ICYMI: This is part three of our “Campaign Conversations” series, where we give you an inside look at the member acquisition campaign our agency launched for AMADC, the DC chapter of the American Marketing Association. Today we’ll be covering the campaign launch, and what you can do when unexpected speed bumps show up.
Our agency has guided many organizations through the marketing campaign process. And, we’ve learned that there are many potential outcomes and variables that can kill or amplify a campaign's momentum.
The focus of our campaign with AMADC was member acquisition, emphasizing how the American Marketing Association helps marketers stay connected, specifically in the DMV. While building the campaign was rooted in exploration and audience personas, the campaign launch overcame several daunting challenges.
We’re going to explain how we navigated those challenges and the three pillars you should consider before running your next marketing campaign. Each of these actions will help your team make the right decisions and ensure launch day is a massive success!
Prepare.
There are certain events you can’t plan for…such as a global pandemic. Which is exactly what happened to us right as we were about to launch this campaign.
But that’s why a strong preparation phase is absolutely necessary.
Our focus was member acquisition, driving traffic from emails and social to a campaign landing page. As we prepared to launch alongside AMADC, the pandemic pushed our target audience into difficult situations. Many of them were overworked, overwhelmed, and dealing with the shift to remote work. Joining a new membership program was not at the top of their list.
Internal alignment through consistent communication, status updates, and general gut checks between active members on the project allowed us to handle shifting deadlines and roadblocks. It’s critical to build momentum from the inside out.
Key learnings: Audit all moving parts of your campaign. Begin your planning process as soon as possible. Assign the right people to the right tasks.
Prioritize.
What tasks and tactics need to be tested for a successful launch? What are your most important lead times? Are deadlines for each task set?
There are hundreds of questions you can ask yourself. If you don’t invest time and patience into prioritizing, then keeping track of all assets is nearly impossible.
For this campaign, our launch priorities came down to:
● The landing page launch.
● Social copy & creative.
● Email copy & creative.
The last thing you want is to hyper focus on tiny tweaks that will not alter the campaign's success––then forget to do something important like test an email CTA.
Key learnings: When prioritizing your task list, put yourself in the audiences’ shoes. What is the top action you want them to take?
Analyze.
Now it’s time to introduce your big, beautiful campaign to the world.
Once the campaign is live, keep the momentum going. Inform your internal stakeholders that the campaign is out there and encourage them to engage with the content when appropriate. Share the newly created assets with your team.
For AMADC, we are keeping the campaign alive through this blog series. We also encouraged our team to share the creative on their own social channels.
Finally, make sure tracking is enabled. You can enable tracking on Google Analytics or use a social media monitoring tool. These insights are critical in analyzing the campaign's success and helping you learn for the next one.
Key learnings: Track your cross-channel efforts in as many ways as possible to inform future campaigns. Build hype through internal promotion.
Good luck and happy launching!
Interested in learning more about the American Marketing Association’s DC chapter?
Visit: www.amadc.org