A Digital Marketing campaign is the employment of digital channels in a marketing strategy. Tools such as Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Website Marketing and PPC fall into the Digital Marketing stables. Since customers engage with and view brands in a multitude of channels, it is important to have a strategy that incorporates a breadth of Digital Marketing tools.
Digital Marketing campaigns can be less expensive than other channels of communication, can often be adapted easily and can tap into customer behaviours and habits in a more agile capacity, making them an effective and flexible solution for reaching your audience.
What’s Included in a Digital Marketing Campaign Plan?
Determine your Business Objectives
Every campaign plan should start with the business goal it will be serving. From nurturing brand awareness, to cross-selling or generating new leads, it is essential that you have a destination in mind before you start your journey!
Refine Your Target Audience
Who will you be targeting with this campaign? Focusing on a refined audience with specific demographics and interests gives you a better chance of delivering relevant messaging and inspiring action.
Determine a Creative Concept
Think about the problem that you’re trying to solve for a consumer or potential customer when considering your creative approach. This theme should inform the messaging in your campaign from copy to visuals and everything in between.
Choose Your Media
Don’t hesitate to combine multiple channels in your approach for an integrated campaign. Podcasts, Webinars, Search, Email, Website and Social should and can all support each other. You should also plan your costs and budgets for each channel.
Decide on a Call to Action
What action do you want your audience to take after being served your content? Should they click to a landing page? Or follow your podcast/social media channel?
If there’s an “offer” for your audience (a benefit to engaging with your content), like a newsletter, or a webinar, or a digital template, you may want to tie this in with your target audience and their stage in the customer journey.
Sketch Out Success
Determine what “success” looks like for your campaign. Estimate your metrics, from response rates, revenue generated, conversion rates to ROI (or Return on Investment), as this will help you to prepare any resources you might need, and anticipate a response plan.
Create a Calendar
Set key dates, deadlines and delivery responsibilities for each stage and channel of your campaign.
Take Stock
After your campaign is complete, compare your final results with your estimates, evaluate your key metrics and determine your learnings for your next campaign!
Tips for Digital Marketing Campaigns
1. Your campaign goals should be realistic, achievable and practical, based on your budget, available resources and business objectives. Setting KPIs that are unrealistic sets you up to fail.
2. Learn from your mistakes. “Setting and Forgetting” is a recipe for repeated campaign fails. If you analyse results as your campaign rolls out, and make changes, or come away with valuable learnings and insights, you can make changes next time and get better results!
3. Be memorable for the right reasons. Your goals and brand ethos should inform every aspect your Digital Marketing, serving up content that is relevant to your target audience.
4. Inspiration is out there! Collect examples of brands who have created campaigns that resonate with you, and think about why that campaign was so effective.
5. Put together an all-encompassing Campaign Plan that covers all bases!
Want to know more about Digital Marketing? Listen to our podcast Digital Marketing, The Fundamentals!
About the Author: Stephanie Weekes
Stephanie is a Freelance Social Media Manager and Marketing Consultant. With almost 10 years of experience working in-house with global brands and agencies, she has an in-depth understanding of multi-channel marketing and brand management.
IG: @stephgetssocial