By Rob Wormley (WhenIWork Blog)
When you develop and launch a marketing campaign, you want to be sure you’re doing everything you can to attract more customers, instead of wasting your investment. To get you started, try these actionable recommendations so you can launch a successful marketing campaign for your business:
1. Do Your Research
The first step you should take before you launch your marketing campaign involves doing some manual research. Before you even begin developing your campaign, you need spend time learning more about your industry, what kind of campaigns have been most successful this year, and how to develop a campaign that your target audience will actually notice and respond to.
Doing a bit of up-front research is important—especially when you think about the time, money, and other resources you will likely end up spending over the life of your campaign. You want to make sure you ultimately are able to launch a campaign that will actually stick and reach any goals you set.
2. Know Your Audience
The second step you need to take in order to launch a successful campaign involves getting to know and understand your audience better. This could involve developing buyer personas, or representations of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. Personality studies based on semantic analysis is a truly ‘listen-to-your-customer’ tool and a must-have ingredient of a wise business intelligence strategy.
It’s crucial that you spend time defining your target audience, determining where they spend most of their time online, and how to reach them in the most effective ways. When you know more about your audience, you can do a better job of predicting the kinds of campaigns that will resonate best with them.
3. Put a Plan in Place
Unless you have a plan in place, your marketing campaign will likely fizzle not long after launch. If you decide to design, launch, and promote a marketing campaign for your business, you need to spend time putting together a strategic plan that will help guide you through various the various phases of your marketing campaign.
You should include in your plan: a promotion or content calendar, information about your target audience, your goals, email templates for reaching out to people, a breakdown of phases (design, pre-launch, launch, post-launch, etc.), a list of people who will help you get the word out about your campaign, your budget, any tools you intend to use, and more.
4. Give Yourself Enough Time
In order to launch a campaign successfully, you have to give yourself enough time. You need time to plan, design, promote, adjust, evaluate, and get the word out. You can’t expect your marketing campaign to be successful if you are rushing to launch or haven’t had time to reach out to people who can help you promote your campaign.
Campaign timing tips:
- Reach out to partners and customers before your campaign goes live
- Reach out to other influencers who might be willing to promote your campaign
- Follow up with people who agreed to help you get the word out
- Put together an organized promotion calendar
- Define ownership and personal timelines
5. Ask For Help
One of the most effective and essential things you can do in order to launch a successful campaign involves personally reaching out to people who can and would be willing to help. Unless you’re Mashable or Pepsi, you can’t expect to build buzz on your own. You need strategic partners who can help you before your campaign goes live, during the day of launch, and after it is live for the world to see.
6. Evaluate and Adapt in Real-Time
You might not experience the amount of success that you expected once you launch your marketing campaign. That’s where evaluation comes into play. When you launch your marketing campaign, you have to be prepared to evaluate how it’s being received and be willing to make small (or big) changes that can help make it more successful.
Your marketing campaign shouldn’t be left untouched once you push the “GO” button. You need to nurture it and make adjustments along the way in order to reach your goals and ensure success.