Five Strategies for Launching your Marketing Campaign
A marketing campaign is a specific strategy designed to meet a specific marketing goal. In some cases, campaigns are developed for broader initiatives such as driving more sales. Sometimes they are developed for narrower purposes such as building awareness around one specific product. Campaigns help build brand awareness and establish the identity and personality of an organization. If done right, a campaign will help you meet your business goals and also create a lasting impact on your audience.
With so many tactics to choose from nowadays, it’s crucial to be strategic and thoughtful in the approach you take to roll out your marketing campaign. Developing a campaign rollout plan should be your first step after identifying your campaign creative. A plan will help your team stay focused and organized on the goals at hand. Below are some best practices for creating your rollout plan.
Incorporate measurable goals
What is a plan without measurable goals? Make sure to include your goals and objectives for the campaign in your plan and ensure your strategies and tactics will help you get there. Work with project stakeholders to turn your goals into SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) and set up milestones to track your progress.
Be strategic about your tactics
There are countless marketing tactics to choose from today, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when trying to decide what vehicles to choose to share your campaign and message. What you decide to do here comes down to one thing — your audience. Make sure to do your research on your potential customers. Create personas to understand their interests, wants and needs; think about their pain points; and know what marketing tactics will reach them.
Host an internal launch party
Your staff and/or volunteers are your brand ambassadors and their buy-in and understanding of your campaign is essential. Roll out your campaign to your internal folks prior to sharing with the general public. Share any campaign creative and messaging during that time to ensure everyone understands the goal. Make the party fun and include food and potentially a campaign-branded item, if budget allows.
Make a big splash
Launching a campaign is a big deal. If you know your audience members and come at them from many different angles, you will generate a buzz and get people talking about your new product or service. Don’t be afraid to come out heavy and spend more of your marketing dollars at the onset of your campaign. Leave your audience with no other option than to see what your new product or service is all about by using relatable success stories or a clear and strong call to action.
Assess your campaign
When your campaign is over, it’s important to measure its success. By measuring and analyzing data, you are able to see what strategies and tactics worked and which ones didn’t and make adjustments for the future. In addition to comparing your data against your SMART goals to determine which goals were met, develop a list of questions you may want to answer such as:
- What tactics worked best? What tactics might we want to reevaluate?
- What did we learn about our audience during the campaign?
- What did we learn about our internal processes during the campaign?
- What did we do well? What could we have done better?
The launch of a new marketing campaign is a fun and exciting time for organizations. With a little planning and strategic thought, your campaign can produce a big splash for your audience and ultimately drive more customers through your doors.
