Digital marketing can seem overwhelming at first. While your primary goal is to engage customers online, you also must understand the entire customer value journey. Then you need to build a great website, research important keywords and find the best channel to reach your audience (or go viral).
Looking at these pieces scattered about is extremely daunting, especially when each piece is critical to success. However, putting your marketing strategy into campaign structures will help you solve the puzzle. A campaign with specific, measurable goals – 10 new customers within 6 weeks, 5% increase in online sales in 3 months – will give a clear vision for how your campaign should look, and then how successful it was.
Here are five examples of marketing campaigns and their benefits so that you’ll know which one is best for the goals you’re trying to measure.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Social media is now an integral part of life, meaning businesses need to be “social” to some degree. Billions of people, not just millennials, use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to interact with friends and brands they trust on a daily basis. Take full advantage of social media platforms to engage authentically and build credibility as a brand. Ultimately, the loyalty and trust among your audience will turn fans into customers and brand advocates.
REACH CUSTOMERS WHO NEVER KNEW YOU EXISTED
Posting insightful, eye-catching content across social media platforms (mixed with paid advertising) will bring fresh eyes to your content. Some of those people will interested and want to learn more.
STAY CONSISTENT AND RESPONSIVE TO YOUR SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
The last thing you want for your brand is to fall off the face of the earth (i.e. not posting consistently and not responding to comments or reviews). So, how do you avoid leaving your customers high-and-dry? First, create a content calendar and schedule your posts based on the preferences of your followers. Then, begin interacting with your social media followers by responding quicking and positively.
GRAB YOUR AUDIENCE’S ATTENTION WITH IMAGES AND VIDEOS
Creative copy matters on social media, but visual content rules all. Always think through your video and images, opting for highly relevant visuals original to your brand instead of stock inventory. You can step up your social media game, too, by streaming live videos and posting to your story to show your followers that you’re a living, breathing company.
CONTENT MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Being helpful goes a long way, especially in digital marketing. A content marketing campaign will put useful content in front of the right customers. When you want to attract the right audience, use this campaign to solve their problems and answers their questions. Time isn’t of the essence in this campaign because it will take time to build a vault of content for your customers to enjoy. Once you’ve established your authority in a niche, you’ll earn a reputation as a thought leader in the industry.
CAPTURE NEW LEADS, NO MATTER WHAT STAGE THEY ARE AT IN THE BUYER JOURNEY
In your marketing, you’ll encounter potential customers who are just beginning to research solutions to their problem, evaluating their options and those who are ready to buy. With content that meets the needs of customers at every level, your business can subtly present your product and services as the answer.
BUILD LOYALTY AND AUTHORITY THROUGH EDUCATION
Earn your prospect’s trust by teaching them how to do something or unlocking new insights. Not only will you build up your brand as a source of knowledge, but as one that has authority in the industry.
TARGET BUYER PAIN POINTS WITH CONTENT
Speaking directly to the issues that keep your customers up at night has become the best method for effective content in today’s marketing arena. In order to ensure that your audience’s needs are being met, create an editorial calendar. This will keep your content production working systematically and provide oversight for your levels of helpfulness.
GIVE SPECIFIC DIRECTION WITH CALLS TO ACTION
Helping your audience is great, but the friendly relationship will go nowhere until you gently nudge them towards a specific action. Motivate your prospects to “do something” by prompting them to download a report, respond to a blog post or sign up for some gated content. This will take them closer to becoming customers by giving them direction for their next steps.
OFF-PAGE SEO CAMPAIGN
Off-page is just as important as on-page search engine optimization (SEO), which is everything your website visitors see. In today’s online arena, it takes more than self-hosted blogs with carefully-placed keywords to get noticed by search engines. Off-page SEO is all about having your content appear in the right places and building goodwill with search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. If done properly, both humans and search algorithms will have an increased chance of finding your digital content.
CREATE A DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT ON YOUR BRAND THROUGH A SELF-SUSTAINING PR ENGINE
When you engage in the type of outreach that a good off-page SEO campaign requires, journalists and content creators will be able to easily spread word about your brand. As a win-win situation, you’ll boost both your search rankings and online visibility.
BEAT YOUR COMPETITION ONLINE
There’s always someone in the top spot on a search engine results page, but only a few will get to be on the first page. Get closer to that desired #1 position by employing link-building and relationship-building tactics on all your digital platforms.
DETERMINE THE BEST OUTLETS FOR LINK BUILDING AND CONTENT SYNDICATION
There isn’t anything better for your brand than to get in front of potential customers in the most popular outlets relevant to your target audience. Make a list of the most authoritative online magazines and blogs in your industry and reach out to the owners and editors of those sites. You will want their content to link back to your website or landing page, so learn the guidelines and content procedures so that your content is relevant and points straight back to your product.
EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
Email campaigns are a great way to get in front of your prospects and customers repeatedly – and with their permission. While checking social media is now a daily habit, some may argue that checking email is even more embedded in our routines. Set the stage for effective lead generation, sales and lasting customer relationships by leveraging these high-quality campaigns.
STAY “TOP OF MIND” IN YOUR AUDIENCE’S LIVES
Consistent and relevant emails are a great way to keep your brand at the front of your customers’ and leads’ minds. Since they are presumably checking email constantly, fill their inboxes with timely emails so that you’ll be the first business think of when they need your product or service.
NURTURE LEADS UNTIL THEY ARE READY TO CONVERT AS BUYERS
Email marketing is all about getting as many touch points with customers and prospects as possible. If you execute your sequences and give relevant value, your leads will more comfortable with your brand. Then, they will continue to look forward to what you send next and eventually warm up to the point of conversion.
REFINE YOUR TARGETING BASED ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (AND GENERATE A HIGHER ROI)
User behavior is anything trackable in your email provider, from how your leads opted in to the email sequence to which emails they open or what links they clicked. Gathering this valuable data allows your brand to segment your audience based on interest. Send these segments information they have indicated they are interested in and watch your ROI soar.
OMNICHANNEL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Content can be consumed and accessed through multiple channels and devices. From podcasts and blogs on mobile to emails and social media on a desktop, there’s a whole gamut of combinations you could use to reach your audience. An omnichannel campaign (literally, “every channel”) uses a mix of any of the campaigns types above. When done right, it can yield big returns through brand awareness, customer loyalty and new sales.
ENJOY THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS FOR LEAD GENERATION AND SALES
By definition, the omnichannel approach allows your business to be on multiple platforms at once. This makes it easier to attract, serve and convert leads wherever they are at any given time.
KEEP ALL CUSTOMER-FACING PARTS OF YOUR BUSINESS UNIFIED
If you have several social media profiles for various parts of your business, thinking omnichannel from the start helps unify the core message surrounding the brand and its values. That will push a consistent, coherent message to potential leads and customers on all networks.
KEEP THE BRAND MESSAGE PERSONALIZED
Personalization is the key to starting an omnichannel marketing campaign. From the beginning, you’ll want to to plan how to move your leads throughout the conversion funnel – from an Instagram post to your blog to an email opt-in form. Make sure the flow between your planned content logically progresses in a way that eliminates friction in the funnel. For example, messaging in a Facebook post should scratch the surface but a blog post should give more detailed information. This all relies on keeping the brand consistent in everything between logos to tone of voice.
Ideally, you could employ these campaigns in unlimited channels with unlimited content. However, the challenges that any business, especially small businesses, face in marketing is their budgeting constraints.
Don’t let this deter you, though, from running the best digital marketing campaign for your company. It’s possible to do more with less, so here are a few tips and tricks to keep your marketing efforts cost-effective:
- Simplify your channels. Don’t spread your efforts or exposure too thin. Put your money behind the most effective places to reach your audience.
- Create partnerships that share the cost. Try co-op advertising, where you group non-competing brands for a single broadcast, print or digital media campaign.
- Never compromise and be creative. No matter the budget, you must produce a high-quality campaign. Lean on your metrics and marketing insights to help you be selective about the channel you pursue maximum value generation.
- Prioritize and sequence. Prioritizing areas that will have the greatest strategic impact is very important. From there, sequence out your strategies and tactics in order to capture the most immediate elements.
- Focus on high-value evergreen content. With budget constraints, marketers usually allocate most of their resources to content distribution instead of content creation. Investing in creating high-quality content increases the chance of organic growth and gives the campaign a longer shelf life.
