7 Ways to Have a Successful Marketing Campaign

Every successful marketer is driven by the desire to create an effective marketing campaign. Yes, you heard right, marketing “campaign.” Small businesses as well as nonprofit organizations panic when they hear the word campaign because they liken it to an incredibly expensive, time consuming and complicated issue.

What does marketing campaign mean? It is a planned series of activities and processes which promote an individual product, service, or resources. Lots of channels are used and coordinated to deliver effective results. The most successful marketing campaigns incorporate a range of sophisticated tools, but they are supported by comprehensive planning and research. Successful marketing campaigns cannot be disorganized and incoherent.

The purpose of an effective marketing campaign plan is to identify relevant, consolidated marketing activities and channels to reach campaign objectives as well as influence customers. These campaigns must be engaging as well as have the flexibility to be shared. The campaign concept should utilize both online and offline marketing communications tools as well as digital media channels.

A well-coordinated campaign can ignite new interest in your business and increase your sales, donations, and impact. While this can be marred with challenges even on the best of days, handling such campaigns under tight budgets might make the process seem complex. Thus, it is vital for marketers to determine the right budget for their campaigns.

It is however possible to craft a powerful marketing campaign with less resource that can still be impactful yet cost-effective. In this article, we will show you 7 ways in which you can achieve successful marketing campaign without breaking a bank.

1. Research and Ideation

While brainstorming for a campaign idea, identify the scope of the project. Take into considerations issues like what resources will it require, how long will it take and what sort of results do you expect? Your idea must also answer the question of what you are trying to achieve through your campaign and how you will we know when you achieve it?

Your campaign should have a start and an end date. Clearly plan the plot out the important dates and actions. Research on the most effective tools you can use to spread your campaign. Would it be through email marketing, in-store signage, word of mouth or social media? You must also come up with a clear and concise call-to-action. It must be one that draws your target audience into taking the next step with you.  Your call-to-action can be anything from “download this guide now” to “make your reservation today.” No matter what it is, make it as clear and easy to act on as possible.

2. Know Your Audience

Even in the aforementioned research and ideation, coming up with the ideas for your marketing campaign should be centered and built around your target audience. Who is your target market and how can your message be suited for them, who are we trying to reach and influence?

An idea might sound viable and brilliant but if it does not resonate with your target audience then it will be in vain. Everything you put out on social media and other marketing mediums should resonate with that specific group. An idea might sound brilliant, but if it doesn’t fit well with your target audience, then it’s not going to be successful.

Research on the demographics of the platforms you’ll be using during the campaign. Where is your target audience centered and how is your presence there? Researching on the demographics ensures your campaign will reach a majority of your desired target and is one of the easiest ways to ensure a successful outcome.

3. Set and Track Your Goals

Since you are investing time and resources into a project through which you expect positive results, it only makes sense that you’ll want to know how your campaign is performing.

It is also critical that you set your sight on what to expect out of the campaign. When you clearly define what you intend to achieve, measuring success becomes tenable. This you can do through identifying vital performance indicators and measurable metrics is essential. Looking at different metrics to measure is critical, and you should balance the direct metrics such as sales and landing page traffic with indirect ones such as social shares, overall website traffic and share of voice for mentions of your campaign online.

When it comes to tracking your goals, Google Analytics can come handy in tracking straightforward goals and conversions . KISSmetrics is another vital tool that makes it easier to tag your campaign data and build a simple custom report to display results. With the help of a funnel report, you can see the point at which people are dropping off – and optimize accordingly.

4. Apply shrewd marketing and simplify your channels

If the campaign is a service or a product, it’s designed to achieve quantifiable beneficial to customers and the business. Apply shrewd marketing to control costs. Find out what is the minimum viable campaign then use agile sprints to test, learn, and ramp costs over time.

When you are operating on a tight budget, especially for a small business, focus on one or just few channels to deliver your message to the right audience. Do not overstretch your ad purse, you run the risk of your campaign being missed by being too segmented. Instead, expand your exposure by concentrating your frequency in the top place, where your potentials will see your message and that can go further than minimal exposure on a wide range of channels.

5. Maximize on In-house Talents but do not Compromise on Creativity

If you have an SEO team, the better- make use of their skills. A team member with an eye for design, a data geek can run comprehensive analysis of your marketing activities and make adept choices quickly.

Budget constraints should not impede on quality content or compromise on creativity. Conduct a thorough keyword analysis based on what your target visitors search for and update your web content accordingly. Think outside the box and maximize on free, high-traffic content media platforms.

6. Treat all your marketing activities as distinct campaigns

Here is an unpleasant truth, there is no such thing as the perfect marketing campaign. Not to be taken negatively though, what this implies is that no matter how good the campaign strategy, there is always room for replication and improvement. There are a few tools that can help in this journey.

-HubSpot will help fine-tune your great leads so that they can be viable to your customers.

-A Weber to gather email addresses, deliver incentives and follow up with prospects later.

-KISSmetrics as mentioned earlier in the article helps you get details of funnel reports and where people drop off thus allowing for optimization

-Trello comes handy to help keep track of all your brilliant ideas

-Hootsuite; if you opt for social media, this tool helps in spreading the word about your campaign on social media

-Moz is for ensuring your announcement post and landing pages are search engine friendly

-WordStream is a paid search advertising to promote your campaign

There are many others not listed.

7. Exploit the Power of Testimonials

Let your customers sell you via their testimonials. A third-party recommendation or positive statement about your business carries more credibility that when it comes from you. More and more businesses are opting for the power of the video testimonial,  which like all video content is exceptionally effective, delivers the message quickly and allows for a more personal and direct approach.

Conclusion

From the seven pointers above, the ideating and launching part is pretty easy and fun. However, your work does not end with setting the marketing campaign in motion. You might have even met your goals, but if you don’t have a plan for what comes next then much has not come from the campaign. You need an exit strategy.

If you did not reach your objective, what could you have done differently? Review each campaign with your team and see how you can improve the next one and the next one after that and elements you’ll keep for future campaigns. Use this information in your next Marketing Campaign brainstorm!