With everything going on right now, you may not have the time to focus on a marketing campaign that has all the bells and whistles. But, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t bother with a campaign at all.
Micro-campaigns can still pack a punch. And with large campaigns not taking up as much space on social media as they usually do, it’s an opportune time to make your brand’s voice heard. We’ve created a framework that will help you to plan, structure and create an effective micro-campaign that you can deliver over two weeks.
The steps we’re going to cover are:
- Purpose – What is the aim of my campaign?
- Plan – How do I plan for a successful campaign?
- Produce – What content do I create?
- Promote – How do I make sure my campaign reaches who it needs to?
- Results – How do I track and measure my campaign’s success?
1. Purpose
Ask yourself – What is the campaign aiming to achieve? As the campaign will only span across two weeks, it needs to be promoting a specific product or service. A mini-campaign won’t be very effective at marketing a full suite of services or an entire brand. You need to know exactly what you are bolstering with the campaign and why.
Can’t decide on your campaign’s purpose? Here are some examples that might apply to your campaign:
- Generate engagement
- Increase social media shares
- Increase brand awareness
- Boost sales
Once you’ve decided on your campaign’s purpose, there are a few things you can do to help you to narrow down its main goal. I recommend coming up with a project mission statement and a SMART goal.
Project mission statement
A project mission statement sums up what you want to achieve with your campaign in a couple of sentences. Picture a shorter, relevant version of your brand mission statement.
An example of a project mission statement is:
Our campaign will show small businesses how we can help them to survive and thrive in the time of COVID-19 by promoting our bespoke content marketing packages. We’re here to support, leverage and guide our fellow small businesses towards success through powerful content with purpose.
SMART goal
A ‘SMART’ goal is a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. The SMART formula allows your goal to be precise and easy to track.
An example of a SMART goal is:
Our micro campaign aims to increase our reach on Instagram by gaining 200 new followers using paid posts that promote a giveaway by the 10th of June 2020.
2. Plan
A lot of us don’t have access to the resources we usually would. Now more than ever, it’s important to plan your campaigns so that your resources aren’t stretched thin. You need to know exactly what you need to do and when – what content you’re making, who you need to make it, how long it will take to make it and when the campaign is happening.
To help you out, we thought we’d put together a content calendar for you to work in, which you can find here.
3. Produce
We’re on to the fun bit. It’s time to create your content!
As your campaign will only be running for two weeks, you don’t have to worry about churning out bucketloads of content. Instead, focus on quality over quantity and nailing your goals.
There are several forms that your campaign content can take. The goal you have set will be an indicator for the type of content you should create. For instance, if you’re wanting to generate leads, you may want to opt for a campaign that uses lead generation forms.
If it’s engagement you’re after, video content is proven to be the most engaging.
If you’re struggling with coming up with ideas for content, we have seven content creation tips that can help. You might also wanna check out these 15 different types of content to try for your small business – they aren’t campaign-specific, but definitely worth a look.
4. Promote
Next, it’s time to get your campaign in front of who needs to see it.
Different social media platforms have different strengths. It’s important that you choose the right place to share your content so that it reaches the right audience with your goals in mind.
Let’s run through each platform and the types of campaigns best suited to them:
Twitter campaigns can be useful for a variety of reasons. From expanding your brand awareness and growing your following to driving more clicks to your website and increasing downloads of an app/ebook, Twitter is a great multi-purpose platform.
Being a visual-centric platform, Instagram is brilliant for generating engagement. You can use images, videos, Stories and IGTV to create an aesthetically pleasing and compelling campaign.
As I mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is top-dog for lead generation. LinkedIn has a range of paid advertising options available to suit a variety of campaigns, as well as its own Lead Gen Forms. You can find out more on how to generate LinkedIn leads here.
Like Twitter, Facebook is a good all-rounder when it comes to mini-campaigns. It even has its very own Business Manager tool, which allows you to create, track, manage and edit ads and campaigns. This tool makes it one of the most adaptable platforms of the bunch (Just make sure your target audience can be found on Facebook).
TikTok
Despite TikTok being the new kid on the block, its popularity is rising each day, with marketing opportunities rising with it. Like Instagram, TikTok is solely a visual tool that focuses on short video clips. If you want to generate engagement but have been there and done that with Instagram, why not give TikTok a whirl?
5. Results
So, you’ve released your campaign into the wild. You’re not done yet! Tracking and measuring the success of your campaign is one of the most important parts of the process.
Most social media platforms have built-in analytics software that you can use to measure the success of the campaign. Social media scheduling tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite also have easy-to-use analytics software. You can track any metrics based on your goals such as engagement rate, reach, Tweet impressions, shares, clicks and so on.
It’s good to track how your campaign is performing from the get-go. By observing the data, you can adapt your content to suit what is performing best. Campaigns aren’t stagnant things, don’t shy away from tweaking things here and there.
For more helpful tips on metrics and reporting, check out the content section of our blog.
Pivot with perseverance
Good luck with your mini-campaign! We hope that you found this post useful. During the current pandemic, it’s important that we are thinking strategically to help us survive this tough time.
If your business is struggling at the moment, you’re not alone. We’ve got a hub of content that is sure to help you navigate the difficulties businesses are facing due to COVID-19.
If you need an extra helping hand, we also have a Pivot Marketing Package and a Problem-Solving Workshop available. Feel free to contact us at hey@matchstickcreative.co.uk to find out more.
Let’s pivot our businesses in the new direction.
