“Don’t be busy, be productive”
Whether you’re launching a new product, service, event or brand campaign – having a formulated promotional campaign will ensure you’re preparing for optimal success!
So many businesses and brands we see promoting a new product, event or service take either A) a tunnel visioned approach or B) a scatter gun approach.
Being too limited in your promotional mix will mean you pigeon hole your audience – drastically narrowing the potential of your ideal target market being aware of what it is you’re promoting. Or perhaps they see you launch something and the timing is all off, so they either forgot about it because the lead in is too long or they put it in the ‘too hard basket’ because you haven’t allowed enough time for purchase consideration.
Or perhaps you take a scatter-gun approach – splashing cash at all the traditional advertising mediums with no specific strategy, or even worse a mish-mashed identity. Meaning your market aren’t engaged with any of this content, instead they are confused. It’s an expensive mistake to make!
We create a promotional campaign strategy for each of our client’s initiatives – including objectives, budgets, timelines, platforms, graphic identity and of positioning.
To help you create your own promotional plan, we have put together our top 5 tips for curating and executing a successful campaign to achieve cut through in what is a crowded market.
Identify your target market
Note down who your key target market is for the campaign – who will actually transact on what you’re trying to sell? Next, determine what platforms this market uses, how often and why. Position your mix from there.
What’s your mix?
Now you’ve determined your targets, how are you going to reach them? Brainstorm your marketing mix and what platforms you have available to your business already and which promotional elements you will need to outsource? Having multiple channels and a strategic approach to where you’re spending you $ will provide your campaign greater scope. A ‘’standard’ campaign here at RSM can include a mix of the following channels: social media (organic & paid), web, blogs, e-news, radio, tv, press, activations, direct marketing/approaches, collaborations, influencer marketing, print, billboards, signage… just to name a few.
Time it right
Once you’ve created your mix, work backwards from your public launch date to determine your promotional campaign commencement. We have a 6 week rule of thumb, however you can make this shorter if your product/promotion warrants a shorter lead in time. You want to allow time for your audience to understand what you’re try to sell and give deliver them the ‘why’. Too long of a lead in time means you will risk becoming ‘stale’ and loosing urgency. So getting the timing right is important!
Key messages
What are the key selling points of your product, event or service? What pain points are your relieving for your target market by launching? Build a set of key messages around your campaign and feed these through every channel – having a clear call to action (CTA) is key for immediate transaction so don’t disregard the importance of your consumer experience!
Build an identity
Don’t be afraid to create a disruption with your campaigns visual identity – do something ‘out of the box’ for your brand. Not everything has to be ‘on brand’, particularly when you’re wanting people to take notice. Feed this identity through every channel within your mix… the same visuals, tone of voice, calls to action.
Still struggling with putting together a strategic plan for your promotion or launch? Get in touch with us here.
Annie x
