Marketing Campaign basics (planning for your year ahead)

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When it comes to planning out your marketing, be it for the year ahead or for a specific campaign, there is a formula to how our team work out the ins and outs of what we want to cover. And we’re feeling generous enough to share it with you!  

A marketing campaign is just a fancy name and strategic plan behind how you’re going to promote your service/product/event etc. So, to break it down, when you pair together a Facebook ad, eBlast and email signature promoting that you’re recruiting new team members – that’s the basis of a recruitment campaign!

Planning a marketing campaign is comprised of five key components >

1.       Objective
What is the objective/goal of your campaign? What is it you want to achieve?

Product example: If you’re launching a product, your overall goal will obviously be sales, but to achieve sales – you first need an audience and awareness around your product.

Recruitment example: If your campaign objective is recruitment, while retaining your current (awesome) staff, then you want to be promoting yourself as an employer of choice in your industry. Which leads us perfectly into target market…

2.       Target market

Who is your audience/target market? Yes, this is where we start to stereotype those you want to talk to.

Product example: Ask yourself – who would be most likely to purchase your product (not just who would use it, but actually purchase it)? The answer to this question might mean you have more than one audience – eg if it was a video game, you would be appealing to the people who play those kinds of games – but then also to parents/grandparents who might gift the game to your main target market.

Then you need to stereotype how old they are, where would you find them and how would you best be able to get your message in front of them. Where do they hang out? What interests them?

Recruitment example: If you’re looking for skilled workers in your industry, you’d be considering their age based on how much previous training and experience you’re looking for, where they might be currently (in the workforce, possibly actively looking for new job) as well as who are their influencers.

Their friends or family might know they are looking for new opportunities so when they see your campaign, they will share and influence your target audience’s decision-making process. These influencers may not be your target market but by talking to them as well, they can help you achieve your objective.

Tip: It’s 100% ok to have multiple target markets with varied messaging!

3.       Concept development
This is the fun part – where you get to plan out the wording/tone and the look/feel of your campaign. You get to create a tagline and/or positioning statement to clarify the tagline (something short and sharp to get your message across), paired with the visual design style (eg real photos, infographic/icon style, stock images with some branding updates etc) – and how it all pulls together.

Keep in mind here that you will want to keep to your branding guidelines so the audience can easily recognise that it’s you, but you also want to create a campaign look that stands out from your everyday marketing activities. You want your audience to recognise it’s you, but also pay attention - as it’s a new and exciting message.

Tip: We often use one design piece to figure out our wording, create that concept look and bring the campaign to life. Once we’re happy with that first element, we then rollout all of the other activities around it for consistency. A Facebook cover works well, as does a poster - if that is relevant to your campaign.

4.       Activities
There are LOADS of activities you can do to spread the word for your marketing campaign! Choosing what is right for your campaign or business will likely come down to budget and timeline, which we will get into shortly, but first we can daydream and list out all the activities that would be effective towards achieving your objective with your target market. Here’s some ideas to get your creative juices flowing >

• Photo shoot/video shoot – so you have content to use as part of your campaign

• Email marketing – whether it’s a part of your regular eNewsletters and/or deserves its own eBlasts

• Website update – add a landing page + include a promo/link to that page from your home page

• Social media – including posts + covers + ads + stories + reels, oh my!

• Digital ads – could include YouTube + Google + LinkedIn + Facebook + Spotify as some of the major platforms

• Print material – flyers, brochures, direct mailout, cool little postcard foldout things, pullup banner, media wall and so on (consider where are they going and what is their purpose?)

• Signage – billboards, shopping centres, airports, cinemas all cater to different audiences (and budgets), and don’t forget your own office/shopfront

• Traditional media – radio, TV, print media (local paper or industry magazines) – which generally all include some element of digital as well

• PR – media launch, media release, interviews (you may even want to consider a media exclusive – if you have a particular media outlet that is best suited to your target market)

• Event – open day, demo, VIP night, competition/draw (this could be the focus of your campaign – or an element of it)

5.       Timeframe + budget
Last, but we know it’s definitely not least, you need to decide on what activities will give you the most bang for your buck and fit within your campaign timeframe. This is when reality kicks in and you need to whittle down to a final list of the actual activities you plan on undertaking – what activities best suit your objective, target market, concept and budget? Once you have that list, you can then work out what order the work needs to be completed in and boom – we’re almost done!

Most campaign timeframes follow the below framework >

Phase 1 > Prep – get yourself ready + raring

• Organise your campaign details and content
  Example: Write your radio ad script and organise production. Organise copy/design/print of promotional items as needed. Book signage or anything you need done by a supplier – making sure to ask how long their lead time is so you can pop that into your timeline too!

Phase 2 > Launch – it’s go time!

• Set your digital ads live

• Switch over to a new email sig and/or social media covers

• Send mail outs (posts or digital)

• Hold your event etc

Phase 3 > Wrap up

• Send follow up emails to new clients (welcome) and suppliers (thank you)

• Competition winner announcement, if applicable (how are you planning on doing this – can you live stream it, will you send out a media release, how’s it actually going to happen so you get the most leverage out of it as possible?)

• Reporting and results review. Always review with the team as well, to note any pain points or improvements for the next campaign. You’ll want to look at things like:

  • Website views and traffic sources

  • Ad impressions/click/conversions

  • How many products/services/tickets etc sold

  • Recruitment applications received + converted

Basically whatever your objectives and activities were, that’s what will determine what results you should be tracking and then reviewing.

And there you have it – our guide to planning your next marketing campaign. It’s honestly pretty easy to level up your marketing with a bit of forethought and strategy. Your campaign may be a big 10 activity, 3 month recruitment campaign or it could be a Facebook ad and eBlast – there’s no right or wrong answer here. It’s about getting the most from your time and money.

BONUS BIT > Here is our Marketing Timeline TEMPLATE to help get you in the planning mood. Ohhhh… new spreadsheet feels.