The Anatomy of a Promotional Campaign

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Marketing campaigns run the gamut from simple, single-channel efforts, like a one-off promo email, to much more robust efforts that integrate multiple channels. In general, whatever its size, a campaign is a specific initiative designed to achieve a particular goal. Essentially, campaigns are are used to carry out plans set in your marketing strategy. Promotional campaigns can be as simple or as complex as your business needs, and you don’t need to be a professional marketer to put a good one together. Whatever the size of your next promotional campaign, here are the six essential aspects that you need to consider. Go through these steps and before you know it, your campaign will be off to the races.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

1. Select Your Target Audience

To get started, ask yourself, What kind of person am I interested in reaching with this particular campaign? The best way to do this is to get specific and actually picture your ideal buyer, and then think about what separates them from other people. Define Your Audience:

• Interests
• Likes and dislikes
• Needs and concerns
• Pain points and problems you can solve
• Preferred communication methods

Once you’ve built out this profile a bit, pick one to three primary pain points and identify how your business can address these issues. Then, think about which channels your audience is most influenced by. Below are some examples of those channels, but you may not need all of them. For example, an audience that skews older may not be influenced by an Instagram post. Find The Right Outlet:

• Organic search
• Paid search
• Blog posts
• Social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter)
• Emails
• Print pieces

2. Set Up Goals for Your Campaign

Every company wants “more sales,” but that kind of vague goal won’t help set up your campaign to succeed, or help you properly measure its effectiveness. Instead, ask yourself, what do I want to accomplish with this campaign? What are the more specific objectives that tell me we’re getting closer to our overall goal? And, because everyone knows that goals need to be SMART to have a chance of being reachable, ask yourself how exactly you’ll measure the campaign’s performance. Remember, in particular, to keep your goal achievable relative to the current state of your business, and time-bound, with a specific campaign closing date at which you’ll evaluate your final performance (more on that later).

3. Determine Your Offer

Now that your audience and your goals are in place, it’s time to put together an appealing offer. Ask yourself, what kind of offer will get my target audience’s attention? The offer doesn’t necessarily have to be a discount or a free product. Sometimes, what you’re offering the customer is knowledge, or even just some entertainment. This is crucial: don’t mistake your offer for your product. Think of this more as the first point of contact with a potential customer. They may not even know you yet, which means they are likely not ready to convert without a little push. The offer is the thing that gets the audience interested in your product, whether that offer is a discount on the product, or a humorous blog post about why X product never works, and why yours is the solution to that problem.

4. Create Your Optimized Landing Page

Whatever channels you’re choosing for your promotional campaign, it’s a good idea to create a landing page you can link to. A landing page is a website page created especially for the promotion of one campaign or offer, and directly aligns with the messaging of your entire campaign. With a landing page you can increase your odds of converting by creating targeted content and specific calls to action. If you link to a general page or piece of content on your site, you’ll lose out on the opportunity to align the page directly with your goals. When building your landing page, ask yourself, How will I get the visitor to take action? Have I made it sufficiently easy for them? Actions could include:

• Making a purchase.
• Signing up for a one-time offer and submitting your contact information.
• Signing up for an email newsletter.
• Downloading a useful piece of content via form.
• Following your social media accounts.

5. Create your Thank You Page and Next Steps

Few promotional campaigns are as easy as selling something outright. Campaigns are typically just the first step in the conversion process. Usually, a person may initially submit their information, and only after being a subscriber to your content for a few weeks (or months) makes the decision to purchase. To ensure you’re making the most of that process, you need to build a path for the potential customers, who have converted through your campaign, to become real customers. This may include an automated email series that have triggers a few days after sign up. You can use those emails to expose them to other aspects of your business, or drop them into another follow up campaign after a few months. To succeed at this step, ask yourself, How can I help my visitors with their buying journey?

6. Evaluate Performance

The way to build more successful campaigns over time is to measure performance. Whether your promotional campaign ended with any conversions or not, it may be tempting to just close out the campaign and move on to the next thing. But seeing exactly why you had conversions, and maybe why you didn’t, is the only way to figure out how your next campaign can be more successful. Evaluating performance can also help you make decisions on future A/B tests, which can tell you even more about what is and isn’t working. You should certainly do an evaluation of what worked and what didn’t once a campaign ends, but don’t forget to also check metrics throughout for opportunities to improve performance while your campaign is running. Need help planning your next multi-channel promotional campaign? We’re here to help! Reach out to us today to get started![/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][templatera id=”10395″][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]