6 Simple Steps To Launch a Successful Marketing Campaign

Sam Campbell

When you develop and launch a marketing campaign, you want to be sure you’re doing everything you can to attract more customers, instead of wasting your investment.

To get you started, try these actionable recommendations so you can launch a successful marketing campaign for your business:

1. Do Your Research

The first step you should take before you launch your marketing campaign involves doing some manual research. Before you even begin developing your campaign, you need spend time learning more about your industry, what kind of campaigns have been most successful this year, and how to develop a campaign that your target audience will actually notice and respond to.

Doing a bit of up-front research is important—especially when you think about the time, money, and other resources you will likely end up spending over the life of your campaign. You want to make sure you ultimately are able to launch a campaign that will actually stick and reach any goals you set.

Resources for doing research:

2. Know Your Audience

The second step you need to take in order to launch a successful campaign involves getting to know and understand your audience better. This could involve developing buyer personas, or representations of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

It’s crucial that you spend time defining your target audience, determining where they spend most of their time online, and how to reach them in the most effective ways. When you know more about your audience, you can do a better job of predicting the kinds of campaigns that will resonate best with them.

Resources to help you define your audience:

3. Put a Plan In Place

Unless you have a plan in place, your marketing campaign will likely fizzle not long after launch. If you decide to design, launch, and promote a marketing campaign for your business, you need to spend time putting together a strategic plan that will help guide you through various the various phases of your marketing campaign.

You should include in your plan: a promotion or content calendar, information about your target audience, your goals, email templates for reaching out to people, a breakdown of phases (design, pre-launch, launch, post-launch, etc.), a list of people who will help you get the word out about your campaign, your budget, any tools you intend to use, and more.

Resources to help you develop a plan:

4. Give Yourself Enough Time

In order to launch a campaign successfully, you have to give yourself enough time. You need time to plan, design, promote, adjust, evaluate, and get the word out. You can’t expect your marketing campaign to be successful if you are rushing to launch or haven’t had time to reach out to people who can help you promote your campaign.

Campaign timing tips:

Reach out to partners and customers before your campaign goes live
Reach out to other influencers who might be willing to promote your campaign
Follow up with people who agreed to help you get the word out
Put together an organized promotion calendar
Define ownership and personal timelines

5. Ask For Help

One of the most effective and essential things you can do in order to launch a successful campaign involves personally reaching out to people who can and would be willing to help. Unless you’re Mashable or Pepsi, you can’t expect to build buzz on your own. You need strategic partners who can help you before your campaign goes live, during the day of launch, and after it is live for the world to see.

Resources for asking for help:

6. Evaluate and Adapt In Real-Time

You might not experience the amount of success that you expected once you launch your marketing campaign. That’s where evaluation comes into play. When you launch your marketing campaign, you have to be prepared to evaluate how it’s being received and be willing to make small (or big) changes that can help make it more successful.

Your marketing campaign shouldn’t be left untouched once you push the “GO” button. You need to nurture it and make adjustments along the way in order to reach your goals and ensure success.

Resources for evaluating success:

Successful Campaign Examples

1. Cheers For All The Years by Virgin Mobile

If you want to get an idea of what a successful marketing campaign looks like, take a look at the campaign we’ve featured below. In this campaign, Virgin Mobile created a direct campaign celebrating the day each loyal customer signed up with Virgin Mobile – their ‘Virgin Mobile birthday’. Learn more about it here.

Results:

90% open-rate
Customer retention & loyalty boost
Social shares from customers who loved the email

2. Snickers Google Misspellings

Another great campaign to check out is the one featured below by Snickers. In this campaign, Snickers teamed up with Google to reach hungry office workers and people whose online activity is restricted by firewalls. Learn more about it here.

Results:

Campaign seen by over 500,000 people
Increase in brand exposure

3. Dove Beauty Sketches

A final campaign that’s worth taking a look at is the Dove Beauty Sketches. In this campaign, Dove teamed up with an artist to show women how beautiful they really are. Learn more about it here.

Results (after two weeks):

3.8 billion global impressions
73.4 million YouTube views

Don’t Let Marketing Intimidate You

Launching a marketing campaign can seem like a daunting task. It doesn’t have to be! Just follow the recommendations in this post:

Do Your Research
Know Your Audience
Put a Plan In Place
Give Yourself Enough Time
Ask For Help
Evaluate and Adapt In Real-Time

What other tips do you have for launching successful marketing campaigns? List them below in the comments section.

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6 Simple Steps To Launch a Successful Marketing Campaign