When it comes to a coordinated marketing campaign, Crystal Oxley, Group Account Director at Zenith Media, knows the first consideration is not budgets but objectives.
Are you looking to sell products? Increase traffic? Build brand awareness? How will you define success?
Once those questions are answered, you can optimize your marketing campaigns to meet your goals.
Know the characteristics of your ideal customer before planning any campaign. The more targeted you are with messaging, the less your campaign will cost. How so? You won’t waste time and money reaching out to people who have little interest in your product.
Oxley says today’s customers expect engaging content, so your marketing should try to build relationships rather than aim for the straight sell. Depending on your objectives, as well as your budget, your marketing activities can take place across many channels such as:
Social media
Social media is a good place for those with modest budgets. Your ongoing social activity enhances your brand, but social platforms also offer paid-for services as simple as boosted posts or one-time promotions. The process is largely self-serve, but help is available via DM or chat. More complex campaigns can reach wider audiences as well as provide instant digital tracking.
If you’re trying to drive newsletter signups or social likes or follows, a digital campaign alone might get the job done.
If you want to convince customers to buy again, or to let people know about your next pop-up store, digital outreach followed by a direct mail reminder gets the best results.
Connect your marketing to where people live. Snap AdmailTM makes it simple.
Explore Snap AdmailSearch engine marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is paid advertising, based on the keywords people use to search for your type of business.
Consider shoppers looking for children’s clothing. What would they type when they go online looking for back-to-school gear? “Children’s clothing,” “winter coats kids,” maybe “t-shirt cotton kids” etc. If your business is new, it probably won’t come up on the first search engine page that shopper sees after searching. Investing in SEM means paying so your company advertising accompanies those search results.
Google offers comprehensive resources to help you set up a campaign. It can be expensive, depending on the keywords you want to be associated with, but it can get you in front of a lot of potential customers already in the market for what you sell. Translation: the payoff could be big and fast.
Print
Simple solutions can be cost-effective and efficient. Direct mail campaigns can be targeted to specific locations, such as the area immediately surrounding your store.
Tools like Canada Post Snap AdmailTM make direct mail easy – just add your copy and upload your images. Snap Admail Plus lets you include digital ads with your direct mail campaigns, an approach that’s proven to generate stronger results than using direct mail alone.