The goal of every marketing campaign should be to meet a strategic goal. It seems like a pretty straightforward concept, but far too often we do not outline and define objectives before beginning a campaign. This hinders our ability to efficiently distribute resources, capitalize on opportunities and define success. Here are five questions your organization should be very clear on before starting its next marketing campaign.
1. What is the business goal?
What is the primary objective of this campaign? Do you need to increase sales? Create more qualified leads? Or maybe you’d like to increase brand awareness. Whatever your goal is, write it down and make sure your organization and team agree. Keep this objective in mind as you create all of the materials associated with the campaign.
2. How will we measure success?
What good is a campaign if you have no way to measure its effectiveness? This should tie in with your overall goal, so be specific and define these metrics very explicitly. Will the campaign be successful if you sell 15 more products or if you increase your social media following by 10 percent? Consider things like cost of acquisition and conversion rate. If you have a longer buying process but know that 25 percent of offer submissions convert to customers, the long-term benefit might mean more than the short-term win.
3. Do I have the right audience?
Buyer personas! You’ve heard the word and (hopefully) have some established demographics but it’s never a bad idea to refresh your memory. Think about your ideal customer in a very holistic way. What problem are you solving for them, what types of media do they consume, what are their biggest challenges, and what kind of language resonates with them?
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4. Do we have the right messaging and where should we promote it?
See why your buyer personas are so important? These semi-fictional pictures of your ideal customers help shape every piece of content you produce and where you should promote it! Are your messages crafted to appeal to your customer? Are you publishing and interacting where your potential customers are already? You can create the most amazing campaign ever, but if your messaging doesn’t resonate with your target market or they just aren’t seeing it, it could all be for not!
5. Is my call to action clear and relevant?
Is it completely clear what action you want your target to complete? Sign up for a free trial, follow us on Instagram, buy now; these are all clear and concise actions that you are asking someone to take. You also need to think about the relevance of a CTA to the campaign. If your goal is to sell 100 new products and your targeting customers who have interacted with your brand before, ”Follow Us on Facebook,” isn’t going to help you reach that goal.
Creating campaigns that work can be a challenge! If we spend a little time creating goals and objectives, we create a very clear roadmap to success.
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