The key to a successful marketing campaign is not budget or coverage. Blanket broadcast tactics may feature prominently in many advertising campaigns, but marketing is about building a relationship with your prospects so that they become brand advocates. The key to a successful marketing campaign therefore lies in learning as much as you can about your target prospects by identifying them, studying their common ground, and producing a message that resonates with them. With this, you can then plan a campaign that touches prospects gently over time to produce your desired goals.
Set Your Campaign Goals
Every successful undertaking begins with setting the goals by which you will measure success. Take a long view and establish the benchmarks you wish to see in a year. Next, break those down into shorter-term targets. Remember that marketing is a long term strategy, not a one-off promotion. Plan for your campaign to mature over time. If you want to add a particular number of clients in a year’s time, determine how many leads your team needs to meet this goal and then break those leads down into monthly goals. These targets will keep you focused on creating a front end demand that your back end can supply.
Identify Your Target Market
Who is your target prospect? If your answer is “everybody,” then your marketing campaign needs focus. You must identify those most likely to become top clients and brand ambassadors. Consider your ideal clients and compare their shared demographics to determine an ideal customer profile. You will want to address age, gender, socioeconomic status, geographic location, hobbies, and occupation.
Identify Pain Point
Once you know your target customer, you need to discern the pain point your product relieves. Avoid the temptation to simply tell the market about your product. Instead, seek to understand your prospects’ lifestyles and the way your product should fit into their lives, so you can frame your message through their perceptions, not yours.
In the 1970’s and 80’s, McDonald’s restaurants ran marketing campaigns with the slogan, “You deserve a break today.” Without even mentioning its product, this slogan spoke to the stresses of its customers and their motivations for eating take out.
Craft a Campaign that Evolves over Time
Prospects often need exposure to a brand many times before making a buying decision, but they also tend to drown out a repetitive message. Planning a strategy that develops a brand message over time, either going deeper with an ever increasing level of commitment or simply tweaking the story in the ads, keeps the messages fresh and more likely to be processed by your prospects.
Go Where Your Target Prospects Are
Once you know your target’s interests and hangouts, you can focus your spending on the specific venues likely to present your offering to similar prospects when they are apt to respond. Consider where they spend their time, both online and off. Identify their favorite pop culture content and where they go to consume it. Plan to spread your campaign over several platforms to reinforce your message, but don’t dilute your spend by trying to be everywhere at once.
Ensure Your Campaign Measures Your Metrics
If your campaign does not perform as you forecast, you need to be able to make timely and appropriate changes. This requires that you monitor your metrics with an eye to optimizing your response rates.
Over time, you will learn the amount of money you need to spend in order to generate a desired response rate. With your focus on a core of devoted customers and a test-and-improve mindset, your team can craft a highly targeted brand message that speaks to the needs of the market and yields a highly successful marketing campaign.