How to Turn a Concept into a Campaign
Taking a creative idea and turning into a marketing campaign can seem daunting. The accessibility of the internet and the convenience of social media and digital marketing have led to an influx of creative, engaging, and visually appealing campaigns. There are so many exciting ideas out there that it may feel intimidating. At JRS Mar/Com, we know firsthand that the best marketing campaigns can start with a simple idea.
The first step to design an effective marketing campaign is to come up with a creative concept. Our latest campaign for JRS Mar/Com started with a simple concept: a comic book. This is the mechanism we are using to share our campaign message. The comic book focuses on two young teens who want to help their dad understand digital tools so he can succeed at his job in marketing. The teens become BeSeen Boy and BeHeard Girl, and they enlist the Marketing Superheroes to complete their team. Together they execute an exciting digital marketing campaign. The dad overcomes his lack of digital talents with the JRS marketing team on his side. As with our comic book concept, your campaign concept is what will tie all your marketing efforts together.
Concept
So, how do you come up with an exciting concept? It should be stimulating, it should speak to the audience you want to engage with, and it should address a need in your target market. Follow these three steps to compose a captivating concept for your campaign.
- Brainstorm ideas.
Your campaign concept may surface organically, but it’s best not to wait for a lightbulb moment to come along. Start by brainstorming to get your creative juices flowing. Write down the first thoughts that come to mind. Your concept doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple idea is less intimidating, and it allows plenty of room for you to build upon it as you flesh out your campaign.
Our comic book idea actually originated from JRS Director Joe Skibbie’s son. He drew the comic strip characters and carefully depicted each frame, which eventually became the storyboard for the larger marketing campaign. This just goes to show that an innovative idea can come from anyone at any time. Remember to cast a wide net when you’re brainstorming. Work with another person or a group of people to cultivate a more expansive pool of inspiration.
- Define your audience.
Your audience is the specific group of people you’re trying to reach with your campaign. This group of people likely shares some attributes such as age, location, income, etc. Concentrating your marketing efforts on this particular group gives you a direction and helps ensure you’re reaching the people most likely to buy the product or service you’re selling. It’s important to really understand your audience because the tools, strategies, and language you use in your campaign will be tailored to fit that group of people.
The JRS comic book concept made us think about appealing to a younger crowd. Traditional marketing methods seem outdated and bland in our increasingly digital world, but marketing doesn’t need to be boring! By using a familiar but non-traditional medium, the comic book, we are aiming to reach a younger audience. This idea is fresh and creative, and we can tailor the comic book story itself to speak directly to our target audience.
To determine your audience, start by looking at your current customers. What do they have in common? Get a feel for your customer demographics. If you’re looking to reach beyond your current customer base, think about the type of person you want to attract and how they differ from your current customers. Here are some more tips on how to define your target audience.
- Determine the need.
Once you know your audience, think about why they need the product or service you are selling, and build a list of customer insights. These insights will help you assemble the structure around your concept. Keep in mind that these insights shouldn’t necessarily be about your product. They should be about your customers. What is important to them? What do they believe in? What need are they looking to fulfill? Some needs we determined with our comic book campaign included insecurity with using digital tools, fear of not keeping up with competition because lack of tech-savvy skills, how to be original and creative with so much already flooding the market, etc.
To help you hone in on what your customer needs, it can help to think about what other businesses in your industry are doing wrong. Consider what your business does differently and how that is the answer to your customer’s need. Acknowledge that your product isn’t the only choice, and then position your product as the best choice. Another way to approach it is to think about what your customer’s biggest hesitation is when it comes to purchasing your product. Confront that uncertainty head-on in your marketing campaign.
Campaign
Once you have a strong concept, you can collect the resources you’ll need to execute the plan successfully. Your business goals will drive the campaign, and your business narrative will engage and influence customers. Follow these three steps to turn your concept from a simple idea into a lucrative campaign.
- Set your goals.
To determine the goals of your campaign, start by thinking about what you want to accomplish for your business. In what areas does your business struggle? What can your business do better? Maybe you want to build your brand image, introduce a new product, capture customer feedback, generate leads, or increase sales. Whatever your goal is, it should be realistic and measurable.
Pinpoint the action you want to elicit from the campaign, and then track that action. That is how you will measure your campaign and its effectiveness. Part of what makes a marketing campaign successful is your ability to adapt and modify things as your progress. With the comic book campaign, our goal is to gain new customers, increase social media followers, reach a younger audience, and teach people about the services JRS Mar/Com offers.
- Tell a story.
Every effective marketing campaign tells a story. The JRS Mar/Com story is not only in the comic but also in the campaign itself. Our overarching story is that JRS works with your company to develop a professional online persona for your business. With the help of our trusty team of copywriters, creators, and strategists, JRS can magically transform ideas into reality. We integrated our campaign story with our superhero characters from the comic book, so each character demonstrates a different service we offer:
- Contentia – Copywriter. Contentia is a gifted wordsmith able to concisely communicate ad copy, tech manuals, internal events, and relatable stories easily.
- VizCom – Creator. When you don’t know how to share a message, VizCom presents easily shareable creations to communicate your offering.
- BackStack – Strategist. BackStack is a tech maven available to implement best practice tech advancements, web building, and DevOps into any marketing campaign.
Here are some storytelling trends to consider for your campaign.
- Put the plan into action.
With the goals set and the story and narrative in place, you can put your plan into action. Establish your team, create a timeline, and assign tasks. Use your goals and your target audience to determine the type of marketing you want to use and how much marketing is needed. Maybe you want to send a social media blast, a special sale email, or a coupon for a free product with purchase. When building your team, dedicate someone to handle the influx of traffic generated by your marketing campaign. You’ll want to convert that traffic into profitable sales, and it’s important to engage with potential customers right away.
Present your product or service to customers with your campaign and focus on the benefits it will provide. The benefits should speak directly to the need you determined with the customer insights. Focus on positive outcomes, rather than anything negative. You’ll also want to provide proof to build trust in your brand. You could give a product demonstration or obtain a testimonial or endorsement.
Get Started
JRS Mar/Com is happy to be on your team. We can take your ideas to the next level. We can help from beginning to end, from discovering your campaign concept to bringing your goals to fruition. We provide services such as social media management, asset creation, copywriting, and so much more. Contact us today to set your ideas into motion!
