Creating a Marketing Campaign

Marketing campaigns are not just for large brands with large budgets. We often see small to mid-sized businesses overlook campaigns when in reality, these types of companies are the ones that could benefit most. Whether it’s due to a lack of bandwidth or budgets, marketing campaigns can help businesses reach their goals.

 

What are marketing campaigns?

It is a set of strategic activities to help a business promote a product, service, or the brand as a whole. To make the most impact, these campaigns should include a mix of different channels and platforms to reach their target audience.

 

How is this different from everyday marketing?

When running a campaign, you want to hit it hard and make a big splash. 

For example, if you are an e-commerce store, in your everyday marketing efforts, you may promote all sorts of different items. You may send emails or social posts promoting your entire store or a variety of products instead of one particular item. But if you are launching a new item and want to run a marketing campaign, your marketing efforts will be centered around selling that particular item. 

 

Where should I start?

You should begin with your objective for the campaign. Did you recently launch a product, and you want to increase sales? Are you trying to generate leads to grow your business? Or maybe you just want overall brand awareness. To know if your campaign was a success, you must have a goal that can be measured, as well as a time frame in which you are giving your campaign. 

 

What’s next?

Do your research. Where is your target audience, and how can you make the most impact? Using social media is almost always a given, but will you also work with influencers to promote your new product? What about running ads on popular podcasts? Will print media work for this campaign? Do you need a press release? All of this will depend on your budget as well, so be sure you have a number in mind that you are willing to spend. If that number is zero, that’s okay too, but just know that your objective should be realistic if that’s the case.

 

Now for the fun part….

Your campaign should stand out from your everyday marketing efforts. It should be creative. It should be engaging. How can you get your consumers involved in spreading the word for you? Will you create a hashtag that lets them contribute to the conversation?

 

What’s an example of a great marketing campaign?

There are so many to pick from, but when we mentioned big splash, this 2021 campaign by Degree deodorant takes the cake. 

Degree called this campaign “Dear Fitness Industry.” The objective for this campaign was to:

1. Increase brand awareness by attaching their name to this cause. 

2. Make a change. Degree noticed that the fitness industry is not inclusive of those with disabilities. These individuals did not feel welcome at gyms because of a lack of accommodations. They also felt they were often not represented by gym leadership or in marketing efforts.  

 

How they did it:

 

 

Degree executed this campaign by writing an open letter to the fitness industry to create a more inclusive world for people with disabilities and published it in the New York Times. The same day this was published, Degree sent mobile billboards to the offices of major fitness companies in New York to be sure they got the message. In addition, Degree posted ads within these corporate gyms and in their office elevators. They didn’t stop there. Degree hosted a fully-inclusive spin class outside these corporate offices and invited local industry hiring managers to join. The event served as a networking opportunity and hiring event. 

 

Not only did Degree point out the industry’s flaws, they also provided a solution. Degree launched a platform for gyms to find and hire qualified disabled trainers. The website also included a downloadable toolkit to make their gyms more inclusive.

 

Since this campaign, the fitness industry has made changes. Many companies, such as Peloton, utilized the platform to hire adaptive instructors.

 

 

Marketing Lessons Learned 

While this is a large-scale campaign, there is much to take away from this:

  • When the objective is brand awareness, purposeful GOOD work is often an impactful way to make a name for yourself.

  • By utilizing many mediums, there’s no denying that Degree got their message across flawlessly.

  • There were many ways to measure this campaign’s success: organic impressions of their social content, event attendees, website visitors, and the number of downloads on their toolkit, just to name a few.

 

Get started with your next campaign

Start planning your next campaign and use this blog as a reference when you do. If you get stuck in the planning process or your creative juices aren’t flowing properly, the Good Circle Marketing team is here to help!