Marketing is an essential aspect of any business, and there are several types of marketing strategies that businesses can use to reach their target audience. In this blog, we will discuss the six main types of marketing: social media campaigns, paid ads, referral marketing, email marketing, giveaway markting, and lead capture campaigns. Each type has its unique benefits, and by understanding these strategies, businesses can create effective marketing campaigns that reach their customers and help them achieve their goals.
What is a Marketing Campaign?
A marketing campaign is the use of various strategies to reach a specific goal. These campaigns are typically created and executed for individuals, brands, or companies. They are carefully designed to bring awareness of a business, product, or cause to a target audience. Multiple mediums can be used for a campaign, including:
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Pay-per-click
- Print ads
- Radio and tv
Marketing campaigns can have a variety of goals, however, the most common goal is increasing awareness of an organization and attracting new customers. Other goals include announcing a new product, building a brand, revamping a product, and even building positive publicity.
Most marketing campaigns involve a number of aspects. These include promotion of the brand or product, advertisement of the solution the brand or product solves, and a call to action that tells people how to make the move the business wants them to make. When used cohesively, every aspect of a marketing campaign works together to deliver the intended result of the campaign.
Commonalities of Each Marketing Campaign
Every type of marketing campaign has a number of common elements. Each campaign type has goals, a target market, metrics, and a call-to-action. You’ll be working with these elements, no matter what type of marketing campaign you are embarking on.
Goals
Every marketing campaign will have certain goals. These goals should be SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). SMART goals provide the organization with a focus as they craft their marketing strategy.
These goals help them move in a specific direction towards the desired destination, which will highlight the effectiveness of the campaign. Every marketing campaign will have goals, which are its overall purpose.
Target Market
To execute a successful marketing campaign, businesses need to know who they are trying to reach. Having clarity on the target market is essential for any type of campaign.
To do so, the business will need to determine their ideal customer profile. This helps them understand who they are, what their needs and pain points are, and the type of solution they’re looking for. This information will help businesses develop an effective marketing campaign of any type.
Metrics
Marketing campaigns should have metrics that help them measure their effectiveness. These metrics include click-through rates, engagement, keyword rankings, and conversion rate. While each type of campaign will have certain metrics that others don’t (such as open rate for email campaigns), everyone will have metrics to focus on to check performance.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is the rate of clicks on a certain link compared to the total number of people who view a page, email, or advertisement.
Engagement Rate
Engagement rates track your audience’s engagement and involvement with an organization’s content. They look at the audience’s interactions through comments, likes, and shares.
Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings are a web page’s position within search results or a certain keyword.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rates are used to evaluate the performance of certain CTAs, such as an increase in website traffic and conversions. The rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action of the campaign. Call-to-Action
A specific call-to-action is necessary in every marketing campaign. The CTA is the action you want your audience to take in order to reach your intended goal. Each campaign’s CTA will depend on its purpose, whether to get people to buy, click, read, donate, or sign up.
Types of Marketing Campaigns
Social Media Campaigns
Social media campaigns are essential in today’s market. They provide a way for brands to engage and connect with their target market as well as their current customers. Campaigns using social media help businesses expand their reach and build a strong, loyal following. They are also effective for increasing brand awareness and website traffic.
Social media campaigns should have a strategic plan that includes a specific goal and cross-channel promotion. They entail the creation of a series of intentional posts that showcase the brand’s value and encourage the audience to take a certain action. Posts will often include a certain custom hashtag that connects posts and enables the audience to participate.
Social media campaigns will often utilize one hashtag across every platform that people can use to be involved with the campaign. The hashtag will have a certain purpose that the audience can engage with, bringing people together while promoting the business.
Example
Dove soap had a great social media campaign, Project #ShowUs. The campaign was focused on smashing beauty stereotypes. Women were encouraged to post regular photos of themselves with the hashtag #ShowUs, documenting how women actually look.
Paid Ad Campaigns
A paid ad campaign is a digital marketing campaign where the business pays to promote a product or service on various platforms. When done well, paid ad campaigns tend to increase the visibility of the business, generate new leads, and gain conversions. Paid advertisements can be narrowly targeted to help a brand reach their desired audience.
Common platform types used for paid ad campaigns include search engines, social media, and websites.
Paid ad campaigns use keywords to narrow down their audience and ensure relevance for those who see the ads. This helps to increase website visitors and conversions.
Example
The paid ad campaign for Starbucks Instant Coffee is a great example of a successful campaign. Their ads showcased different types of coffee drinks that could be made with instant coffee, showing them how they could make each drink. Along with the interactive content, the ads included links to purchase.
Referral Marketing Campaigns
Referral marketing campaigns are focused on encouraging your customers to promote and recommend your brand to others. In these campaigns, businesses offer initiatives to their customers for sharing their brand with their friends, family, and followers. Initiatives can include referral codes, freebies, discounts, and more.
Referral marketing campaigns help businesses grow their leads and customers. They also build brand loyalty and help business growth. KickoffLabs can help with your referral marketing campaigns, giving you the resources to provide initiatives to your customers.
Example
Cellphone company, T-Mobile, uses effective referral marketing by offering customers $50 per referral, capping out at $500 for referrals a year.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Communicate directly with potential and existing customers through email marketing campaigns. With this type of campaign, you’ll direct your email list to download your lead magnet, visit your landing page, or to take another action. By sending out regular emails, you’ll have continual opportunities to reach your audience.
Use email marketing to build a list of warm leads, connect with your audience regularly, showcase your value, and gain sales. With an email campaign, your emails should be sent on a regular schedule and consistently provide value to your audience.
Example
Venmo is an example of an effective email marketing campaign, with their campaign to re-engage lost users. Emails to lost users showcase recent benefits and updates, providing the recipient with information about why they should use Venmo again.
Giveaway Marketing Campaigns
Giveaway marketing campaigns are rapidly increasing in popularity. They create organic website traffic and increase awareness of the company and its offerings by hosting giveaways.
In order to promote a product or gain awareness, a business can use social media and host a giveaway. Giveaway entries can include likes, shares, tags, and comments, which increase engagement and ensure audience growth. For the best outcome, host your giveaway using KickoffLabs.
Example
Starbucks held the Red Cup Contest, using social media to promote the campaign. In this campaign, customers were asked to post photos of themselves holding Starbucks’ infamous holiday cup, using the hashtag #RedCupContest. The five best pictures were rewarded $500.
Lead Capture Campaigns
With a lead capture campaign, businesses create content that is extremely relevant to its target market and asks them to take a specific action.
Most lead capture campaigns utilize emails, social media, SEO, and landing pages to share unique content. They can include giveaways, social media takeovers, emails, and other types of digital tactics that are used to capture leads. KickoffLabs makes it simple to execute a flawless lead capture campaign.
Example
Sippd uses KickoffLabs Contest Box as part of their lead capture campaigns. In these campaigns, leads are encouraged to sign up for a chance to win a free membership, increasing their chances of winning by referring friends and completing actions. By signing up, the company is gathering information on these leads so they can continue to nurture them towards conversion.
Conclusion
As you are crafting digital marketing campaigns for your business, make sure to utilize the types that are most likely to help you reach your goals. There are lots of resources out there for creating and launching marketing campaigns. Get the tools you need today to deliver the most effective marketing campaigns with KickoffLabs.