10 Steps to Building a Killer Marketing Campaign

Filed under Marketing, Sales/Selling on May 10, 2012

Building a marketing campaign that is sure to be effective and accomplish your goals is not that hard if you follow some very easy steps along the way. A killer campaign is one that has a defined goal, minimizes risk and has a high ROI. It is usually part of a planned flow of related campaigns and not a distinct event. Being part of a progression of activity and being a segue into the next campaign, containing multiple promotional tools and designed with achieving a return commensurate with its cost, insulates you from striking out completely.
Here are some simple steps to follow:

Establish the objective. This is usually to sell more of a product or service. While this may seem rather simple, marketing campaigns are all too often developed around a promotional tool and not revenue generating product or service. The content and call to action are after thoughts to the brilliant idea of sending out a postcard. Always remember that the objective is to make money, not create an award winning promotional piece.
Link the objective to the prior campaign. A great marketing calendar will link campaigns so that most can be thought of as up-sell opportunities to the prior campaign(s). Others may provide alternate ways of accomplishing the same thing or satisfying the same need for those that were not engaged by the last progression of campaigns.
Define the target market. As your campaigns progress in the up-sell mode, the target market will narrow in focus. Each addition to the product line will add cost to the solution. Instead of trying to sell to the same broad market, begin segmenting the market to those prospects or customers that will benefit the most from the features and benefits of the product or service that is the objective.
Establish your value proposition. Make sure the value proposition is consistent with your company strategy. If you’re strategy is cost leadership, make that benefit clear. If it’s differentiation, are the features and benefits highlighted. If you’re a nicher, is the target market focused and the features geared to that market.
Select your promotional tools. Never use just one media. Marketing is both an art and a science. Sometimes one of your marketing weapons doesn’t work. Don’t place the whole campaign at risk on a single postcard. Use a variety of coordinated inbound and outbound marketing tools.
Establish your call to action. What is it that you want your target market to do? Make it clear in your content and be prepared to act when it happens.
Create a sales process specific to the campaign. Your team needs to know what to do when a prospect responds to your call to action. Nail down the response and subsequent steps. What are the anticipated customer touch points, how will you engage and convert?
Create the content. Make sure the content is consistent between the various promotional media. Adapt as required to best utilize an email, blog, video, etc., but make sure the campaign holds together from the value proposition to the call to action for each.
Setup a measurement and control system. People don’t like to log data because it’s never available at a convenient time. Keep it simple and make it easy to ensure it’s done. Measure leads, prospects and conversions. Measure the value of the conversions and the costs of the campaign.
Plan, launch and adapt. A good campaign is like a symphony, the team acting in a coordinated way and the promotional tools all working together to make money. Follow your numbers and determine if, where and when to adjust the tactics to maximize your return.

Each step is critical. That does not mean you need a 50 page play book for each campaign. You just need to think it through and create the tools to compliment the campaign’s execution. You can replicate much of this for the next campaign and develop a rhythm for a continuous business development effort.

Once again, the objective is to make money!

Richard Gabel