There are so many factors to consider when designing an effective offer and building a marketing campaign to sell it. Here are the 5 basic components that will bring you success:
1. Define your audience
“Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.” – Ann Handley
We often use personas to capture our audience research and help visualize the kind of person we are trying to attract with our content. Personas typically have a name, a photo, biographical information, a list of needs & desires, a list of turnoffs, and some quotes from our audience research. They should ask and answer questions like:
- Who are they?
- What do they care about?
- How and where do they get information?
- What motivates them?
- At what point in their decision-making journey will they be interacting with this campaign?
- Attract, Convert, Close, Delight
Here are some sample actions for your persona at each stage of their journey:
- Attract: What is Company X? Why should I care?
- Our company is different than any other X experience
- Proof - testimonials, and word of mouth builds trust and intrigue
- Convert: Hook - What’s in it for me?
- Valuable incentive
- User benefit
- Close: Take an action
- Buy our product
- Make an appointment
- Schedule a demo
- Delight: Keep them coming back.
- Great customer experience
- Engaging, helpful content
2. Consider Human Behavior
Some things don't change. Even though the way we consume information is changing exponentially, at the end of the day, we're still only human with all the limitations that come with it.
People need to hear messages multiple times
- Action rarely happens on the first encounter
- The Marketing Rule of 7 says that a prospect needs to “hear” the advertiser’s message at least 7 times before they’ll take action to buy that product or service.
People need to understand the benefit and what’s in it for them (not what you think they need)
- Features tell, benefits sell
- People like us do things like this: we all want to belong to a group and we make decisions that affirm those group's norms and make us feel like we belong
3. Use SMART Goals For Campaign Planning
Specific - Keep it simple, ask for one thing
Measurable - Decide how you will know your campaign worked (define KPIs)
Actionable - Give good reasons to take action now, not put it on a list of things to do
Relevant - Incorporate audience needs, what’s in it for them?
Time bound - Provide the urgency of a deadline
4. Craft A compelling Offer
Keep It Simple: Ask For One Thing
The Paradox of Choice (image credit: Reddit u/TurboTortuga) tells us that we grow more anxious with more choices, so when you ask, keep it simple.
Focus On The Benefits: What’s In It For Me
Market WITH people, not AT them. Your customers are human beings, just like you.
“Give people an abundance of confidence which will create an abundance of value and all you're asking in return is to be trusted.” - Seth Godin
Drive Urgency By Making Decisions Time Bound
Compel users to take action.
If your users don’t see that your calls-to-action are time sensitive or important enough to take action, they won’t do anything.
It’s up to you to motivate them to act.
Give Compelling Reasons To Take Action Now
Inspire Emotion
“Focus on emotions. Knowing something isn’t enough to cause change. Make people (or yourself) feel something.” - Dan & Chip Heath, Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Use Repetition To Stay Top Of Mind
Marketing Rule of 7, Marketing Rule of 7, Marketing Rule of 7, Marketing Rule of 7, Marketing Rule of 7, Marketing Rule of 7, Marketing Rule of 7
5. Campaign Components
It's important to think about where your audience is when you reach them with your campaign and how to capture their attention. Think outside the box:
- What would capture attention?
- What would be disruptive?
- What would be motivating
- What vehicles should I include?
- Where does my audience get information?
- How do I surround them so they hear it in a variety of places: make it top of mind, build trust?
- What creative ways can I reach them?
Think also about how you can integrate your campaign in multiple places so your efforts aren't wasted, or spent once on a huge campaign that isn't extended elsewhere in your organization.
- Bring the campaign plan to sales meetings -ask them how to better extend it
- Share with internal and external stakeholders
- Have a client focus group
- Recruit internal influencers, reward them for sharing
- Walk the halls of current clients - look for where people gather or get information to make better choices about campaign vehicles
- Gather testimonials and proof
Following the steps above will improve your campaign planning, execution, and efficacy considerably. Sound like too much work? Outsource it to an agency that will execute amazing and effective campaigns on your behalf. As always, we'd love to talk.
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