From P&G’s “Thank You, Mom” to Dos Equis’s “Most Interesting Man in the World,” marketing campaigns have a way of sticking with us. Why is that? Campaigns make companies memorable. Marketing campaigns promote a focused effort that guides consumers toward the desired action. They also give brands an identity, personality, and emotion. The right campaign can do the same for your business. That’s why we’ve compiled this guide — to provide a clear, concise approach to your next marketing campaign. Keep reading to get started, or use the links below to jump ahead.
What’s a marketing campaign?
Marketing campaigns are organized, strategy efforts to promote a specific company goal. That can include raising awareness of a new product or capturing customer feedback. They typically involve a combination of media, including email, print advertising, television or radio advertising, pay-per-click, and social media.
Marketing Campaigns vs. Advertising Campaigns
Marketing is how a company raises awareness of its brand and convinces customers to make a purchase. Alternatively, advertising is the process of creating persuasive messages around these broad goals. In terms of campaigns, an advertising campaign might be one facet of a larger marketing campaign strategy. Say shoe brand Nike launched a campaign surrounding the release of a new product. Its advertising would only reflect one facet of its marketing strategy. The brand might also leverage email newsletters, social media, and paid search to meet its goal.
Types of Marketing Campaigns
- Product Marketing Campaign
- Brand Development Campaign
- Email Marketing Campaign
- Content Marketing Campaign
- User-Generated Content Campaign
- Public Relations/Awareness Campaign
- Direct Mail Campaign
- Affiliate Marketing Campaign
- Social Media Campaign
- Acquisition Marketing Campaign
- Paid Marketing/Advertising Campaign
Marketing Campaign Components
Multiple components go into the planning, execution, and results of a stellar marketing campaign. We’ll discuss the most important components of campaigns below.
Goals and Key Progress Indicators (KPIs)
This component defines the end goal of your campaign. You’ll develop specific, measurable goals. Then, you’ll state which metrics will be used to track progress.
Channel
Where will your content and messaging be distributed? Let’s say you’re running a social media marketing campaign. You might prioritize growing the channels most relevant to your audience. You can also omit those where you’re least likely to grow a loyal following.
Budget
Not all marketing campaigns require an incremental budget, but many still do. Factor in the agency, advertising, and freelance costs. Then, factor these numbers into any ROI analysis for your campaign.
Content Formats
Determine what kind of content you will be creating to fuel the campaign. It’s common for marketers to include multiple content formats in a singular campaign. For example, a branding campaign could include video ads, press releases, and guest blogs.
Team
Who are the individuals you’re relying on to get the job done? Before kickstarting your campaign, designate people to work on every aspect of the campaign. You should know who handles copywriting, design, media buying, and reporting.
Creative Assets
A great marketing campaign should have great creative assets to match. Whether it’s a sleek website design or an interactive infographic, make sure your design is professional. All your assets should fit the purpose of the campaign.
How to Create a Successful Marketing Campaign
Now, you might be wondering, “How do I get started from here?” Well, now is the time to plan your campaign. The campaign planning process will involve you mapping out your strategies and tactics. Your campaign plan should include a course of action. This document will list the required resources, assets, stakeholders, and measurable goals. Let’s dive into what that process will look like in detail in the section below.
Planning Your Marketing Campaign
This step is crucial to the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. The planning stage will determine how you measure success and will guide your team when things go awry.
1. Set a purpose and goal for your campaign.
Let’s start simple. Why are you running this campaign? What would you like your campaign to accomplish for your business? If you’re having trouble defining your campaign purpose, start broad. Take a look at the goals below. Which one is most aligned with your own?
- Promote a new product or service.
- Increase brand awareness.
- Gather customer feedback or content.
- Drive leads.
- Generate revenue.
- Boost user engagement.
- Advertise an upcoming event.
This is hardly a definitive list, but it gives you an idea of general business goals a campaign could help reach. Let’s take this broad campaign purpose and turn it into a S.M.A.R.T. goal. We’ll use the third option as an example: Gather customer feedback or content.
“The goal of my marketing campaign is to gather user-generated content from 100 customers via a branded hashtag on Instagram featuring our new product line by December 31.”
The goal is specific (user-generated content), measurable (100 customers), attainable (via a branded Instagram hashtag), relevant (featuring the new product line), and timely (by December 31). See how this broad campaign purpose instantly transforms into an actionable, attainable goal?
2. Establish how you’ll measure your campaign.
This will look different for everyone depending on the channels you’re leveraging and your end goal. You might measure email open rates, new Facebook likes, or product pre-orders. You can also track a combination of several helpful metrics. These answers will depend on your overarching campaign goal.
If your campaign involves multiple marketing channels, it’s wise to define how you’ll measure your campaign on each medium.
For example, say I was running my user-generated content (UGC) campaign on social media, email, and our blog. First, I’d define my key performance indicators (KPIs) for each medium, which may look like:
Instagram engagements (likes and comments) and profile tags.
Email open rates and click-through rates.
Blog views, click-throughs, and social shares.
Then, I’d define my primary campaign KPI: Instagram-branded hashtag mentions. While the above KPIs indicate how well my campaign reaches and engages my audience, my primary KPI tells me how close I am to reaching my SMART goal.
Lastly, let’s think about another question: What does “success” look like for your company? Sure, it’s exciting to reach a predetermined goal, but that’s not always possible. What (outside of your goal) would constitute success for you (or serve as a milestone)?
Pro tip: When determining how you’ll measure your campaign, consider setting up some checkpoints along the way. Let’s say your campaign involves boosting brand awareness, and your goal is to reach 50 PR mentions by the end of the year. You can set benchmark notifications to
