Planning and executing a streamlined campaign can easily overwhelm even the most experienced content marketer. It’s a complex project that requires the coordination of many different marketing activities with the purpose of reaching specific goals, and there’s a real danger to get lost in the many puzzle pieces that need to be put in place. If this is your experience, fear not, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture of Inbound Marketing campaigns.
Elements of an inbound marketing strategy
The Reason of Campaigns
The inbound methodology is about turning strangers into customers and proud promotors of your brand. The buyer's journey breaks this process down into three phases:
- Awareness Phase: A prospect has become aware of their problems and opportunities and actively starts researching the topic.
- Consideration Phase: At this point the prospect has attained sufficient information on what they need. What the prospect starts looking for now is different solutions to fulfil their need, and decides on one that’s right for them.
- Decision Phase: The prospect starts evaluating different vendors and products offering the solution. Research into specific vendors is done until the buying action is taken.
The reason we run campaigns is, simply put, to encourage buyers to take the next step on their journey.
Renew your focus: Determine the next step you want your buyers to take by setting SMART goals for your campaign. Is your goal related to website traffic, lead generation or lead conversion? Then make sure you set these goals to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.
The Rhyme of Campaigns
Scheduling a hard rock band to perform at a conference on traditional classical music might not go down too well with the audience, and neither would Mozart’s concertos at a meditation retreat. Just so, with campaigns, it’s important to rhyme the language and substance of your content with your audience.
A hilarious meme could get your younger buyers to sit up and take notice of your brand while a B2B buyer searching for a high-tech solution, will probably prefer a white paper or product spec sheets.
Renew your focus: Who are the buyers that you are trying to reach with your campaign? Review your buyer personas personas and rhyme the tone and substance accordingly.
The Rhythm of Campaigns
Your campaign will consist of many beats of content – some of them short and punchy while others will be slower beats that need to be savoured. And then, there’s the crescendo that strikes at the very heart of the audience.
From launch day to deadline, your campaign will make use of different forms of content (e.g. video, social posts, articles, white papers, infographics, images) on various online channels (e.g. social media, website, email) to reach different types of buyers. And yet, at the heart of your campaign lies a piece of content that is valuable enough to your buyers that they’d be willing to take the next step to get access to it.
Are you dealing with a Top of the Funnel (ToFu) campaign? During this phase your buyers are hungry for in-depth educational content which makes long-form content such as an eBook or an industry report an ideal offer.
During the Middle of the Funnel (MoFu) your buyers are considering their different options for services and products that could solve their problems and fulfil their needs. At this point your high-value content offer could take the shape of case studies, free samples, free webinars, catalogues and product spec sheets that give buyers a taste of your products and services.
If your campaign is targeted at Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) buyers, now is the time to get down to business with your high-value content offer. What’s it going to take to get your buyers to take the Big Step? The answer could be a free trial, free consultation, a discount offer, a demo, or even an estimate or quote.
Renew your focus: What is the high-value content offer that will encourage your buyers to take that next step? Let it guide you in creating blogs, social media posts and emails that invite your buyers to receive your offer.
Pitch Perfect Campaigning
Don’t lose your way in the maze of campaigning. Step back and review the reason, the rhyme and the rhythm of your campaign and construct your marketing actions accordingly.
