The most important things to remember about any marketing campaign are:
- What do you want to achieve?
- Who do you want to speak to?
- What do you want to tell them?
- Goals
Without knowing why you’re doing something, you’ll never be able to know if you’ve achieved your goals. It’s easy to get excited by the shiny outputs (like new branded pens or a fancy new video) rather than coming up with a solid plan about what you want the outcomes to be, however, if you spend time in the planning phases it will help you focus your time and resources leading to more successful campaigns.
Audience
Once you’ve decided what you want the marketing campaign to achieve, then think about the audience. Try and be as specific as possible. “We want to speak to everyone” will result in a campaign which is bland and vague and will end up speaking to nobody rather than everybody.
Being specific enables you to know what language to use and which platforms to run the campaign on. Think about where your audiences access information and news and go where they are.
Methods
So you’ve got your goals set, and you know who you’re talking to so now you need to choose the best methods for reaching that audience. You don’t need to do EVERYTHING for every campaign, focus your attention on the most effective ways to reach your target audience. And be specific. Don’t simply say “social media” – which channel? Why? Do you want to speak to professionals in the industry? LinkedIn would be most appropriate. Are you wanting to reach teenagers? Consider TikTok.
Create a plan
Now you’ve thought about this, time to put it all together in a plan. Think about the resources you’re going to need to create a successful campaign. It’s good to make a contingency plan too, so you have a plan for what to do if something unexpected happens or it’s not working effectively.
Final words of wisdom
Do something different! Try and be as creative as your budget allows and try to not design by committee.
Some organisations will be slightly nervous of doing something bold, but being bold may well get you noticed, so push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Stories can evoke emotion and human connections. – find them and use them in your marketing content. Tell a story which shows authenticity, honesty and credibility and sparks intrigue and inspiration.
Remember to think about how you can monitor your campaigns and evaluate success and build these into your plan too.