How many ads did you see on your way to work today? Count billboards, ads in social media, on your smartphone or laptop, and on the radio or television. We have become so used to adverts that you probably didn’t notice half of them. Desensitization to advertising messages causes a difficult task for marketers: their campaigns need to stand out and generate profits at the same time. “Freestyle” techniques may not be sufficient in the long run, which is why campaign management is absolutely necessary to execute your marketing plan properly.
A study conducted amongst marketing teams by Chief Marketing Technologist shows that the biggest problem is developing and creating marketing campaigns (almost 38% of respondents). The other issues included falling behind the latest changes and competition, not enough people to take care of everything, and driving too little revenue. No wonder – a marketing campaign requires detailed planning, execution, tracking, analysis and a team of experienced marketers to oversee all channels (email, social media, outdoor, media, printed materials, giveaways, loyalty programs, promotion in online stores/shopping malls, and so on). Too little time, too much to do.
In order to catch customers’ attention and transform them into loyal clients, you need consistent campaign management that can deliver the right message at any given time and location, and through the appropriate channel. Fortunately, campaign management technology can help you to achieve marketing success with limited resources or a small team. Just look at the to-do list below and see for yourself how useful such software can be.
1. Achievable objectives
Set reasonable goals. A massive marketing campaign includes many different elements. You need to decide on all aspects of your campaign and break them down into manageable tasks. This way you will have a clear view of your timetable in terms of what has been done or needs to be done to achieve your objectives.
2. Adjustable budget
It is quite easy to spend money, but you would probably rather allocate funds wisely. You need to control your budget at all times, adding money to successful projects, and cancelling campaigns that require high investment for unsatisfactory results. Fail to monitor your money flow and you will lose funds that could be used more effectively elsewhere.
3. Personalized and social communication
Strong social media profiles, website, landing pages, blog and newsletters are a must. What is more, they have to be consistent. Posts and tweets should support blog entries, and official platforms have to be updated regularly. Automated messages have to be profiled to the unique preferences of each user to prevent messages ending up in spam. You need to be ready to respond to your customers’ inquiries not only via email or contact forms, but also on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or other social platforms. Nowadays, clients choose the communication channel and companies have to adjust to their needs.
4. Limited time
How many hours of your time do you dedicate to marketing-related tasks? Even if it is your full-time job, there are probably a lot of things in the back of your mind that should have been handled a long time ago but for which you never found the time. It does not have to be this way. Better work management, distribution of tasks among team members and automation of processes will help you to dig deeper and find enough time for all those neglected duties.
5. Monitoring and analysis
Constant control of marketing campaigns gives you a chance to see, almost in real time, how they are performing. This gives you the opportunity to react immediately if a campaign is doing very well or poorly. You can focus on improving trending campaigns and end those that are not luring customers.
Now imagine you have to do all that yourself. It would be impossible. Instead of focusing on every little task manually, use the right software to help you. The study mentioned above acknowledges another challenge in marketing: 22% of respondents said that they find it difficult to learn and integrate new marketing technologies. The answer to this challenge is therefore finding the right supplier who will deliver a well-tailored solution that helps with countless tasks: collecting and analyzing data, measuring the results of your campaigns, tracking your budget, multi-channel communication, segmenting and targeting customers, campaign planning, reporting and many more.
Instead of being overwhelmed by campaign management, look at this as an opportunity. You can spend more time on creating quality content or take care of long-neglected customer service. The rest can be easily automated or supported by the appropriate campaign management solution that integrates multi-channel management. Make sure that the chosen solution is intuitive, user-friendly and understandable for your marketing team. A responsible service provider should even prepare training for people who are going to operate the campaign management system. If you are interested in examples, take a look at Comarch Campaign Management solution and learn how many features and tasks can be integrated and completed automatically by the system in minutes.
Do you have any problems with campaign management? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
