There are countless ways to get the word out about your latest killer idea: social media, traditional mailers, email, digital advertising… and the list goes on.
But with all of these alternatives comes a whole other issue. Which methods do you employ, and how do you even get started with this marketing campaign? If you don’t choose the right outlets for your messaging – not to mention the right medium – then you might miss out on key audiences that will benefit most from what you have to offer.
But don’t panic. While all of these decisions might freeze you up or make you want to pull your hair out rather than get started, it doesn’t have to be a more difficult process than coming up with your great idea in the first place. With a few tried and true checklist items from the Sage Island castaways, you can establish the most important foundational pieces of your campaign before you even touch base with a team of marketing professionals. And in the process, you might just come to appreciate all your hard work even more!
Who are you talking to?
It all boils down to for whom your message is intended and why this particular audience should even care about whatever product or service you want to advertise. The answers to these questions are what will help guide everything you say, not to mention how you say it, from here on out.
So before you do anything else, identify your audiences and what these people can take away from your brand’s campaign. In any case, understanding your target audiences is going to lead you in the right direction for messaging and help you spend your marketing budget wisely for the greatest return on investment.
What’s the end goal?
In some instances, there is an obvious answer to this question. If your business creates some kind of product, then you’ll most likely gravitate toward whatever you think will get you the sale. If a service is your main offering, then you might want to create a campaign around the benefits of said service to entice potential clients.
Regardless, any content you disseminate to the masses is going to change with the purpose that motivates you to get it out there in the first place. And, this will help you answer your next major inquiry, which is how you plan on spreading the word. The method can say a lot about what you want your target audience to do with your content once someone has effectively consumed it, so make sure everyone on the team knows exactly what it is you hope to accomplish with the campaign.
How do you want to communicate?
Just like outlining who exactly needs to hear your message, defining how these people communicate and in what ways they’ll best respond to marketing campaigns is a huge part of establishing a winning strategy. Are they on social media, or do they still have trouble using hashtags? Do they even read their emails? If not, then you know it’s time to explore the more traditional routes and see what works from there.
This is where it really pays to have a creative team on your side. With so many communications outlets to choose from, it’s easy to wander off-track and get way ahead of yourself, or even miss one that would have suited your campaign perfectly! So while we recommend making the entire strategy a group effort, this step in particular is the time to bring the gang together to make a sold marketing plan.
How can you make it pop?
Yes, you did read that correctly; we said “pop.” Because once you’ve identified your audiences and outlined what you hope to accomplish with your campaign, it’s time to spruce it up so that it stands out from the crowd. Remember that in today’s communications scene, information is everywhere and at all times. Even when you think you’re getting a break from it by turning off your screen, there isn’t anywhere you can go that won’t have a traditional advertisement or marketing message somewhere close by.
But before you fall down that rabbit hole, think of it this way; that also means that your campaign has a lot of potential. You don’t need to pigeon hole a mailer into a standard format, or write your social media copy in the exact same syntax you always use for any other post. This is the time to get creative!
What’s the best way to pull this off? And can you afford to do it?
All the cool ideas in the world don’t mean much if you don’t have the dough to finance them. So while we just went on and on about how great it is to branch out and try new things with your marketing campaigns, we would encourage you to break out that calculator and figure out what you can feasibly afford before you get carried away in the planning stages.
And once you have your budget sorted, you can start looking into the nitty-gritty details that will give the campaign that extra something to make it stand out from the many others out there, like a 3D element to your print promotions, or a special offer in every email. These are the types of things that your consumers will remember when it comes time to invest in a product or service, making you a top contender.
So you’re ready to kick off your next marketing campaign, right? If not, it’s cool. Sage Island has you covered! Contact us to speak with someone from our team about your marketing goals, and we’ll rally the troops to help you make it happen.