Marketing Campaigns: Definition, Types and Proven Strategies

Today’s market is constantly moving and changing, and that’s why you have to stay on top of trends and your marketing messages. Consumers are exposed to more advertisements and marketing content pieces than ever before, which can lead them to become overwhelmed or exhausted by the constant drive of consumerism.

Businesses that want to do well in a market like this need to do two things: Be clear, and work effectively. To be an effective business with a clear marketing strategy, you need to know what a marketing campaign is, its key components, and the types that can work for you.

What is a marketing campaign?

A marketing campaign is a way to achieve a specific business objective through marketing channels. You’ll come up with your own strategy and key objectives for the marketing campaign, but most businesses use them to connect with consumers, convert leads to buyers, grow brand awareness, or even differentiate their brand from other businesses in the same industry.

Marketing campaigns, therefore, have multiple purposes. They shouldn’t be confused with advertising campaigns, which, while they sound similar, play a different role. Advertising campaigns are solely about using a space to share a product or service with the intention of converting the audience into buying customers. Advertising is a promotional activity designed for sales.

7 Key Components of a Marketing Campaign

A marketing campaign has several key components that help it work. Keep these in mind as you get started:

1. SMART Goals

SMART goals are a common method of goal setting. With SMART goals, there is a simple focus and you’ll set specific goals. They should be measurable, achievable, and relevant. It’s also important for them to be time-bound goals. When you create your marketing campaign, focus on these requirements to ensure the goals you set are both reasonable and measurable.

2. Clearly Defined and Measured KPIs

Clearly defined and measured KPIs are a component of your marketing campaign that you can’t ignore. You need to think about your campaign’s goals and then develop ways to measure if it is progressing enough to reach them. For example, you might decide you want 4,000 new views by the end of the month and for 10% of them to convert to buyers.

3. Clear Diffusion Channel

You need to know where your messaging is going to be distributed. Think about where your audience is and how you’re going to reach them. For example, your main distribution channel might be TikTok or Facebook, or you may put your content out on your website and Instagram. What you do depends on your preferences and how you want to deliver your message to your target audience.

4. Budget

Not every type of marketing strategy requires you to have a budget, but if you do have one, you need to stick to it. To determine if you’ll meet your budget, remember to add up the cost of things like freelance work, advertising, and other fees. When you know your total cost for the campaign, you can determine its return on investment (ROI) easily.

5. Defined Content Formats

Defined content formats are another part of a strong content marketing campaign. You need to think about the kinds of content you want to use to build your campaign. Some brands prefer video, others use blogs, and some will use press releases or advertisements.

6. Team

A good marketing campaign is powered by a strong team. Before you begin, know who you’re going to work with and who will be responsible for each part of the process.

7. Creative Assets

Finding creative assets to promote your products or services can be tough in some cases. Work closely with your creative team to take photos, make videos, create infographics and website designs, and more. Keep things professional and branded.

10 Most Common Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Right Now

If you’re ready to start building a marketing strategy, here are some ideas on what you can do to get started:

Content Marketing

Content marketing focuses on consumer engagement. It includes content writing, video marketing, podcasts, infographics, blogs, and many other kinds of content that connect with audiences, give them information, or entertain them.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing focuses solely on taking your brand onto social media platforms. There, you’ll connect with your target audience, building connections and conversations around your products or services. Approximately 71% of all small-to-mid-sized businesses use social media as a part of their marketing strategies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Using search engine optimization (SEO) can help to increase the amount of organic traffic heading to your website. You will optimize your chances of being found online when users search for key terms that reflect your products or services. With the right keywords, SEO content, and approach, you will drive traffic to your website.

Email Marketing and Newsletters

Studies have found that 87% of marketers still use email as a primary method of lead generation. Email marketing needs to have the right message to connect with the audience and should have a personalized feel to ensure emails don’t land in the spam folder.

Influencer Marketing

Using influencers to help with brand awareness and social proof is a great way to grow your business and turn leads into customers. Influencers already have thousands, if not millions, of followers who trust them, and you can borrow some of that trust to get them to try your brand.

Earned Media and PR

Media publicity, such as press releases and positive publicity, can go a long way in supporting your business. You can work with paid public relations agencies or try organically getting yourself into the news through work in the community, for example.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are all about conversions. Marketers use landing pages because they are designed to take leads and turn them into buying customers. Ensure your landing pages load quickly and have strong calls to action to make the most of them.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can be thought of as paid partnerships. With affiliate marketing, you give others a chance to earn from you by selling your products on your behalf. Affiliate marketing is popular because it gives your average customer a chance to get something back out of your relationship.

Retargeting

When you have a customer base that is already familiar with your brand and products, retargeting can be a good marketing tactic. Retargeting helps you reconnect with those who have already gone to your website or interacted with you. It can boost awareness of your brand, get more leads for your brand, and encourage high levels of sales.

AI Marketing

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, it’s now possible to use AI as a part of your marketing strategy. On your website, you could install chatbots to answer questions. Or, you might choose to use AI to help you target your preferred audience online. You can even use AI to help build your website.

How To Create a Marketing Campaign in 10 Easy Steps

Now, it’s time to start building a marketing campaign from scratch. This guidance will help you to get moving and create a marketing campaign that will connect with your audience:

1. Set a purpose and goal for your campaign.

To get started, you need to establish a goal for your campaign. Will you focus on awareness of your brand? Is the goal to get more leads to convert? Decide what it is you want to get out of the campaign so your primary objective is clear.

2. Establish how you’ll measure your campaign.

After you set a goal for your marketing campaign, think about how you’re going to measure that goal. Many marketers use key performance indicators to track the success of a marketing campaign. You may prefer to monitor click-through rates or conversion rates, for example.

3. Define your target audience.

Another thing to do for a successful marketing campaign is to understand who your target audience is. You should sit down and consider the demographics that would be most interested in your products and services. Targeting them directly will eliminate any poor leads and improve the likelihood of conversions.

4. Set a concept for your campaign and contact the right team.

After you decide on your target audience, KPIs, and goals, you should determine the concept for your marketing plan. You can get creative, but think about how you can connect best with your audience to make the greatest impact. Then, get in touch with those who can help. You may want to connect with influencers to get user-generated content, for example, or you could hire a team of writers or photographers to help with infographics or other content generation.

5. Choose the channels on which you’ll run your campaign.

After you settle on the theme of your campaign’s content, you need to think about which channels you’ll use to distribute it. Depending on the channels you choose, the format of your content may need to change. For example, TikTok is a channel best suited to video, while Facebook and Instagram work well with static images. You might also want to pair content, such as by creating a video with a blog that goes along with it.

6. Set a timeline for your campaign.

Now that you have the overarching idea of the marketing strategy you want to use, it’s time to set a timeline for the campaign. How long do you want to run the campaign? Will you run it for a month, a quarter, a year, or longer? Having a defined timeline lets you plan for the total budget and amount of content you’ll need.

7. Ensure your campaign drives users toward a desired action.

Once you start the campaign, keep an eye on it. You want to be sure that users are performing the desired action. For instance, if you want new leads to go to your landing page and connect via a form, keep a close eye on the KPIs to be sure they’re doing so. If they aren’t, you’ll need to look at your call to action and other aspects of your landing page to see what’s going wrong.

8. Monitor the right metrics.

You’ll want to measure your key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure your campaign is doing what you want it to. Marketing metrics can vary based on the campaign and how it’s delivered, but marketers tend to track click-through rates, website sessions, sales per channel, and others to monitor their campaigns’ success.

9. Establish success numbers and metrics.

You need to look at key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand if your campaign is successful. Establish the numbers and metrics that make sense for your type of campaign to determine what success looks like for you. That could look like 10 more sales than usual, or you might want to have 300 new customers. Be clear about your expectations.

10. Analyze the data gathered and repeat.

Finally, analyze any and all data you gather during the marketing campaign. Once you see what works and what doesn’t, you can finesse your marketing approach to bring in even more leads and sales.

Use Podium To Connect With Your Audience

Connecting with your audience is the most important part of any marketing campaign, but doing so isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are tools that can help you as you navigate the digital marketplace and build connections with your target audience.

With Podium, you have an AI-powered lead conversion platform that helps you convert more leads into sales. With Podium’s AI Employee, you have a salesperson who never sleeps. It’s always on and ready to talk to consumers, answer questions, connect them with the support they need, and even schedule them for your sales team.

Getting closer to your audience, improving communication, and getting more sales are just a few examples of what Podium can do for you. Watch a demo to see how.