Marketing campaigns are a strategic, targeted way to promote your product, service or solution. The combination of integrated marketing tactics and memorable messaging that resonates is what makes a campaign successful. Even before that, a successful campaign starts with a well-defined campaign strategy. In this blog, we reveal the key steps for developing a marketing campaign strategy that will deliver off-the-charts campaign results.
Define Your Objective
A marketing campaign cannot be developed without a clear objective. Will the campaign aim to increase brand awareness? Will it look to boost lead generation? What about driving sales conversions? There are several goals a marketing campaign can be built around. Defining a campaign objective guides your marketing strategy and informs you of what tactics to include. A brand awareness marketing campaign might have slightly different marketing components than a lead generation campaign, which is why defining your campaign objective is the first step to forming a strategy.
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Outline Your Audience
With a campaign objective set, it is time to outline the audience the campaign is intended for. There are a few things to consider. Will you target a specific industry? Will you be targeting certain personas? Once you can answer questions like these, you can then dig deep into understanding the target audience. It is critical to have a 360-degree view of who they are. Everything from typical persona characteristics, such as demographics and firmographics, to buying behaviors. These insights tell the full story of your audience and will help to define how to reach them.
Develop a Compelling Content Plan
Content lies at the heart of every successful B2B marketing campaign. Across all marketing campaigns, you need a robust content strategy that addresses your audience’s pain points and interests across the buyer’s journey. From informative blog posts to in-depth case studies, your content should provide value and insights at every stage of the decision-making process. Remember to consider your objective. Ungated content like blogs, articles, infographics and videos are ideal for brand awareness. Gated assets such as eBooks, white papers, guides and webinars drive lead generation. Product demo videos, product comparisons and case studies are well-suited for sales conversions. Aligning content with your campaign objective and audience needs ensures greater impact.
Choose Your Marketing Channels
An effective marketing campaign must span across different marketing channels. A multi-channel campaign ensures your audience is being reached across a variety of places, increasing your visibility and opportunities for lead conversions. Your marketing campaign strategy should include the marketing channels that are most appropriate for your audience. Below we highlight a few channels that a marketing campaign should include and a few to consider.
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Email Marketing
Email remains a powerful tool for B2B marketers, with high return on investment (ROI) and engagement rates. Utilize your content assets to create engaging email nurture sequences. These can help keep your brand top-of-mind, which supports a brand awareness marketing campaign, or guide leads through the sales funnel, which caters to a lead generation or sales conversion campaign. Emails are versatile and with the right message, personalization and calls to action, can drive action from audiences and serve as the foundation for long-term relationships with your prospects.
Social Media
Social media is a highly valuable platform for B2B organizations. 84% of decision-makers are influenced by social media when making buying decisions, so it is instrumental to include social media in your campaign strategy. For B2B organizations, LinkedIn is a highly effective platform to utilize. 1.7 million decision-makers are on LinkedIn, giving your team a substantial audience to segment for your campaign. Share content that will connect with your audience. From thought leadership articles to product updates, social media offers a myriad of opportunities to engage prospects.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
For highly targeted B2B marketing campaigns, consider taking an ABM approach. ABM aligns marketing and sales efforts towards specific target accounts, delivering personalized content and messaging to drive demand and conversions. While ABM requires careful planning and resources, its precision targeting can yield positive results, particularly for businesses with complex sales cycles and niche markets. Check out these ABM best practices to make the most of your ABM campaign.
Paid Advertising
If resources and budget allow, paid advertising can be a key player in a marketing campaign. Ads are also versatile. You can create them for social media, search engines, websites and more. Social media ads are great for reaching key decision-makers. Search engine ads, like Google Ads, can reach a wide audience and generate results via searches. You can also work with websites or publications to run sponsored content, to reach an even more diverse audience. Use these paid advertising best practices and strategy tips to ensure your ads reach the right audiences with the right message to help meet your marketing campaign objective.
Plan Out Campaign Execution and Timing
A marketing campaign strategy would not be complete without planning out the order and frequency in which campaign components will be executed. Creating a detailed campaign timeline as part of your strategy will ensure your team is aligned and that your sales team, as well as other core teams like customer success, are up to speed on everything taking place.
Crafting an impactful B2B marketing campaign requires a holistic approach that encompasses understanding your audience, defining your campaign goal, choosing marketing channels and planning out a seamless execution. This blueprint for a marketing campaign strategy is poised to elevate your lead generation efforts and drive tangible results for your business.
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