An effective marketing campaign is based on using the right data to build something that’ll appeal to your target audience and deliver real results.
This is critical when you consider that poor marketing data costs online companies approximately $611 billion every year!
So, how can we improve this? What sort of information should we use to create better marketing campaigns? Read on to discover everything you need to know.
Consent management is critical when gathering information
Before we delve into the different types of information you need to create a marketing campaign, it’s vital to talk about consent management. After all, the last thing you want is to find yourself on the wrong side of the law because you’ve been ignorant of the data consent rules in place.
Consent management ensures companies are aware of how to collate and utilize data in line with the law. Consumers have the legal right to consent or refuse, and you need to adhere to this with a set of policies, processes, and systems.
You can read this guide by Osano to get an understanding of consent management. This gives you all the information you need so that you can implement an effective consent management policy.
What types of information do you need to create a marketing campaign?
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of getting user consent before collating and using data, let’s take a look at the different types of information you need to put together an effective marketing campaign.
1. What’s your primary objective?
Before we start looking at your target audience and their characteristics, we need to start with YOU. What’s your main goal? What do you hope to achieve from this marketing campaign?
It may sound obvious, but without a solid sense of direction, you’ll find that your marketing efforts start to get a bit messy. Instead, with your main objective at the center of everyone’s focus, it will direct every decision you make to ensure your marketing efforts are as successful as possible.
Make sure your goal is specific. Something like “make your business better” won’t cut it. Perhaps there’s a specific growth rate you want to achieve? Or, do you want to grow the number of website visitors you have per month? These are the sort of objectives you should be considering.
2. What’s your target consumer base?
Now that we’ve established the goal you’re working toward, we now need to start thinking about the sort of people you’re going to target with your efforts.
You need to know your target consumer base, and this means really knowing them. You need to know what they like and what they don’t like. You need to know about the sort of income they earn, their interests, their age, and anything else that gives you a good image of who you’re targeting.
You also need to understand what they think about the type of products or services you sell. Understanding their pain points so you can best address them is also crucial.
3. What competition do you face?
Once you have got a thorough picture of the competition you’re going to come up against, the next step is understanding your competition and the strategies they have been using.
You can start with Google when doing research like this. Simply search terms that relate to the products and services you sell so you can find other businesses that do the same sort of thing as you.
Once you have established your competition, you then need to start digging deeper. What sort of strategies are these businesses using? How does their audience and objectives differ from your own?
What makes you different from these businesses? What can you use to your advantage to stand out from the competition and show customers that you’re better?
After all, successful businesses understand the competition, and they take their offering to the next level. They either offer something better or target a niche part of the market for the best results.
You have to put yourself in the customer’s shoes; what would make you choose your business over what is already available in the industry?
4. Data about the channels you may use
Now, we move on to assessing the different marketing channels that are available to determine which one is going to be the most suitable.
There are many different avenues and channels that businesses can make the most of these days. Examples include:
- Search engine optimization
- Pay Per Click
- Social media
- Leaflets and brochures
- Forums
- Quora
- Link building
- Blog posting
- Guest blogs
- … and much more!
There’s no right or wrong approach. It’s about determining which one makes the most sense for you and your audience.
This is why you need to do extensive research so you can look at the facts and figures and determine which approach is going to work for your business.
You can compare statistics on various social media sites and compare this to your target demographic, so you can determine which social media websites your target audience uses the most. This will direct your marketing efforts to ensure you’re getting as much exposure and visibility as possible.
5. Your audience’s psychological profile
It’s not enough to know that most of your audience includes females aged between 25 and 40 years old. You need to understand their thoughts and feelings. How do they feel about the service they provide? What sort of brand interactions matter the most to them? How do they feel when interacting with your products and services? What sort of hurdles cause them the most dissatisfaction?
These sorts of questions involve getting a better understanding of your audience’s psychological profile. This is the sort of data that you can build up over time based on your interactions with customers and their behavior when on your website. You can also monitor reviews and conversations on social media to see what others are saying about your business.
6. The costs entailed
Next, you need to know how much your campaign is going to total overall. Of course, it may not be possible to get the exact figures before you get started. However, having a rough indication will help you to plan appropriately so that you don’t end up overspending. We would always recommend having a contingency as well, as life has a habit of throwing up unexpected expenses along the way.
If you have a tight budget that you need to work to, this will obviously impact your choices. The good news is that there are plenty of different marketing avenues. However, it’s a balancing act when it comes to getting your budget right and getting your marketing mix right.
It’s a good idea to look for a blend of marketing approaches that deliver short-term gains, known as growth hacking, as well as long-term marketing gains. This will ensure that you’re focusing on building your brand in the long term while still trying to get some money in over the short term as well.
7. Your projected returns from the marketing campaign
Last but not least, gathering data on your project returns is critical to determine whether your marketing campaign is viable. After all, the whole point of spending on marketing is that you’re going to progress your business and generate more sales as a consequence.
Of course, there are no certainties in life. But with data, you can get a good understanding of the sort of revenue range you can expect to enjoy from your marketing campaign. This can be compared with how much the campaign is costing you so you can figure out whether it’s worth it or you should be going back to the drawing board to choose something that makes more economic sense.
This may seem like a long-winded process. However, it’s better to spend some time dealing with the figures now and understanding your projected costs rather than spending heaps of money on something that does not bring any money in for your business.
Create a killer marketing campaign with the data mentioned above
So there you have it: some of the main pieces of information you should source when creating an effective marketing campaign.
If you don’t use data to your advantage when marketing, you’ll never hit the mark. After all, you won’t know what sort of people you’re targeting, how best to target them, what appeals to them, and how even to reach them.
Author bio:
Kerry Leigh Harrison has over 11+ years of experience as a content writer. She graduated from university with a First Class Hons Degree in Multimedia Journalism. In her spare time, she enjoys attending sports and music events.
