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4 Key Components for Your Next Marketing Campaign

 

There is an art to good marketing, and like all forms of art, there is an infinite variety of output. Marketing is also highly subjective, which is why marketing campaigns are designed with a particular audience in mind. Whatever demographic, or demographics, a marketing campaign is targeting, the better the business understands them, the more effective their marketing will be.

Of course, some marketing campaigns are trying to appeal to as wide an audience ass possible. There are certain products and services that are universal. For example, Coca-Cola is enjoyed by people of all backgrounds. But while targeted marketing and more general campaigns each require very different approaches, there are certain key elements that are shared by both. No matter who or what your marketing campaign is for, ensuring that it features all of the following components will give you your best shot at success.

Online and Offline

In today’s always-on, always-connected world, the lines between the online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly blurred. This blurring of the two worlds is something that businesses have had to adapt to in a number of ways. Now that the methods we use to deliver our services to customers have changed so much, so must the ways in which we inform them about our services.

In order to achieve maximum efficiency, as measured by the uptick in sales, a marketing campaign needs to make use of both the offline and online arenas. For entrepreneurs who grew up in the absence of an online world, it can sometimes appear to be something of a mystery. Certainly, different approaches are needed.

For offline marketing, consider embracing the concept of guerrilla marketing. This is marketing which is designed to be cheaper and improvisational, the kind of marketing that can occupy physical space in the world around you, drawing attention and interest. Often, guerilla marketing campaigns are designed to not look like marketing at all.

The corollary to this in the online world is the viral marketing campaign. Viral marketing campaigns often don’t reveal themselves, at least initially, to be marketing campaigns. They are designed to spread like wildfire (or a virus) and therefore come in easy-to-share formats, often videos or dedicated websites.

A Message

In order to create a marketing campaign that resonates with your target audience effectively, you will want to ensure that there is a clear message at the center of it. This message needn’t necessarily be stated explicitly to the audience. For example, the message of your campaign could be “we are a business that customers can trust.” You would then design each aspect of your campaign with that message at the front of your mind.

When you do want to communicate the message directly to your audience, you should do so with a tagline. A tagline is a memorable phrase which serves to stick in the audience’s mind and to convey to them in as few words as possible what the thrust of your campaign is. Formulating a good tagline isn’t easy, but it can make or break your entire campaign.

Proper Funding

The emergence of viral and guerilla marketing campaigns has proven that you don’t need to spend a huge amount in order to create an effective marketing campaign. However, these forms of marketing are not always the best to use, and bigger businesses will want to run bigger campaigns which touch a lot of different media. Pulling off such a campaign successfully will require the proper funding.

The old adage that a business needs to “spend money to make money” is rarely more applicable than when used in marketing. At the end of any campaign, you should be able to calculate how much money you made in increased business for every £ that you invested in the campaign itself. If your business needs a shot in the arm, it might be worth seeking some extra funding to pump into an effective marketing campaign. If you are only looking for a relatively modest cash injection, a lender like TrustTwo guarantor loans might be a better option than a bank. A guarantor loan is generally easier to secure because the loan is guaranteed by a third party, so if you have bad or no credit, this is ideal.

A Purpose

This might seem obvious, but one of the most common mistakes that businesses make when formulating a marketing campaign is that they overlook the purpose of it. Of course, one purpose of any marketing campaign is to promote your business or an individual product. But you need to look beyond this. Just as the message you choose will guide your decisions, so to will the purpose of your campaign. For example, as well as selling a particular product, your campaign might also be intended to help you break into a new market or demographic.

The right marketing campaign can completely transform a business’ fortunes. However, if you don’t approach the campaigns in a thoughtful and considered way, they can quickly become an expensive waste of time. Make sure that your next campaign contains the above components, and most things will fall into place themselves.

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