You might be thinking that your business is in need of some kind of marketing campaign. Maybe you have an event coming up that you want to sell tickets for, advertise a new service, or simply create brand awareness for what it is your business does. Whether you’re executing a marketing campaign in-house or contracting a digital agency (such as Nimble) to help, here are the things that your business needs to be successful in your efforts.

How Do You Define Success in this Campaign?

First, you have to consider what your business is and what you’re trying to achieve. Are you a local plumber trying to drum up some business? Are you a landscaping company trying to hire seasonal employees? Or are you a venue trying to sell tickets for your upcoming event? These are all reasons to start a marketing campaign, and their success depends on what you set as your goal — i.e. an increase in customers, job applications, or ticket sales.

Setting goals and measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) is key to determining the success of a campaign. Depending on what your business is, you may consider one of the following indicators to track:

• Views on your ads
• Visits to your website or landing page
• Form submissions to request quotes for your services
• Sales of your product/service/event

All of the above goals are measurable, and what is most important for your business to achieve will determine what results to track, and what to optimize for in your campaigns. 

How Do You Achieve Success in this Campaign?

First, choose the best marketing channels. Different marketing channels are best-suited for different business goals — stay tuned to a future blog post about what marketing channel is best for your business!

Next, take a look at your business goals. Upper-funnel channels like Google Display and Paid Social are used to reach people passively while they browse the web or use social media, and are great to help establish a brand or raise awareness of a business’ products or services. Lower-funnel channels like Google Search allow businesses to get in front of people searching directly for their products or services and are great for driving action from a qualified audience. 

So —where is your audience? This boils down to who your audience is and where they spend their time online. Can we reach your target audience successfully using a specific marketing channel? For example — we have found through our experience that homeowners are best found on Google Display, while people interested in particular bands or music are easier to find on Social Media. The best way to find out where your audience spends their time online is to consult an agency with expertise in this area — like Nimble!

It’s also important to ensure you are set up in the appropriate marketing channels. One of the most common problems we see in launching marketing campaigns is that clients don’t have the right marketing channels set up, or don’t have access to the right channels — in order to use a channel, you or your digital marketing agency will need access to the platform first. Make sure you create new ad accounts when necessary — and we have resources to help if you’re having trouble getting access to your accounts! And, ensure you know who on your team has ownership of your Google Analytics account, which will allow you to track your KPIs. 

Having a strong brand will also help you create engaging ads and see success online. Using consistent logos and imagery helps people recognize your business in the digital sphere, while using consistent tone and language helps establish who you are in your industry. Visuals and messaging that are tailored to the marketing platform is also important. For example, you’ll need square Feed and vertical Story size ads on Facebook and Instagram, and multiple banner, skyscraper and square size ads for Display. Horizontal and vertical videos for YouTube are important for the ads to appear in the most available positions. Keep in mind the idea of thumb-stopping, mobile-first design — use animation and video to create movement and capture attention that will make people stop their scrolling and look at your ad — more so than with just a static image. And keep these short — think shorter, more concise videos that get a message across as quickly as possible.

When Will You Achieve Success in this Campaign?

Timelines for campaign success depend on the marketing channel used and the rest of the set-up of your campaign. The sooner you determine your goal, choose a KPI, audience and platform, get access and ads are created, the sooner a campaign can get started.

Make sure you launch your campaign with an appropriate budget — start with a shorter term and a bigger budget to saturate the audience and drive action. A smaller budget will require a longer time to drive your business goals. 

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If this all sounds a little complex, Nimble Digital is here to help! We specialize in creating and managing digital marketing campaigns for a variety of small businesses, and our experienced creative team will help you make your ads stand out amid all the online clutter. Contact us to get started on launching your successful marketing strategy. 

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