Want to mount a successful marketing campaign but need results quickly? Colour Graphics show you how.
Before We Begin…
Irrespective of budget, product or business, successful marketing campaigns follow similar paths. Six months is not a large chunk of time to plan, create and execute a marketing campaign but it can be done.
When time is pressing, you need to be uber-organised with a go-get-‘em attitude BUT – and it’s a big but – you need to retain all the key steps in their entirety. Skipping one or two steps, or not bothering to complete sections of the campaign properly will lead to lacklustre results.
Step 1 – Desired Outcomes and Customer Persona
The first step is to determine who you want to reach and what you want them to do. This means starting with the end in mind.
An established business will have a good idea of who their customers are but if you are a start-up or a fledgling business, you will need to be confident you are aiming your product or service at the right target group.
It may sound basic but several superb marketing campaigns fail because they fail to address exactly who the campaign is targeting.
Step 2 – Campaign Creative
You campaign could run across a range of tools, all of which are appropriate to the customer persona the campaign is targeting.
Start with an ideas session with everyone who needs to be involved in the campaign. Don’t set limits at this point, like budget or what can or can’t be achieved – just get the creative juices and ideas flowing.
Somewhere in those ideas is the one that will help you achieve your goal. Not every campaign has to be earth-shattering. But once you have the campaign outline, you can move to creating the copy and graphics that you need.
Step 3 – Determine the Parameters of Success
Unless you nail down the parameters of success it remains subjective. In other words, how would you know if the campaign has really been a success?
This means putting in place objectives and these need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant or Realistic and Time-bound. Rather than simply stating that the campaign is to “increase sales”, add more detail, such as “increase sales of product X by 20% in the next 6 weeks (include the dates for specific detail)”.
At the end of the 6 weeks, you can calculate whether the campaign has hit the target of 20% increased sales or whether it has fallen short of this or exceeded it.
Step 4 – Schedule the Campaign
The fourth step is to create a schedule for the marketing campaign, being realistic about the coming six months and how the time can be best used.
As part of this, note any dates or public holidays that could impact on your campaign, negatively or positively. It is imperative too that for longer running campaigns benchmarks and review dates are built in to the schedule. This allows you to adjust the campaign as it continues.
With a schedule being potentially incredibly detailed, it may be worth investing in project management software, of which there are numerous examples online. Failing that, utilising programs in ‘the cloud’ such as Google Drive or Microsoft’s OneDrive allows changes and edits to schedules, programing and timetabling to be seen by all members of your team.
Step 5 – Implement the Campaign
With a sharp level of detail, preparation and organisation, executing the campaign is, surprisingly, the easiest step in the whole process.
Note the early readings of success – where are they indicating the campaign need to go.
Step 6 – Review, Measure and Analyse
Reviewing as the campaign continues is one part of the review process. When the campaign has run its course, you need to measure, review and analyse the whole campaign, from steps 1 to 5, noting what needs to change, what worked well and what could be improved for next time.
Tester Campaigns
For a new product or new marketing channels, or for a larger budget campaign, it can be useful to put in place a mini or tester campaign that gauges interest, as well as providing information and date to predict better outcomes and successes.
With preparation, information and collaboration across your team, you can create and execute a successful marketing campaign within a short space of time.
Colour Graphics is an online design and print agency who have worked with businesses across all sectors to create marketing campaigns that are disruptive and successful.