Countless times you have come across various billboards, TV commercials, ads in magazines, short videos on social networks, and even street promoters who stop you to present a product to you. All this is just part of the marketing campaign. We say only a part because behind one marketing campaign there is much more than one advertisement, one billboard…
What exactly is a marketing campaign?
In short, a marketing campaign is an organized, strategic effort to achieve a specific goal of the company or to get feedback, "feedback", customers.
In other words, it implies detailed planning and implementation of various activities in order to attract potential customers, increases sales, or retain existing customers, all in order to gain some profit.
As HubSpot states - that is what remains in us long after the first impression and the first purchase.
How does it work? Campaigns make companies impressive. In addition to promoting what the company wants to show, they label them, give them an identity, tie them to some emotion and personality.
Marketing campaign goals
Successful marketing campaigns follow a consistent theme and promote one idea or one goal. Although they are very simply defined, they require a lot of effort and work.
"Why are we running this campaign?" and "What do we want to gain from this campaign?" are just some of the questions we ask ourselves at the outset. Maybe it’s promoting a new product or service, maybe raising brand awareness, or simply promoting an upcoming event. Whatever the main idea, the goal of any marketing campaign is for the company to benefit from it.
Why is it important to make marketing campaigns?
Because it is through campaigns that you present yourself to the public and potential new customers. The way you do this will influence the opinions of others about you.
A good campaign is remembered for a long time, and a bad one even longer. That is why it is important to plan well and approach it strategically. If successfully implemented, they can be a milestone for a company.
How to conduct a marketing campaign?
It is important to approach the marketing campaign strategically. The big challenge is to reach an adequate target group, motivate it to the necessary action, and achieve conversion that leads to the achievement of the desired goal. To do this you need to follow the following steps.
1. Analyze your target group and their needs well.
You need to determine who your customers are (a blog about Buyer persona here) and what they want. Based on this information, your marketing decisions are formed.
Ask yourself: WHO are we talking to? WHY? WHAT are we telling him?
You can read more about market segmentation on our blog here.
2. Set clearly defined goals.
Once you’ve defined your audience and researched it well, it’s time to set goals for your campaign.
Goals must meet SMART requirements.
S - Specificity - each goal must be specific. What exactly do we want to achieve? Is the outcome of the activity clear? Will the set goal lead to the desired result?
M - Measurable - the goal should be set so that the degree of its realization can be monitored and an indicator of target values must be defined.
A - Achievable - the goal must be challenging but achievable
Can it be done in a timely manner? Has anyone done this successfully before? Does the organization have available resources?
R - Relevant, the goal must be relevant
Is the goal worth the effort? Is it in line with our needs? Is now the right time for this?
T - Time-based - each goal must have a certain period of time in which it should be achieved
A poorly defined goal would be: "Achieve higher sales compared to last year.", While a good one would read: "Increase sales by 50% compared to last year."
Determining whether you have achieved a goal or not, due to the use of SMART conditions, should be very simple and objective.
3. Plan the strategy of your marketing campaign.
As part of this step, you need to do the following:
Choose marketing channels
They can be online (email, social networks…) and offline (ads, flyers, radio commercials, event marketing…).
Choose how you will measure the results
If your goal is, for example, to increase sales, then you can choose the following measurement results: the number of online sales, the number of new customer registrations… On the other hand, if your goal is to become a more recognizable brand in your city, then you can measure results by increasing the number of followers on social networks, the number of clients coming on the recommendation of your current clients…
Write a plan
To keep all of the above under control, you need to write it down in one document. This document is your campaign plan. It can be minimalist or even in the form of a PowerPoint presentation.
In this step, ask yourself questions: HOW to reach the target groups? WHERE to address them? WHEN? HOW OFTEN?
4. Define resources and delegate tasks.
Once you are confident in your marketing plan, you can begin to fulfill it by assigning specific tasks to specific people.
Some of the tasks you will need to delegate to your team are project management, graphic design, video, website analytics, social media analytics, flyer distribution, and the like. It is also important to plan, ie calculate the costs that will be incurred during the implementation of the campaign.
5. Run a marketing campaign
Now that you have a plan, budget, and team ready, it's time to approach the marketing phase itself. Once each step is planned, all you have to do is follow the plan. But that doesn’t mean you won’t face challenges either. As with any project, a marketing plan is rarely completed without delay.
For small teams, staff shortages, cost overruns, or campaign preoccupation can be a problem. In order to avoid such and similar problems, it is necessary to be constantly active in managing the campaign.
It is necessary to regularly monitor the reports on the status of the campaign in order to know if everything is going well and on time. You need to make sure your team is motivated and you need to solve problems on time.
6. Measure the results of the campaign
The last, and step we all expect, is to measure the results of the campaign. At this stage, we find out whether the time and money spent were worth it, as well as whether we achieved the set goals. The results of the campaign are measured with special tools, and read more about them in our blog "Internet marketing tools - Why they are important and which are useful".
In addition, you should consider other aspects of your campaign:
How capable was each member of the team doing their task?
Were all tasks completed on time?
What problems or challenges arose during the implementation?
What could you have done better or differently?
Keep in mind that measuring campaign results doesn't have to be done explicitly in the end. On the contrary, if you monitor your results and progress during the campaign, it will be easier for you to adjust in case of problems.
Examples
Rona
In the spring of 2010, Rona, a Canadian distributor, and retailer of building materials and home remodeling products came up with a fantastic idea. Namely, he used the famous "Ambush Marketing", ie Ambush Marketing. This type of marketing refers to the (miss) use of large events or already existing marketing campaigns for the sake of one's own interests, without paying appropriate fees. Although negative thoughts are often associated with this type of marketing, this may not always be the case.
Rona recognized Apple's billboard, with which he advertises his latest iPod Nano. The billboard displays the product in all available colors so that the colors merge downwards. When she saw that, Ron's company came up with a fantastic idea to use Apple's billboard for its own purpose. Originally, Rona wanted to design a campaign based on the fact that they are a company that recycles paints, which resulted in placing their billboards just below Apple's billboards. Their billboard contained paint buckets placed just below Apple's products so that the paint "leaked" directly to them. The sign that dominated the billboard was, "We recycle paint residue."
This initiative was very unique and innovative. The result is about 2 million liters of recycled paint.
We must note that this example of ambush marketing is not typical. Apple's products had nothing to do with Rona's products, so they were not competent to each other at any time.
Brilliant writing skills