According to Entrepreneur Encyclopedia, a marketing campaign is a specific, defined series of activities used in marketing a new or changed product or service, or in using new marketing channels and methods (e.g television, print, radio and online platforms). Simply put, a marketing campaign is a promotion of products/services with a specific goal and within a specific period.
The most important aspect of a marketing campaign is the message. You will need to use a persuasive and well-understood message by the target market. This is to ensure that, by the end of your campaign, your targeted audience is persuaded (without being desperate) to respond to your calls to action. Get this wrong and the whole campaign will go down the drain no matter the time and resources invested.
We put together a detailed and comprehensive marketing campaign process flow to achieve a successful campaign. Here’s the summary:
PRE CAMPAIGN
Set clear goals and KPIs
With your team, define clearly what you would like to achieve at the end of the campaign. What market segment are you targeting? What actions do you want them to take once they interact with your campaign? Are incentives involved? How long is the campaign running? How will you measure success? Clearly take time to thoroughly go through this part of the process as it will determine the success of the whole campaign plan.
Budget
Most campaigns will require that the business invest money in it. With clearly stated activities (in the first step) it is now possible to come up with a workable budget. Define the channels you will be using, your communication channels and materials etc. Basically, all activities that may require finances should be allocated to amounts. We advise that this budget is presented to decision-makers 2-3 months in advance to avoid any delays.
Prepare the Graphics
Start working on customer-based artworks the team will settle on. This part of the process will involve a lot of back and forth until an ideal result is agreed upon. Start early and employ the company’s branding kit from the get-go to get the feel of how final graphics will be interpreted by customers. Once this is approved by the decision-makers, you are good to go.
Source for 3rd Parties (if necessary)
If there are areas where you need to source out services, get quote comparisons for all works. Comparisons can always be skipped if you are already working with a reliable supplier. Confirm lead times – the shorter the better as long as quality of service remains good.
Delivery
Depending on the time set for the commencement of the campaign, ensure all materials are in place before the rollout. If working with fliers, pullup banners, posters and the likes, distribute them to their respective stations at least three days before campaign commencement.
DURING CAMPAIGN
Digital Marketing
Ensure SM posts/stories/ads are going out as planned. You could create a landing page specific to the campaign and link it to content. Ensure Google Analytics is installed on the website to track data. This data is crucial for you to understand how the campaign is going and for your reporting to make further decisions.
Internal operations
Ensure internal operations have put their best foot forward. For instance, the customer service/success team should be ready to receive and answer inquiries promptly. Chances are very high that inquiries will be coming in during the campaign and it may be possible to convert some sales. Focus on the operations and sales conversions to make the campaign successful.
Monitoring and evaluation
There should be a team in place monitoring the progress of the campaign. You may find that new and quick strategies need to be employed to cover arising needs as much as plans are being followed to the letter. This calls for thorough monitoring & evaluation as well as flexibility. This would be a great time to consider setting up ERP systems to help with data collection, even for future campaigns.
Recording
Recording campaign progress will help you create weekly/daily reports. This will come in handy especially after the campaign when carrying out a final evaluation.
Remove and replace materials, graphics used on social media/billboards. If there was a landing page created on the website, disable it and replace it with something else that’s relevant to the business.
Reconciliation
Reconcile all the materials involved in the campaign. Also, go through the initial budget set and compare it to what was actually spent.
Final Reports
Finally, consolidate all the data and feedback you received from the whole campaign. Was it worth it? Was the goal met? Etc Draw a conclusive report on all KPIs to establish the wins and loses. Learn from these. Data is king!
Download below the detailed process and checklist for your marketing campaign. Planning is the mother of success! We will be happy to assist you to go through it and make modifications to suit your needs. Reach out to us any day.
