There are six steps in the hierarchy of success for marketing campaigns.  Consider each step and how they fit into your overall marketing effort.

When most small businesses and startups think of marketing campaigns, they think of how it will be executed.  Who builds the landing page?  What words do we use in our content?  How long do we run these ads?

But the execution is actually the last step in a hierarchy that makes up a successful marketing effort.  As you back up, you realize you can’t do one step without taking the one before it.

Your tactics tell you what to execute, but they won’t be effective without a carefully planned strategy.  Many businesses also have goals in mind, but they don’t consider the impact their approach to marketing will have.

At the top of the list is your sense of purpose.  Why are you trying to reach people in the first place?  How do you treat customers, employees, and competition?  How will you know when all the other steps are leading to success?

Below are some questions to help you get a feel for these campaign steps.  Keep something in mind.  If you skip over the first couple, brilliant tactics and execution excellence won’t do you much good.

 

Marketing Campaign Step #1:  Find Your Sense of Purpose

Your attitude and sense of purpose are what motivate you to start a business in the first place.  In many ways, this is the most influential step in a marketing campaign, yet the most overlooked.

For most people, purpose goes beyond profit.  The most successful businesses have people that believe in what they’re doing.  This is the “why” in your business plan, which creates an important connection with your target audience.

• Why are you doing what you do?
• How does your work benefit others?
• What are you like to work with?
• How will you improve the lives of the people you deal with?
• What types of decisions do you make when nobody else is looking?
• Are you passionate about your work?
• What types of rewards motivate you?
• What will customers tell their friends about you?

In many ways, this first step has the most effect on the final step in digital marketing:  your reputation.  What your customers tell their friends when they talk about you has a lot to do with the sense of purpose you start out with.

 

Marketing Campaign Step #2:  Your Approach

Your approach determines a lot about how you work, how you collaborate, and what type of work you delegate or outsource.  It’s a precursor to success in certain areas, and difficulty in others (if you love data you can be more involved in your digital marketing, if you hate it you better hire some help).

• How much do you understand about digital marketing?
• Do you read books, blogs, and tutorials to keep learning about entrepreneurship and marketing?
• Do you know what you can best do yourself, and what you need to outsource?
• What kinds of skills do you need from employees?  How will you attract the right talent?
• When was the last time you admitted a mistake?
• Do you search and shop on mobile?
• Are you engaged on social media?
• Do you embrace changes in technology or resist them?

One thing to keep in mind is that with today’s digital influence on marketing, it’s very difficult to be involved with campaigns if you are computer illiterate.  We still get business owners who claim to “hate the internet” and want to dump everything on an agency.

If you feel that way, it’s your prerogative to delegate all your marketing.  But realize that you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage against competitors who are more willing to learn the fundamentals of digital platforms.

 

Marketing Campaign Step #3:  Develop Your Strategy

Developing your marketing strategy is paramount before you move on to any other steps.  It’s your ground game and determines what tactics might work.

Your marketing strategy underlies your goals and tactics.  But it’s overreaching enough that it will stay consistent even if your goals and tactics change.

• How will you determine the market need for your offer?
• How will you identify your target audience?
• Does your target audience understand that they need you, or will you have to educate them?
• Who is your competition?  How will you differentiate yourself from them?
• What’s your unique value proposition?
• What marketing assets will you need?

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of developing a marketing strategy.  Without a strategy, you won’t really know what you’re trying to say or who you’re saying it to.  Haphazard, wasteful marketing campaigns are usually the result of moving forward without having a strategy in place.

 

Marketing Campaign Step #4:  Set Your Goals

With your strategy in place, you can begin to set goals for your campaigns.  Consider immediate, short-term goals, as well as long-term benchmarks.

Of course, you’ll have the primary goals connected to conversions and revenue.  But also set campaign goals that demonstrate you’re making progress, which includes eliminating tactics that fail to deliver.

Campaign goals include what actions you want your target audience to take, and get granular at the ad and web content level.  They also include how you’ll engage your audience with informational marketing and social media content.

• What is the primary action you want people to take so they enter your sales funnel?
• What actions do they need to take as they move through your funnel to become a customer?
• What marketing metrics do you want to track?  What results do you want to see?
• At what point do you need to be profitable?
• Where do you see your business in 10 years?

You also have broader goals connected to your purpose.  Are you just in it for the money?  Do you want to help others, make the world a better place?  Are you looking to build something then sell, or do you want to manage the business over the long term?

You won’t have all your goals in place as you start your campaigns; you’ll adjust them as you adjust your tactics.  Still, you want to have certain specifics about where you’re heading in place.

 

Marketing Campaign Step #5:  Plan Your Tactics

Tactics are the actual tools and methods you use to market your business and are the focal point of your marketing effort.  Your approach, goals, and strategies influence tactical decisions.  They are also influenced by who and where your target audience is.

In the short term, you test tactics you think will work.  In the long term, you use tactics you know work.

• Do you want to focus on paid search, organic search, or use both?
• How will you use social media marketing?
• What are you looking for in website design?
• How can you use video?
• Will email marketing work for you?
• How will you get positive reviews and manage your reputation?
• How will you get website visitors to convert?
• Do you need a CRM?

 

Marketing Campaign Step #6:  Set-Up Your Execution

When you plan the execution steps of your marketing campaigns, you’re primarily considering who will do the work.  Consider if you want to have in-house staff, hire various vendors, or hire an all-in-one agency to do the day in, day out work.

• Who will be responsible for tasks and campaigns?
• How will you assign work?
• How will you track data and results?
• How will you modify your campaigns based on data?
• Who has the final say on designs and copy?
• Who is your copywriter?
• Who will monitor and manage your online reputation?
• Who will maintain your social media presence?

The mistake many businesses make is to spend almost all their time on execution.  We study a few things, then jump in and start taking action.

But the best execution won’t help if you don’t know your goals, don’t have a strategy, and haven’t planned your tactics.  You’ll miss major components of what it takes to develop a business or marketing plan, leaving you to wonder why – after all that execution – you didn’t end up where you hoped.

Follow these marketing campaign steps in order, and by the time you start executing you’ll know exactly what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and what results to expect.