Creating a successful marketing campaign can be intimidating.
When we talk of clever marketing campaigns, what comes to mind is Nike's 'Just Do It,' Meta's 'The Metaverse,' Legiit's 'Get More Stuff Done' and many others.
It can be a trying and anxiety-filled period for you trying to match these examples. However, it doesn't have to be so.
In this post, I will share a straightforward, concise approach you can use when creating your next marketing campaign.
What Makes Up the Best Marketing Campaigns?
Marketing campaigns are well-planned, well-executed efforts to promote a particular company goal. The goal could be raising awareness of a new product/service or obtaining customer feedback. There is so much more to marketing campaigns than just fun-sounding catchphrases. It takes a lot of work.
The best marketing campaigns of the last decade were born due to planning, execution, and others factors.
Here are the components of a successful marketing campaign:
• Identifying Goals:
This involves planning. This is where you answer why you are about to run a marketing campaign. Do you want to offer a new service? Rebrand your old gig? Gain more followers on Legiit?
Once you can identify the goal, it is easier to plan and create actionable steps to achieve this goal.
• KPIs- Key Progress Indicators:
This component quantifies your campaign's end goals into specific and measurable goals. It specifies which metrics will be used to track progress.
Developing a measurement criterion to analyze if the marketing campaign is performing effectively is vital.
The number of sales, pre-orders, consumer feedback for the service, social media shares, or how the campaign is perceived online are all examples of measurement tools.
• Channels:
Where will your content and messaging appear?
For example, suppose you're running a social media marketing campaign. In that case, you might prioritize growing the most relevant channels to your audience while ignoring those unlikely to produce a loyal following.
Also, speaking of the audience, you must determine if you are marketing to existing customers. Or if you are attempting to attract new customers.
The target audience of your marketing campaign will influence everything from the campaign's goal to its messaging to the creative channels used.
• Content:
Determine the type of content you will create to support the campaign. Marketers frequently include multiple content formats in a single campaign.
A branding campaign, for example, could include video ads, press releases, and guest blogs.
Make sure your design is professional and appropriate for the campaign, whether it's a website design, a video commercial, or an interactive infographic.
Do you have a product to sell? Are you trying to increase brand recognition? Are you giving away some freebies? Choosing a clear message and sticking to it across all assets created for a marketing campaign is critical to its success.
• Offer:
What do you want the viewers to do when interacting with your creative content? Are you inviting them to attend a webinar? A free product evaluation?
The offer or action will determine how your marketing campaign content communicates with your target audience.
• Budget:
You may not require a high budget, but you have to factor in the cost needed for the free webinars or free services or whatever is included in your offer.
Since we've discussed components of a marketing campaign, let's look at some types and successful marketing campaign examples.
Types of Marketing Campaigns
1. Brand Awareness Campaign
A brand awareness campaign aims to inform people about your company and what you do.
The goal of this kind of campaign should go beyond your brand logo. This campaign should explain your company or service and how it differs from the competitors.
Successful brand awareness campaigns also convey the values of the company.
If your campaign is effective, the next time someone comes into contact with your brand, they will know what you sell and what you stand for.
The brand that has the most brand awareness is Coca-Cola. If you showed the Coca-Cola logo to everyone on earth, 7.1 billion people would recognize it. That is 94% of the world's population!
Coca-Cola has a high brand awareness; it would be difficult to find someone who has never heard of Coke.
Airbnb is another company that comes to mind. Why? They have developed a strong brand identity and a global community of people who want to "live like locals."
2. Rebranding Campaign
Rebranding campaigns allow you to revitalize your products/services while remaining relevant.
Rebranding campaigns are also required if you want to reintroduce popular products or introduce your company's new set of values to your customers.
In any case, launching a rebranding campaign should be about more than just changing the font. To improve a product or show your customers that you are gradually moving towards something different, you must make a full-fledged effort.
As an example, consider Meta's "The Metaverse" campaign.
This campaign has successfully stopped the world in its tracks —a recipe for success in almost any marketing campaign.
Before the campaign launch piqued the public's interest, the rumor of a Facebook rebrand had been hovering around.
With this campaign, even if people do not like the change, they'd be curious to see what happens next.
3. Search Engine Marketing Campaign
Search engine marketing (SEM) can target customers who use search engines.
When users search for a term or ask a question, the idea is that you can aim for them with paid advertisements in the search results.
If you rank high on the search results, that is great. You can easily attract new traffic to your website without using paid advertisements.
Because the majority of new visitors to websites are from search engines, launching search engine marketing campaigns is an excellent way to drive prospective customers to your site.
As an example, consider Legiit.
Legiit is a digital marketplace that connects a large number of buyers and sellers. Legiit uses search engine marketing to drive traffic to its website.
Legiit generates clicks by targeting specific keywords related to the SEO marketplace through paid advertisements. For example, if you Google "seo gig," Legiit ranks first in the site's search results.
Legiit promotes its top-rated SEO services, which it is ready to hire out. It's a simple and effective strategy. It also provides searchers with site extension links to learn more about how the platform works and how to begin hiring immediately.
The campaign is an excellent example of using paid search engine advertising to drive traffic to a website by matching search intent with it.
4. Social Media Marketing Campaign
Social media marketing campaigns can reach people on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn.
Aside from deciding which platforms to use for the marketing campaign, you'll need to decide whether to publish content organically (for free) or through paid ads.
Social media marketing campaigns can be used to achieve various objectives. They can assist you in increasing brand awareness, retargeting visitors who have left your website, or even nudging customers to complete an abandoned cart transaction.
An excellent example of this kind of marketing campaign is Apple's "Shot on iPhone."
Apple's "Shot on iPhone" series showcases the high-quality videography and photography the iPhone X can capture.
It's a product launch campaign for a single feature of the new Apple smartphone.
This campaign was unique in that it was similar to a UGC campaign but was also heavily promoted by the brand itself.
Apple created its own Instagram account to share #ShotoniPhone content, worked with professional photographers and videographers, and aired official TV commercials.
One of the best marketing campaigns 2022 is Duolingo's TikTok and social media strategy.
Duolingo's TikTok account had almost 3 million followers by February 2022 (up from 50,000 followers in September 2021), with over 55 million likes on its videos.
Rather than selling a product, Duolingo's TikTok strategy focuses on engaging its target audience with skits, precisely what TikTok users want.
Tiktok users are 38% more likely to say they want brands to be funny than other social media users.
16 Important Social Media Trends for 2024 is a must-read if you are ready to jump on this bandwagon
5. User-Generated Content (UGC) marketing campaign
Instead of creating content in-house, you can use a UGC marketing campaign. This means you invite users of your service or product to create content.
The reason is simple: If your audience suspects you're trying to sell them something, they may tune out. When a friend or colleague speaks, they are much more likely to engage with the content.
Because the content comes from a relevant source—the users themselves—this marketing campaign can increase the trustworthiness of the campaign.
As an example, let's look at Starbucks: White Cup Contest
Whether a branding expert or a coffee enthusiast, you've probably heard of the old but gold Starbucks white cup contest. It is one of the most frequently cited UGC examples to date.
Starbucks invited customers to use the hashtag #WhiteCupContest to decorate their coffee cups. Customers could win a $300 gift card and have their designs printed on a reusable cup.
What was the campaign's outcome? Starbucks' organic reach and user-generated product design increased due to a flood of visually appealing social media posts (and re-sharing of those posts)!
6. Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing is among the best marketing campaigns you can engage in.
Reaching customers (and potential customers) via email remains one of the most effective methods of communication, as 90% of adults and, surprisingly, more than 70% of teenagers use email regularly.
Launching an email marketing campaign allows your company to talk to people one-on-one in their inbox, encouraging them to look at your latest product or keep them up to date on events.
An example is Chris M. Walker & Legiit.
Chris uses email to communicate with his audience and offers promos regularly. Legiit's weekly roundup allows customers to find the best deals on Legiit.
7. Content Marketing Campaign
The content marketing campaign aims to engage website visitors in a more personalized manner.
Content marketing campaigns allow your audience to interact with products and services.
As a type of digital marketing, content marketing campaigns involve sharing something your customers can read or watch that is relevant to your brand or product.
IKEA's Pinterest Quiz is one of the best digital marketing campaigns in 2022 and one of the best marketing campaigns in the US.
All IKEA did was to partner with Pinterest to bring the print version of their 200-page catalog to social media and their website.
So, IKEA gave their customers what to view and look at on platforms that they frequent.
To learn more about content marketing trends in 2024, read this.
8. Public relations campaign
Public relations campaigns assist businesses in spreading the word about an upcoming event or product launch.
The idea is that by setting a public relations campaign in motion, your message will reach a larger audience, spreading it further. Of course, the ultimate goal of these campaigns is to capture the attention of another audience: the media.
The right campaign will have a remarkable angle that media outlets can turn into a story, increasing the buzz surrounding your announcement.
Gymshark's Mental Weight Campaign is a good example. This campaign used subtle statements on the sides of free weights to remind us that the issues we think about can be as heavy as the weights we lift at the gym.
Gymshark used a series of photos to raise awareness of the often-secretive nature of the mental illness.
In Conclusion
Marketing campaigns aren't easy, but they're necessary for building a successful brand and business. Campaigns distinguish specific deliverables from general promotional efforts and connect with your audience in novel and exciting ways.
If you're stuck for ideas, consider what would be helpful to your target audience and work from there. After all, your audience is the lifeblood of your campaigns and business.
Also, visit this page to learn the 17 types of marketing to spark your campaign.
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