The 6 keys of a successful communications campaign
Communication is at the core of any business. Whether it’s used to inform your clients of a new product or to generate attendees for an event, the way that your company communicates is important. In order to make your communication campaign as successful as possible, it is important to take all the elements the make up your communications into account. At Sierra Marketing, we are well aware of how complicated this can seem! So to help you out, we have put together 6 key points to ensure your best communications campaign.
1. Defining the main objectives
The first step in your communication planning is to define your objectives. In order to achieve your goals, you first need to clarify them and really understand what they are. To do this, you will need to audit your current situation including your clients, the frequency of their purchases and the needs of your prospective customers. This step is really important as it is here that you will identify what the main goal is. This will then be communicated to everyone involved, so that the whole team is on the same page. At this stage, you are not just defining that you want to increase your sales, but instead you are specifying by how much. The same goes for if you are promoting your company in general. It will not be the company on the whole that is promoted, but a specific element. Because of this, targeting the audience has a particular importance in terms of the way you communicate. Indeed, the communication channels you use and your message will differ depending on if you are targeting a housewife or a CEO.
The essential thing is to be specific and realistic so you can give a direction to the campaign.
2. Defining the theme
Now that you have a clear idea of your objectives and your audience, it’s time to focus on your campaign’s theme. The theme has to reflect the voice of your brand so it will have the best impact possible on your target. The specific campaign might be about a certain event, like a trade show, or a Christmas party, or it could be a digital campaign about a new product launch.
The theme needs to be decided with the purpose in mind of triggering your audience to act.
Generally speaking, a communications campaign is designed to attract customers to your company. To make this activity a success, it’s important to make sure that your website and the content on your website is properly optimised. What this means is that you need to use keywords and proper referencing across each of your website pages. Why? Because one of the key ways that potential customers will find your website is by searching for you! “Keywords” are the terms that your potential customers will use in their search, so you need to make sure that you have used them across your site in order to appear in the search results. Obviously, you won’t use the same language as your clients, so when you’re thinking about keywords, it’s better to use everyday language, as opposed to a specific product term that you and your team might use in house. Thankfully there are also useful tools to help you identify your keywords, such as Google Adwords. This platform can help you identify some core keywords to use across your site, as well as average traffic, and price if you decide to pay for some advertising.
4. Writing the content
This is the time you will need to sit down with your team and focus on the content. Think about the purpose, structure, format and platform on which the content will appear. The content is the main pillar of your campaign, so pay particular attention to it. It has to be easy to distribute and readily adaptable to the various platforms that will support your campaign. . As your content will be repurposed across a multitude of channels, you will need to keep this in mind when creating it. Maybe have a shorter version ready for social media, or a longer version for a customer newsletter. Whatever the format of your content, remember to include your keywords!
5. Sharing the content on social media
Once the content is written, the next step is to share it to the largest possible number of people so that you can attract new prospects. It is all about being seen by your target audience and then transforming them into clients. Keep in mind that it takes around 10 times before you message makes in impact on the consumer, so make sure you persist with your messaging and make sure it’s consistent.
Each social media channel has a different feature, so it’s important to choose them carefully. For instance, you wouldn’t post the exact same content on Pinterest that you would on LinkedIn. It is also important to make sure that your content is fresh and regularly updated. A key to the success of your campaign is to make sure you constantly post new content and send regular reminders throughout social media and via e-mail.
6. Evaluating results
Last but not least, evaluating the results of your communications campaign is a key step in this process. Thanks to this analysis of your campaign’s impact, you might decide to adapt your communication strategy for future activities. As a matter of course, it’s crucial to know how your audience feels about your message and how they perceive it. When analysing your campaign, keeping specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in mind is useful so that you have a better idea of the campaign’s profitability. From here, you can choose to adopt further optimisation measures in order to guarantee a better return on investment with future campaigns. So, at this time, the previously decided objectives are a great indicator of your performance.
The implementation of a communications campaign takes time and consideration. If you remember only one thing about this article, it should be: Define specific objectives, deliver accurate content adapted to your audience and measure the results of the campaign. These are the keys to your communication campaign’s success!
If you are interested in a tailored communications campaign, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.
Clémence Barthélemy
Clémence is a Junior Marketing Assistant at Sierra Marketing. Joining the Sierra team, Clémence got to experience the various facets of marketing. Her work at Sierra Marketing mostly focuses on online marketing, social media and community management. Through Clémence’s work for different clients, she found a passion for digital marketing.
