How to Create Marketing Campaigns That Actually Work

Hey folks ??, I'm Kenneth Burke. #BurkeBits is where I share stories, data, and frameworks to help you become a better marketer. Subscribe for free to level-up.

Marketing is almost always a bet. You don’t really know what’s going to work until you put your creation out into the world and see how people respond. But there are things you can do when crafting a marketing campaign to give yourself the best odds.

These 5 steps give you the best chance to create a marketing campaign that actually works—that actually lifts your brand and drives revenue.

This is also the same process we used to create a 30-second commercial, on a relatively small budget, that turned into an award-winning and revenue-producing campaign.

I’ll use the video as an example to show how you can apply the framework, but know that it works just as well on a landing page, slide deck, image ads, email—anything.

Note: The framework works consistently, but not every person has the skillset all on their own to pull it off. You may need to hire, outsource, or consult with others to bring your campaign to life. Done well, this is money well spent. (We hired a video production agency.)

5 Steps to Create Winning Marketing Campaigns

1. Define the enemy (what you stand against).

Your business is solving a problem. That problem is something you and your customers both hate. That problem is the enemy, and you need to show your target customers that you fully understand their hatred for this thing.

Text Request’s enemy (and our customers’) is unanswered phone calls. You can’t move your business forward if you can’t connect with customers, and calling people over and over without answer is soul-sucking.

We defined the enemy by showing a person making calls that no one answers, and getting increasingly frustrated—the same experience our target customers go through.

2. Show how your target customer can defeat the enemy with your help.

Every customer is the hero of their own story. You’re the tool or the guide that helps them defeat the enemy, so they can be the hero who wins the day. Your marketing should show them how to defeat the enemy with your help.

In our case, that’s pretty simple. Use our texting software instead of making phone calls no one answers, and you’ll actually get a response, so you can move your business forward and make your life easier. The rep in our video sends one text, and gets an almost immediate response. That’s incredible!

3. Picture what life could be once they’ve conquered the enemy.

Solving a problem and winning the day is an emotional experience. Tap into that. In your visuals and in your messaging, show what it will be like to remove that problem. Show what it will be like once they’ve made the great choice to work with you.

Our rep is absolutely ecstatic to have finally gotten a response. Don’t you want that same feeling? You can reach it, with our help.

4. Tell them what to do with this info.

People typically don’t put 2 and 2 together like you hope they will. You’ve got to tell them—directly. Want them to subscribe? Say so. Want them to buy? Show them how!

After showing people how they can conquer the enemy and live a better life with us, we tell them what to do: Visit our website to see how this software works. And you know what? People actually go to our website to see how the software works.

View Step 5 of the framework, and the 6 steps we took to make money on this campaign, on burkebits.com.