework is very simple. Each letter and a short explanation of its meaning is laid out in the table below:
| S - Strategic | Why are these objectives being set? What do you want to achieve? |
| C - Considered | Are these objectives tied to your wider business goals? Do these objectives fit in with your brand values, ethos, and culture? |
| A - Audience | Who, specifically, are you trying to engage? |
| L - Lift | What is your overall numerical performance target? |
| E - End | What is the end date for achieving each objective. Be specific! |
I know what you’re thinking - how is this different from SMART? What extra value does this provide?
In short, SCALE adds that all-important customer focus, along with some truly essential context.
SMART is a fantastic framework for devising specific targets. However, it’s very focused on the targets themselves. SCALE opens things out. It encourages you to consider each target in the context of your wider business goals, your audience’s needs, your overall strategic goals, and so on.
This is important, because it’s very easy to get lost in specifics when strategising. You should never lose sight of the bigger picture.
By following your SMART analysis with a SCALE analysis, you can ensure that your targets aren’t just workable on a specific level, they also fit in with your wider context and business-wide aims.
So far, so good! But how do you use the SCALE framework?
How to use the SCALE framework to set targets that convert
The best way, I think, to explain my SCALE framework is to go through each point letter by letter:
S - Strategic
To get (and to understand!) results, we always need to prioritise strategic reasoning. The aim of the S in Scale is to bring your mind back to your overall strategy.
Ask yourself whether or not each objective fits in with your strategy as a whole. If you’re not sure, this is probably a sign that your wider strategic objectives need tightening. Put them through SMART again.
C - Considered
I’ve been working as a marketing strategist for a long time. And one thing that never, ever seems to change is the tendency of brands to create objectives without considering context. It’s maddening!
If your objectives don’t fit into their context, they will fail. It’s that simple. So, you really do need to Consider!
What do I mean by context? Well, if you’ve followed my past couple of blogs on situational analysis and the frameworks you can use for it, you’ll know!
But if you haven't, here's an example.
Let’s say you’ve set yourself a target of attracting new customers. Sounds fairly reasonable and innocuous, right? Well, consider the following scenario:
- The economy is tanking.
- You and all your competitors are losing customers.
- Your brand as a whole is focusing on retaining customers rather than attracting new ones.
Would attracting new customers be a Considered campaign target under such circumstances?
Don’t set yourself up for failure. Consider the context of each target.
A - Audience
It’s all about the audience. Your audience are your current, past, and potential customers. They are the ones with the power to either propel you to (and through!) your targets or to crush your campaign underfoot.
Ask yourself who, exactly, is your audience? And how will they respond to each target?
For example, if your target is to increase revenue and your audience is young people with limited disposable income, you may need to reduce your KPIs and/or adjust your strategy accordingly.
L - Lift
‘Lift’ ties into the ‘Measurable’ of SMART, and takes it a step further.
For ‘Lift’, you need to come up with specific KPI numbers. These then need to be broken down into milestones staggered throughout the course of your campaign.
For example, if your target is to attract new subscribers, at what rate do you want to be attracting them? How many new subscribers do you aim to have on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or even daily basis?
The more specific you can be with your Lift, the better. The more specific your Lift target, the better able you will be to understand performance as a whole.
E - End
You can’t generate any kind of useful reporting on your campaign if your targets don’t have a clear end date.
A clear end allows you to see precisely how well your campaign has performed. It eliminates vagueness (vagueness is the enemy of any campaign!), and gives you an actionable idea of how well your campaign has performed.
Without a clear end date, you run the risk of your campaign petering out. And you won’t be able to tell exactly how performance fluctuates during key milestones in the run-up to your final end date.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a clear end date crystallises your strategy. Understanding that your target has to be achieved by X date will lend a whole new perspective on just how achievable it is, and will galvanise your team to get it done!
SCALE your objectives
By adding SCALE to your SMART analysis, you can create targets that aren’t just campaign-specific. Your targets will also tie into the bigger picture. They’ll tessellate with your brand, your audience, your market, and the wider global context in which they’re all operating.
Here at Let’s Talk Strategy, we don’t believe in silos. We understand that everything is connected - especially when it comes to strategy!
You can’t put a campaign out there without it having an impact on pretty much every other aspect of your brand and your audience (and vice versa). That’s why it’s worth working extra-hard on understanding the context of each target you create.
SCALE exists to help you do just that.
To learn more about creating targets that convert, get in touch! Or buy my book, ‘Marketing Strategy’
