Whatever marketing campaigns you have planned for the coming year should all have a core purpose and objective for helping you reach your business goals.
I come across many firms who conduct marketing campaigns because they think it's the right thing to do, using resources and money with no real purpose behind what impact they expect their promotion to have.
Marketing campaigns will generally be conducted to; increase brand awareness and consideration, generate new business, retain existing business, improve service levels or provide knowledge and education.
So, what are the 7 core objectives every marketing campaign should have?
Alignment - to your overall business goals for the short-medium and long-term. This will help when putting in place MI to measure how successful they are against the objectives you have set for revenue, growth and retention.
Targeted - to your audience/client personas as much as possible. Developing your communications in this way will provide for a more successful conversion rate, as opposed to putting out generic content.
On Brand - in terms of look, feel and tone of voice. Use your brand guidelines to develop your content and if you don't have brand guidelines, you should invest the resources in developing them. Don't underestimate how important it is to ensure you know exactly how your brand and business proposition should be defined from your competition.
Integration - across as many channels as possible with a strong Call To Action! Using online tactics to get your message out can be relatively cost effective and allow you more touch points than using other more traditional marketing channels such as by mail or print advertising
KPIs - to allow you to measure effectiveness and success. It's imporant to understand that marketing tactics can only drive awareness, provide knowledge and generate leads. Conversion of these leads into revenue is where you sales team come in and why it's so important for these two areas to work together.
Regulation - to ensure all communications adhere to the systems and controls required by the FCA on all financial promotions.
SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound.
Whilst some of this may seem obvious, it's sometimes easy to get caught up in the latest social craze, digital platform and 'because it's what the competition do' without really thinking about whether it's right for your own business and what you are aiming to achieve.
So when you are thinking about next running a campaign, ensure it actually meets the core objectives listed above if you want it to be successful.
For advice and guidance on planning and implementing an effective campaign strategy, contact DPS Financial Marketing today.
