A marketing campaign is a strategic plan for accomplishing a company or organizational goal, including advertising on different channels, interacting with customers to discern their needs, and creating a specific and tangible end goal to meet. A marketing campaign is typically focused on one particular goal, business venture, or product: generating a certain number of new leads, introducing a new clothing line, or selling a new device.
Marketing campaign platforms can include, but are not limited to:
- Webpages
- Social media
- Billboards
- Banners and other digital ads
- Fliers
Best practices for planning a marketing campaign
The best campaigns have one particular goal and measurable steps to meet it. To plan and execute an effective marketing campaign, businesses must:
Be very aware of who their audience and customers are and what they want. This may include taking time to listen on social media, garnering surveys, or doing extra research.
Create a specific goal for their project or product, with set numbers for money, customers reached, leads generated, and time period. Measurable goals allow a company to plan better and see exactly how they failed or succeeded at the end of the campaign.
Create an effective call to action. A CTA should be interactive, specific and simple: what exactly does the business want the customer to do, and how can they easily respond?
Track success throughout the campaign. Are the teams involved meeting their goals throughout the process? Are social media posts garnering interest and conversation? Are business analytics showing good rates, or are there places that need improvement? These can be measured by:
- Web analytics platforms such as Google Analytics
- Click-through rates
- Conversions
- Opt-ins
Platforms and software for marketing campaigns
Marketing automation software allows businesses to streamline marketing processes and better visualize the steps of their campaign comprehensively. If the software takes care of certain processes, that frees a business to focus on other parts of the campaign.
Email marketing platforms help businesses target customers with custom content based on previous sessions, purchases, and page views.
Customer relationship management software helps businesses build relationships with customers, manage leads, analyze customer behavior, and gain an overall understanding of every aspect of customer marketing. This is a great tool for learning what customers might want and planning a marketing campaign accordingly.
