The Beginner's Guide to Marketing Campaigns
What is a Marketing Campaign?
Have you ever caught yourself singing a cheesy insurance jingle? Or responding to a grumpy friend with, “You’re not you when you’re hungry?” If so, then a marketing campaign has definitely left an impression on you.
A marketing campaign is a set of strategies used by a marketing team to achieve certain goals, such as building brand awareness, improving customer experience, or launching a new project.
It’s important that your business has a perfect marketing campaign plan, especially if you're looking to leave a mark on your audience. But you can't have a killer marketing initiative without a solid content plan, and that's where a marketing campaign plan comes into play.
Today's blog will go over everything you need to know about a marketing campaign plan and how to create one that is destined to work wonders. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- The different types of marketing campaigns
- Advantages of having a clear cut marketing campaign plan
- Examples of successful marketing campaigns
- How to create your own marketing campaign plan
We have a lot to go over, so let’s get started!
Types of Marketing Campaigns:
Marketing campaigns come in all different shapes and sizes. Here are some examples:
- Brand awareness campaign - The goal is to spread the word about your business or product. What is your company and what does it do?
- Rebranding campaign - Stay fresh, relevant, and modern by revamping your brand look.
- Search engine marketing campaign - Target your customers when they use search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
- Social media marketing campaign - Show off your brand or product on social sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
- User-generated content (USG) marketing campaign - Get your audience to do the advertising for you. Remember the ice bucket challenge?
- Email marketing campaign - Reach out to your audience by sending a clever email. And yes, people still read their emails!
- Product launch campaign - Announce your product to the world with a launch campaign. It can be based on multiple platforms, from social media to newsletters.
- Referral marketing campaign - Incentivize customers to recommend your product and they will be rewarded in the process.
- SEO campaign - Drive organic traffic to your website using keywords and content.
- Partner marketing campaign - Some things are better in twos! Join forces with another brand or company for an even bigger impact.
- Influencer marketing campaign - Utilize social media influencers to market your product to their following.
- Video marketing campaign - Communicate your brand through visuals.
Marketing campaigns can be promoted using various forms of media. These media include tv, radio, print media, and online media. Most businesses are completely dependent on marketing initiatives to let customers know about their products and services, so it's essential that you have such a marketing plan.
Why Do You Need a Marketing Campaign Plan?
In marketing, it's never good to be caught unprepared. That’s why it’s necessary to have a solid plan. Let’s explore the reasons why you should create a marketing campaign plan:
🧘 Stay aligned with your goals
When you have a campaign plan, you've developed a strategy to achieve your overarching marketing goals. It acts as a roadmap to keep everyone on track and working in the same direction.
🌈 Support creative ideas
Everyone puts their minds together to come up with content. It keeps your ideas, creativity, and aspirations in one spot so you can return to them later.
🚗 Reduce roadblocks
A plan keeps everyone in the loop about current and upcoming assignments and deadlines. When you have a plan, you can see any potential obstacles or problems down the road.
How to Plan a Marketing Campaign
Okay, so you’ve got the background, basics, and examples. Now it’s time to make a plan yourself! There are pre-filled templates to help you out, but if you’re starting from scratch, here are the first ten steps to make your own marketing campaign plan.
1. Know your audience
Your target audience is those who will benefit from your product or service. By having a concrete understanding of who your target market is, your team can focus on strategies that cater to your intended audience.
While finding your right audience can be difficult, it's a super important first step. Think about the pain that your product or service alleviates and then think about who specifically has those pains.
Remember that your target audience will probably have similar traits and characteristics, such as gender, age, location, hobbies, etc. These small details to describe your potential customers will better help your marketing campaign plan.
2. Set your marketing goals and objectives
One of the most important aspects of your marketing campaign is setting a concrete goal. Marketing campaign goals could look like this:
Double traffic on our website
Gain 200 more followers on Instagram
Improve average ranking on Google
Attract 100 qualified leads
Additionally, you should list out your objectives, the smaller achievements throughout your project that make up the goal. In other words, it's what needs to happen for your goal to be accomplished. Find out more about milestone planning🍦
3. Come up with marketing campaign ideas
Okay, so you're probably thinking, 'Easier said than done,' but having a safe space to brainstorm ideas is a great place to start.
To get some inspiration, you can draw from your past campaigns or see what your competitors do, or get some ideas from this list:
- Create a competition
- Write long-form content
- Use Instagram Shop
- Make a video to tell a story
- Utilize interactive content - polls, quizzes, 360 pictures, etc.
4. Know your channel
Where will your campaign take place? The channel will guide the content you create! For example, you wouldn’t make a poster for an Instagram campaign.
Channels can include: Print, T.V., social media, website, etc.
5. Develop an offer
Make sure the customer takes interest in your brand. Your campaign should have a key message or an incentive and a call-to-action that resonates with your audience.
This could be a free trial, a limited discount, an e-book, a free webinar, etc.
6. Collect required resources
Will your campaign be in-house? Will you hire a freelancer or an outside agency? Make sure you have a list of all the specific creative assets (files, videos, equipment) that your campaign requires.
7. Estimate campaign metrics
This is a quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of your campaign. If you make estimations, you can make better assessments about the money you’ll have to spend and measure your return on investment (ROI).
8. Create a budget
Sometimes it's tricky to estimate just how much a campaign could cost. While it depends on the size, scope, and phase of your goal, it's always good to establish some sort of budget, even if that amount deviates a little.
9. Track the campaign
Make sure you keep track of your campaign throughout its duration so you'll know in the future what went well, what needs to be changed, and what you can completely leave out. Marketing is all about trial and error!
10. Use software to keep everything organized and accessible
One way to ensure a successful marketing initiative is to use a system that helps you keep all this information sorted and keep campaign information accessible so that people know their jobs and assignments. There are many platforms out there, but of course, we recommend Collato!
Marketing Campaign Examples
So do marketing campaigns actually work? The short answer is HECK YES. Marketing campaigns are all around us, on- and offline. Here are three examples of marketing initiatives that were widely successful. You’ve probably heard of them before.
1. Nike: Just do it
Nikes longest marketing campaign (it's over 30 years old!) is the 'Just Do It' initiative. It was probably so wildly successful because it resonates with professional and amateur athletes alike.
The company used motivational messages and slogans to emphasize the message of sportsmanship and health, which ultimately lead to an increase in Nike sales at all levels.
The takeaway: Ask yourself about the problem you’re trying to solve. How will your product or service solve the problem for customers? If you can hit the pain point and offer a solution in the same messaging, you’ve got a successful campaign slogan.
2. California Milk Processor Board: Got Milk?
Pretty much everyone knows the “Got Milk” campaign. To this day, we still can’t escape the “Got [Fill-in-the-blank]" jokes. This campaign was unique because it didn’t target people who prefer almond milk over cow's milk. Rather, it focused on the consumers who were already there.
The takeaway: It’s not always about a brand new audience to use your products - sometimes, it’s about getting your current audience to appreciate and use your product more often.
3. Coca-cola: Share a Coke
Remember the coke cans with your name on them? Yep, that was a marketing campaign that was a total success. They personalized each bottle with the 150 most popular names in the country. Coke even had a customization service where you could print your beloved nicknames, college logos, etc.
Some people were confused: why would you make a coke so personal? And others searched high and low for their name and correct spelling.
Takeaway: Sometimes established household brands need a fresh marketing initiative to keep loyal customers on their toes.
We hope that this blog could guide you through the steps of creating a marketing campaign plan. If you want to read more, head on over to the Inside Scoop.
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