Link This |
Email this |
Blog This |
Comments (0)
Have You Launched Your Advertising Campaign?
April 26, 2007
Your competition has just launched an advertising campaign and you realize that you have to start one as well. Here are some tips you should know:
- Advertising campaign vs. Communications campaign: advertising deals with anything that is bought or paid-for by you, while a communications campaign includes free public relations / press releases, flyers on cars (if you create them), coupons you email to customers, etc.
- A lot of consideration should go into the planning process - regardless of how much time is involved:
- set measurable objectives
- select overall strategy
- set a budget and stick to it
- set realistic expectations and lead times. Thinking you'll get 500 new leads and close half of them will only work if you have all the right variables.
- Set a launch date and work backwards with your timeline
Starting Your Plan:
- Who is your target market?
- who buys your product?
- what and who are the influencers in their decisions?
- how many potential buyers are there?
- who do you want to reach and how will you reach them?
- what are their characteristics? Outline a complete profile for your target buyer
- what does research tell you about their attitudes?
- Select the media you want to use
- does the audience profile match your target?
- what are the costs compared with using a different medium?
- does the frequency match your timeline?
- what are all the creative opportunities this medium provides? (tip: most large media houses have an in-house creative team that do much more besides ads in magazines)
- Plan the timing of the campaign - when it'll hit
- is summer your busiest season?
- are you targeting back-to-school?
- is it tax season?
- How often will it run?
- are you running it weekly, monthly, semi-weekly?
- Design the creative
- tip: you may be tempted to do this first, but don't. If you don't nail down the first part, it doesn't matter how great your creative is if it's not seen.
- What is the action you wish to achieve?
- is this people in your store, leads, purchases?
An advertising campaign is only as good as the amount of planning, time and coordination spent. Don't take shortcuts on lead times, know who you are targeting, have enough resources to achieve your objectives, and integrate it with your other marketing activities (if your sales team isn't prepared, it's money wasted). What people see and read about you via media is usually their first impression of you, and (to use a cliche), you only have one chance...
Posted by Suze Bragg on April 26, 2007 | Comments (0)
