There are six steps to plan a successful marketing campaign.1
1. Identify and understand who your target audience is
Before you start the tactical planning process, you need to understand who your customers are and where to reach them so you can anticipate what actions they will take and when they will take them. If you don’t understand your targeted audience, your campaign will waste time, money, and effort.2
2. Set campaign objectives to fit your goals and budget
Identify clear and specific campaign objectives and metrics, determine how those objectives fit your organization’s goals, and generate a campaign budget to support the actions needed to reach those goals.3
3. Develop a customer/audience segmentation strategy
Properly segmenting your audience drives campaign efficiency, provides better customer experiences (CX), and increases conversions. If you can segment your audience correctly, you can create a unique experience for each person and address their needs as well.4
4. Determine an ideal marketing mix in terms of content and channels
The channels you select and the content you develop are based on your goals and audience. For example, lead generation campaigns could use PPC advertising, email marketing, account-based marketing, or social media advertising. Thought leadership campaigns could use blogging or content marketing.5
5. Create compelling offers
Motivate your targets to take the desired action, such as clicking through to the offer, visiting a store, leaving a review, or another step in the buyers’ journey.6
6. Use analytics to measure campaign success
Identify the metrics you will use to determine if your campaign was successful. But this is only a framework. As the campaign continues, business goals might evolve, stakeholders may change, and the target audience may shift (especially true for campaigns targeting teenagers/tweens or fast-growing startups).