Running successful marketing campaigns is the dream of many micro and side hustle businesses.
But it doesn’t have to be a dream. With a few, planned processes you can turn success-dream into success-reality.
What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Campaign Marketing?
In my last blog I wrote about the difference between marketing and campaign marketing.
Basically, the difference is based in outcomes. The way I summarise it is:
- Marketing is a broad-brush activity that enables a business to get noticed by their target audience – this is me; this is who I am; this is what I do; this is how I help
- Marketing campaigns are specific. They are set within a timeframe to reach a specific group of people, to put a particular product, service or offer in front of them – this is what we are selling at this time; do you want to buy (buy-into this)? Successful marketing campaigns are not always about a sale. You would run a campaign to get sign-ups to your mailing list, download a voucher from your website, watch a video or listen to a podcast.
So, the biggest difference between marketing and running successful marketing campaigns is who you are targeting, when you are targeting them and what you are targeting them with.
What Are the Three Key Ingredients of a Successful Marketing Campaign?
Let’s face it, I bet you spend loads of time and effort into thinking up ideas and great offers to encourage customers and clients to choose to buy from you.
But, do you always get the results you want?
If you don’t, it’s probably because you are missing one of the three key ingredients of successful marketing campaigns.
1. Ensure a Laser-Like Focus
For the period of your marketing campaign – whether it’s a four-week lead-up to a special offer or a 16-week build-up to the launch of your online course, your conference or the publication of your book – your focus must be on the offer or promotion you are marketing.
This doesn’t mean that your consistent ‘awareness-raising’ marketing activity stops, it just means it may need to become part of your marketing campaign. If you want to know more about this, I go into more detail about this in my book, The Big Social Media Marketing Organiser.
A successful marketing campaign will start with you defining your target audience. It’s important your potential customers or clients are not distracted by anything else. This means all your marketing activity and your marketing campaign materials need a laser-like focus.
For example:
- Your website should have a central, prominent, visual call to action. The Header area on your website Home Page is the number one place, followed by the sidebar (if your website has one). Include eye-catching images with a clickable link to either access or discover more about your offer or promotion
- The emails you send out to your target audience should exclusively showcase your offer or promotion. If you include information or features about other things your audience is likely to become distracted and you will have lost the opportunity to turn them into customers
- Blogs should be on topics about your offer and use specifically identified keywords
- If you attend any networking events or have the opportunity to do some public speaking, you can use your offer as your call to action
2. Update Everything to Showcase Your Offer
Marketing calls for consistency. For a marketing campaign to be successful this means that during the period of an offer or promotion all marketing channels should be synchronised with the same message and imagery.
For example:
- Websites need to feature your offer, front-and-centre
- Blogs should be written with the offer in mind and cover topics that are connected to the promotion. You should also include a call to action in each blog post to encourage your readers to link through to your offer
- Images that feature your offer need to be created for all of your social media channels and your email marketing template. You could use a design tool like Canva for this or, if you don’t feel that confident in designing your own, get a quote from a graphic designer or maybe use a site like Fiverr. The important thing about these images is that they should all be the same and carry the same message and call to action
3. Create a Funnel
Any offer or promotion you create should have a target group. However, as well as that specific audience you will probably attract past customers and some new clients you didn’t even plan for. Therefore, it’s essential for you to have a process for knowing
- Who responds to your offer
- How they found out about your offer, and
- Where they found out about your offer
Your system must include a method for engaging and responding to those who express an interest in your promotion and a follow-up with those who take-up your offer.
This process is your funnel.
For example:
- Have a system of tracking how much interest is being shown in your offer. You could create a specific link with a tool like Bitly. Or, if you feel you want even more control, using a platform such as ShortStack or LeadPages will provide you with excellent analytical data so that you can measure the impact of your offer
- Create a Lead Magnet – a useful, freebie, giveaway – on a topic connected to your promotion as a means of engaging with people interested in your offer
- Create some targeted Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter advertising (choose the platform according to where your target audience hangs out
- Hold a webinar, or speak at an event
- Attend networking events, trade shows or conferences
- Set up a specific Contact List in your email marketing system for capturing and recording those who show an interest in your offer or download your Lead Magnet
- Create an email Autoresponder series to engage with those people who share their contact details with you, download your Lead Magnet or take-up your offer
So, What DOES Make a Successful Marketing Campaign?
The thing that all these activities have in common is the ethical collection and use of customer and potential customer contact information.
If you collect it, use it. Engage with them, even (especially?!) if they don’t turn into customers immediately.
This is what will make this – and future marketing campaigns – successful.
Want to discover more about how to plan your marketing campaigns? Check this out …