Create a marketing campaign that gives results

Marketing is the most important thing you can do to increase sales, attract new customers, and strengthen your brand. To speed up your efforts on all three points, it can pay off to launch a marketing campaign! 

We’ll take a closer look at what marketing campaigns are and how you can create effective campaigns that deliver results. We’ll also look at campaign plans and what they should include to structure your marketing campaigns in a sharp and effective way. 

What are marketing campaigns? 

A marketing campaign is a collection of marketing activities carried out within a specific timeframe to achieve a desired outcome. Marketing campaigns are often centred around a single message, which is spread across multiple channels using different types of content. 

The desired outcome could, for example, be to increase sales of a specific product or product group or to raise awareness of the business in general. 

A marketing campaign typically lasts about 3 months, but it’s entirely possible to create campaigns that are shorter or longer. 

Why should you create marketing campaigns? 

There are many reasons to create a marketing campaign, but two of the most common reasons are: 

• To increase sales 
• To boost brand awareness. 

Sales campaign 

In a sales campaign, a company aims to increase sales of a product or product group. To capture attention, the campaign’s main message often highlights a discount or offer: 

• Autumn Offer: 40% off all jackets 
• Crazy days – get £200 off with this discount code 
• The boss is on holiday! 3 for 2 on hair care products from this brand 
• Our colleague Ray finally figured out how to watch the football match in peace: We’re celebrating with 30% off all outdoor playsets! 

The last example may be a bit specific, but this list shows that sales campaigns can come in many forms, and that the tone of voice can vary. This depends on the company running the campaign and the audience they’re trying to reach. 

Brand awareness 

An Awareness campaign is about introducing more potential customers to your brand. These campaigns can often run for several months, or even the entire year, with the goal of making your target audience aware of your presence and why you offer the best solution for them. 

Like sales campaigns, an awareness campaign can take many forms, depending on where the company finds its target audience and what content resonates well with them. 

Other reasons to have a marketing campaign  

While sales campaigns and awareness campaigns are the most common types, there are many other reasons to have a marketing campaign. 

• Lead generation for B2B companies  
• In connection with a product launch 
• In connection with an event 
• In recruitment contexts 
• To increase customer engagement 
• To build brand trust 
• To establish authority 
• Retargeting campaigns 

And more! The possibilities are many, and there are also many activities and methods that can be used to succeed with one. Let’s now take a closer look the various marketing activities that can be used in a marketing campaign. 

Further marketing activities and methods 

When planning a marketing campaign for your business, it’s important to know which channels and content types will capture the attention of your target audience. Here are some marketing activities you can consider. 

Social media marketing 

Social media marketing is an effective way to reach your target audience where they spend time. Social media is popular, and there’s likely one or more channels suited to reach your specific audience. 

It’s smart to be active on social media organically, but you can also advertise on these channels when creating a digital campaign. 

Email marketing 

Including email marketing in your campaign can be beneficial. This involves reaching out to existing customers or people who have already shown interest in your business.

A professional email can be an effective tool to draw attention to a sale or increase awareness of your business. 

Local marketing 

Local marketing offers several ways to boost visibility in your business’s location. Local marketing involves ensuring your business is visible in its local environment. 

Make sure your digital campaigns are seen locally and make it easy to find your store’s address on your website if you have a physical location.  

You might also consider advertising in local newspapers or at busy bus stops, train stations, and shopping centres. 

Influencer marketing 

Influencer marketing means collaborating with a relevant personality known to your target audience to promote your product, service, or brand. This could involve highlighting a specific product over time or various items in a campaign. 

Affiliate marketing 

Affiliate marketing is like influencer marketing but works a bit differently. Affiliates independently refer your business to relevant people, earning a commission for each sale. You have more control over an influencer’s content, while affiliates choose their promotional methods. 

In a campaign context, affiliates can be given discount codes or coupons to share with relevant audiences. 

SMS marketing 

With SMS marketing, sharp and short messages are key. Deliver the main message of your campaign in a way that entices the reader to click the link to your online shop or website. 

Ads on Google

Google offers many options for creating a marketing campaign. With Google, you can create Display campaigns to show banners and animations on relevant websites; video campaigns displayed in targeted YouTube videos; and shopping campaigns that showcase products from your online store when users search for specific keywords. 

Many Google campaigns are pay-per-click, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. These campaigns can be cost-effective and provide valuable insights into which ads, keywords, and landing pages perform well. 

Combining the best channels and methods 

When planning a marketing campaign, choose the channels to advertise on and the marketing methods you’ll use. You should also decide on the type of content for your ads and how to sharpen the message to attract attention and appeal to your target audience. 

To organise all of this effectively, it’s useful to create a campaign plan. Next, we’ll look at how to make an effective campaign plan that increases your chances of successful marketing results. 

How to create a campaign plan 

A campaign plan is essentially an overview of the marketing campaign you’re about to launch. It’s a helpful way to gather all your thoughts and strategies in one place, enabling you to sharpen your communication with your target audience. 

What should a campaign plan include? 

In summary, a campaign plan should contain all ideas and strategies for the campaign. Here are some key elements that should always be included. 

A specific goal 

Every marketing campaign should have a clear, measurable goal. This enables you to analyse the campaign’s progress at any point. 

In a sales campaign, the goal might be to increase sales of the products or services featured in the campaign. For a brand awareness campaign, the goal could be, for example, to increase website traffic by 30% or gain 200 new newsletter subscribers. 

By having a measurable goal, you can easily evaluate your marketing campaigns to learn what worked well and what may need adjustment for future campaigns. 

Information about your target audience 

Your knowledge of your target audience is the foundation of the campaign. The target audience represents the people you hope will buy your product or subscribe to your newsletter. Accordingly, all decisions made in the campaign—from the choice of advertising channels to the wording of the main message—should be based on your target audience. 

Include available information about your target audience in the campaign plan, whether it’s a marketing persona or other insights. It should be clear in the plan whom the campaign is targeting. 

There are multiple ways to identify and define your target audience. Use the tools you have to gather as much information as possible before the campaign. The more insight you have, the better your campaign results will be. 

Budget 

The campaign plan should include information about the intended budget. If the budget will be divided across several channels and ad spaces, it’s useful to outline this allocation as well. 

Timeline 

Document the start and end dates of the campaign in the plan. 

Responsible parties 

An overview of who is involved in the campaign is also helpful. You can identify the employee that will handle social media updates or note the agency involved in ads creation. This list simplifies tracking who to contact about each part of the campaign. 

Main message 

What is the main message of the ads? This isn’t the same as the campaign’s goal, but rather the message you want to convey to motivate the audience to take the necessary action to reach your goal. 

For example, the main message could be that there is now a 30% discount on a product group, or that anyone interested in industry-related content should subscribe to your company’s newsletter.  

Channels and ads 

It’s also helpful to list the channels you’ll advertise in and the types of ads you’ll use. Perhaps you’ll have multiple types of ads or conduct A/B testing. This overview makes it easy to navigate the plans. 

Landing pages 

When creating a specific marketing campaign, it can be beneficial to create dedicated landing pages for it. These should also be mentioned in the campaign plan if one or more have been created. 

Other necessary information 

You’re of course free to include any additional information in your campaign plan. If there’s other critical information worth including, add it. 

Landing pages are great for marketing campaigns

Since the goal of a marketing campaign is often to get people to your site to either make a purchase or learn more, creating dedicated landing pages can be worth your while. A landing page can be customised to focus solely on a specific product, with clear CTAs directed at that one focus point. 

When someone clicks on your ad and lands on a dedicated page, they’re likely already interested in what you’re promoting. After all, they clicked on your ad for a reason! 

A landing page makes it easier for interested visitors to proceed with their purchase or booking without being distracted by other information that isn’t relevant to them at that point in their customer journey. This way, landing pages can make your marketing campaigns even more effective and boost your conversions.  

Analyse campaign results 

Creating effective marketing campaigns requires you to continually analyse your marketing activities. This is the only way to gain concrete insights into what worked and what didn’t. You can then apply these results to your next campaign, giving it an even better foundation for success. 

Initially, it’s perfectly fine to experiment and learn from trial and error, and often this is necessary to create the best campaigns. Keep the results from each campaign and organise them so you can easily review what the business has tried and what results were achieved. 

You can collect analytics and statistics from your campaigns in the various channels you advertise in. Analytics from your website or online store are also important. 

If you’re using one.com’s Website Builder, you can view key site statistics directly in the control panel, with even more insights available through the Website Analytics button. If you use WordPress or another CMS, tools like Google Analytics can provide you with detailed statistics. 

Create effective marketing campaigns 

We hope you feel inspired to create marketing campaigns for your business! Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and each campaign launched is a valuable opportunity to learn what works in your market. 

Now that you’ve explored different marketing activities to consider and are equipped with a solid campaign plan, you’re more likely to achieve great results. Good luck! 

And hey! If you need a quality website where you can easily create landing pages for your campaigns, our Website Builder is a fantastic option.