Promotional Campaign Basics That You Should Keep In Mind For Your Business
Are you set and ready to promote your business and get it “out there” for everyone to see?
Then welcome to the world of marketing!
Unfortunately, marketing does not get enough credit or importance, especially in the case of small and medium enterprises that struggle to juggle so many activities! However, marketing is one of the core business processes where you spread the word about your business, build a brand, and earn your customers’ trust. While these may seem like easy goals, there are several ways in which you can ruin it through a poorly planned marketing campaign.
Promotional Campaign Basics:
So here is a guide detailing the promotional campaign basics that will give your business a much-needed boost:
1. Define Your End Goal
Companies run promotions for various reasons, some of the commonest ones include:
- Launch and promotion of a new product
- Bump up the sales
- Acquire new customers
- Reduce churn and improve customer retention
- Raise brand awareness
- Gather good publicity
- Increase the number of repeat customers
Naturally, different businesses will have varying requirements. Therefore, you need to clearly outline your end goal even before you get planning any other aspect so that your campaign stays on track.
Once you have the end goal in mind, briefly outline the KPIs and other metrics that you will use to measure the success of your campaign against these goals.
2. Set Aside a Marketing Campaign Budget
Sure, marketing is going to increase your revenue. However, that does not mean that you have unlimited cash to put into these activities. Plus, imagine the disappointment of planning out an entire marketing campaign only to realize that it does not fit your budget!
When you have a clearly defined budget right from the start, you can create a budget within this financial limitation. A good way to settle on a budget would be to determine the customer lifetime value (CLTV) and estimate the number of customers that you can expect from the campaign. Then compare it with your spending on each of these customers. If the numbers are positive, then you will score a decent ROI.
3. Identify the Target Audience
You don’t want to sell ice to an Eskimo! Therefore, you need to figure out who your target audience is, what they like, and what marketing approach will work best for them. Typically, companies rely on the following characteristics:
- Age
- Gender
- Geographical Location
- Income
- Education
- Interests
- Pain points
By narrowing down on your target audience, you can study this demographic set to create highly relevant, high-value, and impactful promotional campaigns.
4. Create High-Quality Content
Content forms the backbone of your marketing campaign. Whether you are trying to convince the user to pick your product or service or guiding them through the sales funnel – content will lead the way.
You can check out the Instapage vs Unbounce to design stunning landing pages. Of course, pair it with compelling content and an effective CTA because anything you post does not hold value unless it helps you convert customers.
Therefore, introduce a CTA per campaign to make them even more effective. These CTAs should be specific and actionable for your audience.
Businesses can also opt for content marketing, depending on their capabilities. Thus, creating a steady stream of blogs or video content can be an excellent way to complement your promotional efforts. It also helps you establish your presence as a thought leader in your domain.
5. Pick a Suitable Medium (or Media)
Marketing campaigns can be as simplistic or as complex as you want them to be. You could stick to a single channel or employ 10-15 channels simultaneously to promote your business.
Some of the commonest and most preferred marketing media are email, social media, events, tradeshows, online ads, and digital promotions. Other traditional channels for promotion are radio, TV, print media, and publicity.
Given that several businesses are transitioning to the online model, promoting your business digitally may not only work in the present but will also future-proof your marketing campaigns. Run through the financial feasibility of the various modes and compare it with your target audience demographic to narrow down on the best platform for your promotional campaign.
6. Kickstart the Marketing Campaign
After you have successfully planned out your entire marketing campaign, it is time to go live.
However, before you release the brakes on all the promotional activities, you can list all the tools you may need. You will find a wealth of paid and unpaid digital marketing tools that will aid your effort. If your budget permits, get a few fundamental tools and use them to add effectiveness to your marketing efforts.
And now, your marketing campaign is ready to take off!
Keep a diligent eye on the campaign and track its results. The KPIs and other metrics that your team has defined during the planning leg will come handy to get a feel of the campaign in real-time. Capture all the necessary data, which you can then analyze.
7. Measure and Analyze the Results
Now that you have compiled all the data related to the promotional campaign, you need to compare it with your expectations. To take stock of how the campaign went and how well it performed, use your goals to judge its efficacy in meeting the end goal.
For example, if your campaign aimed at acquiring new customers, how many did you gain? Or if it was about increasing the sales, by what percentage was the sales affected?
A few other questions that you can ask are:
- What aspect of the marketing campaign was most effective in meeting the end goal? Conversely, which one was the least effective?
- Would you want to repeat this campaign? Why?
- What part was the easiest to execute, and which one was the most complex?
- What insights did you gain on customer behavior?
- What assumption about your target audience or business did this campaign challenge?
Such an analysis will aid you to create more effective campaigns in the future.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, marketing is a mix of art and science. Some aspects of the promotional campaign will be experimental in nature, while others will require an in-depth understanding of the market. Finally, it is all about planning and refining your marketing campaign until you meet success!
