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Create a Campaign with Follow Up

Written by: John Brennan

Article Overview: A “campaign” involves multiple steps and multiple touches with your audience. Frequency is key – you can’t just send out a single email or run a lone print ad and expect great results. You want to hit your market multiple times using different media.

Create a Campaign with Follow Up

Each campaign is a sales process – you’re trying to move your prospects from A to B. Think about each step in the process, not just the first one:

1. Use search engines to generate incoming leads to your website. Prospect requests information via email.
2. Send an email with the information they requested. It needs to be a great email – informative, clear, and well-designed.
3. Send a follow up email a week later with an incentive to return to your site to continue learning. Ask the prospect if you can call to answer questions.
4. Call the prospect; qualify the prospect further, answer questions, and determine next steps.

Here’s an example – let’s say you’re exhibiting at a trade show and hosting a VIP event:

1. Send a postcard to all attendees three weeks before the show; invite them to visit your booth with an incentive for coming by. Have them bring the postcard to get the incentive.
2. Send a special invitation to key prospects and customers to join you for a VIP reception at a chic club on the first night of the show. Ask them to RSVP by phone, email or URL.
3. Follow up with key prospects and customers by phone as a second effort on the reception invitation.
4. Send an email to all confirmed attendees three days before the event.

Or perhaps you’re just trying to hit your market with a special offer:

1. Create a story around the offer – make it compelling. You could get some coverage in industry publications, and it may show up in search engines.
2. Run banner ads on industry websites and targeted email campaigns.
3. Send out a special email to your house list.

BE CREATIVE; GRAB THEIR ATTENTION

Your market is probably already bombarded with marketing messages daily. You’ll need to stand out and it’s tough. First, clarify the key message of your campaign. Decide what you can do differently to reinforce your message and make your campaign stand out. Don’t be afraid to be different as long as you stay true to your value proposition and brand strategy! Grab their attention (effectively and professionally) and engage them with a startling statistic, an industry trend they may not be aware of, or an industry report. To come up with a catchy tile, play around with blockbuster movie titles, business or political campaign slogans or sports headlines.

CONTINUALLY TEST AND IMPROVE

It’s always a good idea to test your campaigns to improve your results. Even on a small campaign, you can do a small test first to evaluate your ad, copy, your list or other factors before you invest your entire campaign budget. Potential test criteria include:

• Your List (in a mail or email campaign, your list is usually the most important variable)
• Test different subsets of the list. Do you get a better response rate with more specific targeting?
• Are there certain industries, locations, company sizes, or other selection criteria that produce better results?
Test a subset of the list. Is the delivery rate acceptable?
• Test offers. Which price generates the greatest response?
• Which offer generates the greatest response?
• Which paid search headline and copy generates the most qualified visitors to your web site?
• Which email headline has the largest open rate?
• Which email design has the highest click-through rate?
• Which email copy has the highest click-through rate?
• Which landing page design converts the highest number of visitors?
• Which landing page copy converts the highest number of visitors?
• Which envelope design generates the most responses in a mail piece?
• Which letter generates the highest response?
• What color generates the greatest response?
• Which day of the week pulls the best response?
• What time of day (for an email or phone call) generates the best response?

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Article Tags: audience, email, marketing campaigns



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