Marketing Campaign Top Tips

Understand who your customers are and when they shop, find out why they come to you and use this knowledge to define the target audience. If you have a website look at what time customers visit… Check out these other great ideas to help launch your new marketing campaign:

Set Objectives

What do I want to achieve?

More business, is a good place to start, maybe tempting existing customers to come back more often, or trying to encourage them spend more each visit.

Be pragmatic

How much more business do you want? What can you cope with? How much extra revenue can you realistically attract? Use these figures to set your marketing budget.

Commit to a timescale

If you don’t, other parts of your business may claim your time and it may never happen.

Writing down your objectives will keep them visible, so you are much more likely to achieve what you set out to do.

Define your target audience

Building up a picture of a good loyal customer will help you in choosing the right media and defining the messages you might want to shout about.

Who are they?

Understand who your customers are and when they shop, find out why they come to you and use this knowledge to define the target audience. If you have a website look at what time customers visit and how long they stay, and try to collect data about them during the buying process.

What do they like?

Just ask! Or get them to fill in a short questionnaire, you can also review top-selling items, this will all help you to build up the persona of a typical customer.

Evaluate the completion

Take a look at your competitors

Who or what are you up against? Take a look at what they offer. If it’s a local store, you can do this by visiting. If not, check out their websites, or ring with a query and see how well they deal with your enquiry.

Think about their name and logo, reputation, customers they attract, what you can do better, and what makes you different.

What makes you unique?

Defining your Unique Selling Point (USP) will help when you come to create messages for a marketing campaign.

Where are the funds coming from?

Set a marketing budget

This enables you to consider the practicalities of the campaign, and stops you getting carried away. Estimate the available market, work out the possible returns, and how much you aim to make. Be realistic about possible outcomes, consider cashflow, this is a risky business, and there are no guarantees, so only spend what you can sensibly afford.

How do you get in touch?

There are so many ways to reach an audience

We have advertising, sponsorship, sales promotion, direct mail, public relations, as well as word of mouth. Just within advertising, there is TV, radio, outdoor posters and signage, buses and other transport, newspapers, magazines and print. Decide which might suit your campaign best.

Start with the limitations

You know what you’re trying to achieve, who you’re trying to reach, what your competitors do, and how much you think you have to spend. Use these parameters to help you to define your possible channels.

What to say?

Develop the right message

Remember who you are talking to, different messages appeal to different people. Why should anyone take notice? Can you offer discounts, deals or gifts?

Grab attention

Remember with advertisements, direct mail, email, or posters, you have about 3 seconds to make an impression and make them want to read on.

Think about power words

Some words are known to grab attention: free, bargain, bonus, discover, easy, enjoy, exciting, exclusive, extra, fast, how to, money, mystery, profit, and special. Keep your language in line with your audience, and keep it as concise as you can.

Project the right Image

First impressions count

The best messaging in the world won’t work if it’s presented poorly. The same is true of your business. And the same will be true of any marketing campaign you launch.

Be professional

Don’t drop your standards when it comes to marketing materials. Include your business logo on all communications. The more customers and clients see your brand, the more they will identify with it and recognise the value you offer.

Get design working for you

More often than not, less is more. A bit of white space can improve impact. Whacky typefaces don’t usually work. One picture tells a thousand words, while too many pictures can confuse.

Testing, testing

Make sure that you test potential ideas before you take them to production.

How did we do?

Try to isolate the effects of the campaign, consider any of the benefits they may have had, and work out if you have made a profit. Whatever the result, if you learned a lesson or two, it will be money well spent.