The A to Z of Successful Marketing Campaigns

Checklist, checklist, checklist. There is something about checklists that make me happy. Perhaps, it is the fact that a checklist makes me feel in control of what's going to happen. Or that it makes communication to team members easier. Whatever it may be, checklists are essential for managing any project, and for the purpose of this article, a marketing campaign.

So based on years of experience of managing campaigns, here is a checklist for marketing campaigns listed out as A to Z. Do note that these are not listed in chronological order or in sequence of execution; purposely done, as I believe linear thinking makes one predict answers. Another caveat is that these are guidelines and not ready-answers. A successful campaign requires a lot of research, discussion, hard work and patience. And a checklist.

A for Attention

The simple AIDA model of Attention-Interest-Desire-Action holds true in real life. Run your creative past people who are not even remotely associated with your campaign and ask them what is the first thing that is getting noticed.

B for Branding

Every company should have a set of Brand Guidelines in which everything related to logo specifications, colour scheme, spacing, logo usage and a set of Dos and Don'ts are mentioned. Check your creative for adherence to these Brand Guidelines each and every time.

Want to create a quick Branding Guide? Here is one from Denamico: 
http://blog.denamico.com/how-to-develop-a-branding-guide

C for Call-to-Action

Everyone these days understands that a creative needs a CTA. The trick though is to know which CTA will work best with a particular media vehicle (assuming the message is the same). Most marketing messages have CTAs (usually multiple) from the brand's point of view. However, you need to think from the reader's point of view: I am interested but how can I get more information or buy this product?

D for Discharge

This is an oft-ignored area of campaign planning. Campaign planners usually plan out till the fulfillment stage, forgetting that the journey has not ended for the prospect-turned-customer. I have seldom come across a campaign that envisions what will happen when the sale gets over: What should my sales guy leave behind with this newly-acquired customer? How do we follow-up on the success? What will be the first communication after onboarding? Real questions that will actually close the loop in real sense.

E for Easy-to-understand

Any communication is a failure if it is not understood by the Target Audience (TA). Further, every communication has Primary Target Audience - "we want them to buy this" - and Secondary Target Audiences - "it's good if they also buy it" - and both sets should be able to understand what is being said in the marketing message.

F for Family & Friends

This one's to help you research. When you are trying to work out a positioning for a new product or developing an on-ground campaign, think about how the family and friends of the Target Audience will react to the communication. Think about how they will react when the prospect tells them of his/her decision. Are they strong influencers?

In fact for some product categories, they may not be the 'customer' but could be the 'consumer'. Their opinions will therefore matter much more than in the case above.

G for Getting to it

There is an Indian proverb which is very apt for marketers - "Nobody has seen a peacock dancing in the jungle." Every good thing, and a marketing message, needs to be seen or heard. How will your prospect get to it? Will it really help if the message is inside your store or branch? Are you choosing the right media vehicles? A trick is to map the daily lifestyle of your prospect and mark the points where he/she interacts with a possible media vehicle.

H for Heart

It is said that people think from their heart. Many purchase decisions are impulse decisions and others are driven either by the customer's loyalty or perception towards the brand, or whether the marketing message has hit the right chord. So test your creatives to understand which emotions are getting affected by the product and the marketing message.

People think from their heart.

I for Image

So when we have talked about people making purchases based more on emotions rather than reasons, we should also understand that the customer will expect the same emotions to be affected once the product is used. In this aspect, understanding the self-image of the customer before and after using the product is a strong tool for research.

Memory or Evaluation? One factor which is presumably critical in 
determining which self-concept would be most influential is response mode. 
Specifically, when the task is to remember the information given in 
an advertisement (i.e., brand name and product information), actual 
self-concept is expected to play a more significant role than 
ideal self-concept. 
In contrast, when the task is to evaluate the advertised product, 
ideal self-concept is expected to become prominent, 
compared to actual self-concept (Sirgy 1986).

J for Journey

This is related to my earlier point on D for Discharge. Remember to go beyond and make sure your campaign is based on the customer's journey. Run over the actual purchase process as it happens, step-by-step. I have been amazed at the insights I have got when I have scrutinized the customer journey.

K for Kodak moment

Imagery is one of the first elements that a viewer notices. Ensure that the image used in your marketing message is captivating, and very important, relevant.

L for Leaving thought

After the recipient of your marketing message has seen or heard it, he/she will not remember each and every word. Hardly, and it differs from person to person. So what is that thought which you would want your target audience to leave with after they have consumed your marketing message. Do browse through this short article that explains 'memory types' and how does memory come into play in advertising: Understanding Memory In Advertising (www.nielson.com)

M for Money

A marketing campaign typically is meant to result in sales. So when it comes to sales, besides mapping the customer journey, also track how the money flows in the whole process. When I had created this checklist some years ago for my own consumption, digital payments were in its nascence. It is 2018 and digital payments are a hygiene factor.

N for Neatness

When it comes to marketing messages, less is more. Do not confuse the viewer with too many positioning statements, too many product benefits and too many CTAs. Use as few words as possible, and then drop some more. Talk less, say more. Have lots of white space. A good way to judge whether you are talking more than what is required is to check the creative for its 'neatness'. If it does not look neat to you, you probably need to work on it more.

O for On your side

In an earlier point, I had advised you to run over the purchase process of the Target Audience. Now I also advise you to look on your own side. Run over the selling process as it happens in your organisation. The points where the purchase process and sales process intersect will be the 'moments of truth'. Be very mindful of those. At the same time, any big gap in the two processes will lead to customer confusion, leading to possible dissatisfaction and ultimately will result in him/her dropping off from the purchase process.

P for Problem

This is an important phrase that you need to keep in mind: customers are not looking for a cure-all. Your product can never be everything to everyone, and your marketing message should not project it as one. Just zero on the single biggest problem that is being solved. That will give you your biggest selling point and ultimately your positioning statement.

Q for Question back

So you have your creative ready, what next? Read through it again and question every single thing - every word, every image, every element in the image, every USP and every CTA. Your campaign is ready? Assume everything will go wrong. Question everything, like a child does.

R for Reason-To-Believe

Typically, once the single biggest problem has been identified, most campaigns present the product as the reason to believe that that problem will be solved. The RTB goes deeper than just the product, which is just a means to the expected end. The moot question is that why should a prospect believe that the product in focus will provide those means. Quantify wherever possible; numbers work best. Provide research studies, testimonials, survey results etc. to provide foundation to your claims.

S for Sales support

A campaign is not just the responsibility of the marketing department. The sales team and the sales support teams such as telecalling, operations, risk, analytics and even human resources department should be aligned to the goals. The crew at the pit stop in an F1 race is equally instrumental in the driver's win.

T for Target audience

This is one of the most critical stages, and chronologically the first. Who are you doing this campaign for? Use demographics, psychographics and behaviour to create personas. So your target is not a Male, 24-30 years of age living in a metro city. Your target is a well-educated male, around 26 years of age, living in a metro city, with interest in sports and arts, and spends 3 to 5 hours daily on mobile phone browsing interest-category websites and apps.

U for USP

USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. This refers to the product benefit that sets it apart from its competitors. At the same time, it should be something that is 'sell-able', that is, it should be of interest to the target audience. This is what ultimately your sales guy uses as a weapon during the pitch, so you better incorporate it in your marketing message as well.

V for Value

Every customer looks for 'Value for Money'. This does not mean cheap product or a lot of frills added to the core product. It is a simple formula in which the Perceived Benefits are weighed against the Costs to buy and use the product. Importantly, Benefits and Costs are not just monetary figures. For a customer, the Physical Cost (such as time taken to reach a store) and Emotional Cost (such as hassle of filling a long form or low knowledge level of store assistant) could be more important factors in decision-making. Remember, people think from their heart.

To know these costs and benefits, the earlier steps J and O are the ones that will give you these answers.

W for Work life

This step is important if your product is being consumed by people who are in some kind of employment. If one is spending anything between seven to twelve hours every day in office (depending on the country you are living in), imagine its effect on the customer's purchase process, and how and when he/she consumes information.

Look at it for the reverse effect. What is the impact of your product or brand on the work life of your target audience? Does it make it better or worse?

X for X-axis

By the very definition, campaigns are a group of several activities tied together in a planned fashion towards certain objectives. These activities have to be executed in a particular sequence and manner. Therefore, before you press the Start button on your campaign, plot the various marketing activities on a timeline.

Y for Yellow spots

While you are trying to create a successful marketing campaign, try to create a successful and responsible marketing campaign. Avoid dubious claims, misleading statements, unethical targeting and exploitation of the human resources deployed on the campaign.

Z for Zero failure

The title of this article includes the word 'successful'. So how do you determine the success of a campaign? Simple, by the metrics defined at the planning stage of the campaign. Define SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) goals for all stakeholders in the campaign to ensure zero failure rate.

A to Z - remember these are just alphabets that individually serve no purpose. Once grouped together in a meaningful manner, you can create a sentence, a paragraph or a poem.

I would love to hear your views on this checklist of successful marketing campaigns. Do drop me an email at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn.