Online Marketing Campaign Timeline

Stage 1: Preparation — 1-2 Weeks

Brainstorm the offer and create a strategy. In order to create an effective strategy, you’ll need to identify the following:

Set the Goal/Objective of the Campaign

• Sales
• Brand Recognition
• Social media followers

Identify Buyer Personas/Target Audience

• Who are you trying to reach with your message?

Specifics of the Offer

• What are you offering?
• How do people claim this offer?
• How long is the offer available?

Identify Distribution Channels and Necessary Content

• Landing page
• Blogs
• Press Release
• Email(s)
• Social Media Ads
• Social Media Banners

Stage 2: Creation — 2-3 Weeks

Now that you know what needs to be created for your campaign, you can now call upon the copywriter, designer, and developers to get to work.

Write Content

The time it takes for an experienced copywriter to write all the landing pages, blogs, PR materials, emails, etc. depends on a couple of key factors.

1) How quickly and comprehensively the client provides the copywriter with key information. (Like the specifics of the offer, goal, target audience, necessary brand information/legal claims)

2) How quickly the client moves during the approval process. Usually, any edits made by a client are quick fixes that take less than a day to incorporate by a copywriter. However, if the client is not available to approve right away, the process must come to a halt.

Design Content

Similar to the copywriting process, the time it takes for an experienced designer to complete the campaign materials depends upon:

1) How quickly the client can supply necessary high-resolution images (logos, product shots, etc.) and how complex the client wants the design to be.

2) How quickly the client moves during the approval process. Just like with content, design cannot move forward without the client’s desired edits or approval.

Development

Development is where things tend to slow down a bit. Depending on the complexity of the content (the design, custom forms, interaction with an existing site, etc) the development of a campaign can be a tricky, time-consuming process. But that’s ok. An experienced marketing manager knows how to work with developers and assign projects so they’ll get done in a timely manner. A marketing manager is also in charge of quality assurance, making sure that everything looks and acts like it’s supposed to and working with the developers to fix anything that doesn’t.

How to Speed Up the Development Process

Don’t make any significant changes: changing the phrasing of a piece of content is one thing, changing the offer of the campaign or the design is a completely different matter. In order to avoid making the team start from square one, don’t demand large changes to the campaign this late in the game.

Give the developers access: to connect the campaign to your existing site, the developers may need access to your domain or other existing brand accounts including all social media accounts. Failure to provide this information means that the developers are unable to move forward.

Stage 3: Distribution — 1-2 Weeks

The content is finished and it is time to launch your campaign. You will need to:

• Launch the campaign landing page
• Deploy the email blast
• Distribute any PR materials
• Publish and schedule blog distribution
• Publish and schedule social media posts
• Update Social media headers

It is imperative that, during the launch of your campaign, you or another company representative be available to answer any last-minute questions or provide last-minute approval. Unfortunately, there are complications that may arise during distribution that cannot be predicted and your availability may mean the difference between launching the campaign on time and postponing the campaign launch.

Stage 4: Analysis — 1 Week + Ongoing

Once the campaign is launched, we will begin collecting information regarding its performance. We will:

• Look for any trends regarding who accepts the offer, when they accept the offer, which channels get the most traffic, etc.
• Identify what is working with your target audience and what is not. Is there an aspect of the campaign that is a turn-off for your audience?
• Adjust the campaign according to our findings to achieve optimal results.

Are you looking to expand your online marketing? Comrade Digital Marketing offers a holistic approach to Inbound Marketing to get your small business the results you desire.