With a thoughtful and planned approach to your marketing, you can reduce wasted efforts and costs and turn that around into effective results for your bottom line.
Often, many people think ‘marketing’ is the things we see – like the social media posts, the radio ad, the letter mailed out, or the pop-up that shows during a website browsing experience.
Of course, that is a part of marketing, but why did this show for you? Why did those images connect? What about the wording that was chosen? And do you think that business advertised because they were going on a wing and a prayer that someone, anyone would buy just one item?
Here’s another thing to think about: Do you ever have a project to implement and go about it without a plan, only a hope? Do you know what to do and why? How do you know that? Chances are, you have a plan in place. It’s tough to get to the end point effectively and efficiently without it.
Same goes for marketing.
More frequently than I care to think, people jump straight to the tactics (step 10) without consideration of the previous VERY important 9 steps.
Let’s fix that.
Today, we’ll walk through a campaign plan and things to consider in each step. I wrote this framework after completing basic training in project management. It’s an outline I’ve been following for years, to great success.
Define the project
Research
Key Stakeholders
Key Dates
Key Objectives
Audience
Featured Products or Services
Incentives
Theme and Messaging
Marketing and Communication Tactics
Employee Support
Budget
Evaluation
Contacts
1. Define the project
What is it that the campaign is about. Give a bit of background of what it is and highlight what this campaign is set to do.
2. Research
This takes time, and it’s so fundamental in campaign planning. You have already done a lot of research in your Strategic Marketing Plan, but now you are digging deeper into a specific area. You want to learn such things as what is happening in the market, what is consumer sentiment, what is the market penetration like (a.k.a. opportunity), what is the economic environment like in the area you want to present to. The findings here will help to develop your understanding and key messages for the audience you are targeting. It will also help in realistic goal setting.
3. Key stakeholders
Identify the key people that will be important in the decision making, planning and implementation of the campaign.
4. Key Dates
Identifying the key dates will help the reader to understand how it fits into their world and the business’ objectives. Outline dates, such as when your employees will receive campaign information, when the campaign will go to market, and when it will end.
5. Key Objectives
Here you are setting the stage for the campaign by re-enforcing the organizations key objectives as it relates to the campaign.
What corporate objectives does this campaign support?
What corporate goals do you want to achieve during the campaign? (this can be quantitative or qualitative goals)
What marketing objectives will you achieve in this campaign that will support and contribute to your annual marketing goals?
6. Audience
Identify who you are trying to reach with your message. This will be linked to the project goals and corporate objectives. By re-enforcing the link to each piece, you are further solidifying the value behind the ‘why’.
p.s. Persona’s (also referred to as segments or avatars) come in very handy here.
7. Featured Products or Services
Articulate the offer details of any products or services you are featuring.
8. Incentives
Are you offering incentives? In this area you will include such things as the timeframe, details of the incentive and any rules/regulations.
9. Theme and messaging
In this area, you will outline the key message that will be shared. You may also include your creative component(s) as well (such as an image of a print or digital ad, or radio copy). Typical sections to include are theme, main headline, and primary message.
10. Marketing and Communication Tactics
Now we are getting to the tactics. Many people skip to this step, without considering the 9 steps preceding it. In this area, you will specify what creative pieces will be placed on what mediums and the timeframe they will be featured. This allows the reader to formulate thoughts on how they can maximize the communication pieces to reach the organization goals.
11. Employee Support
Marketing can do all the pretty in the world, but without your team’s support, it simply cannot do as well as it could. Always take into account how you will support your internal teams so they can successfully utilize the marketing collateral in their interactions. This could be conversation prompts, scripts and training.
12. Budget
Nothing is free, unfortunately. Be sure to include a line-item budget for each tactic, along with the final amount. The final amount will have come from your annual budget, which you had allocated when you developed your Strategic Marketing Plan. By having each line-item outlined, the individual in charge of implementing the tactic will know how much they have to spend.
13. Evaluation
This very important step can easily be overlooked when we are gearing up for the next thing. By define the date that the evaluation of the campaign will be completed by keeps you accountable. By taking the successes and failures and applying the learnings to future campaigns you are setting your marketing up to be even more effective.
14. Contacts
Regardless of if your organization is large or small, it is good to show who the people are to contact for the campaign in case there are any questions or modifications required.
When the time, resources and mental bandwidth is given to properly plan a campaign - without jumping straight into the tactics - you are setting yourself and your organization up for far greater success. This also reaffirms the value marketing provides to the organization because you can clearly articulate how the marketing links to the corporate goals and success.
If you found this helpful and would like to give it a try for your organization and have questions, I would be happy to connect with you. Feel free to schedule a 20-minute meeting with me, or share your contact information and question here.
Keep on being amazing,
Lyanne
With a drive to accomplish high-quality results, the marketing work Lyanne has spear-headed in business has been recognized and awarded nationally on several occasions. In addition to this, she proudly holds the Chartered Marketer designation through the Canadian Marketing Association.
After serving 28 years in corporate finance, she emboldened into new territory by striking up a business marketing consulting practice that exists to lighten the load of marketing leaders. Having been a leader in marketing, she appreciates the complexities of the job and the many demands that come with it.
Whether you are interested in learning more about how blue dragonfly can help your business, are interested in joining or learning more about Mastermind groups, would like to chat about a speaking engagement, or just want to meet with Lyanne, this is a great way to get started. Connect today.
Cheers to the beginning of a great relationship.