HOW TO PLAN A SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGN, STEP BY STEP

This article will outline the considerations needed to setting out a successful social media marketing campaign. If you are a CMO to a digital marketing exec, then this should prove useful.

What is a social media campaign

A social media campaign is where a brand or an individual posts regular content (via social channels) about a particular topic, subject, opinion or product. Typically with the objective to raise awareness of a brand / product, a movement or to increase an individual status.

Social media platforms are the greatest thing that have been introduced to generation Z, and undoubtedly they are making the most out of these social networking sites. Not only are these sites a source of entertainment and communication, but they have now also become the source of income for many individuals, and a source of marketing for many brands.

90% of consumers say user-generated content influences their buying decisions more than promotional emails, and even search engine results.

What tool kits can I use

There are some great apps that you can plug into social to help with content creation / ideation / dynamic automation.

Check these out:
Zapier for connecting and automating your social channels and content
Linkport for Linkedin to CRM tools
Zopto for linkedin automation
Inflo.ai for aggregating content and writing SEO articles
Sked social – Drag & drop to visualise your Instagram grid

Planning a social media campaign

The trick to a successful social media campaign is all in the planing. Further down in this article we talk more specifically about drafting a social media campaign calendar.

Businesses active on social media are typically trying to achieve more sales, but they would benefit from working backwards from that point in order to help shape the strategy: what is it they can get from social media that will lead to sales further down the line?

Identify your audience and channels

If the content is accurate and designed with your audience in mind, then a marketing campaign is sure to succeed. On the other hand, failure to learn about your audience will result in a disastrous marketing campaign. Therefore, before you get started and begin creating content for your social media, don’t forget to learn everything about your audience.

Start by writing down your client / audience profile, some questions to consider:

Where do they live
How old are they
Whats the demographic
What channels to do they regularly use and with what purpose
What are their top interests
Who else do they follow and why
In what way will your content benefit them

Nowadays, consumers want to know exactly what they’re going to get before buying anything – whether it’s a product, service, or an experience. And a staggering 92% of consumers are more likely to trust a recommendation from another person over branded content. User-generated content builds a direct relationship with customers and humanizes a brand in an effortless but memorable way. Not only does it increase its value in the market, it also attracts the attention of the customers.

Planning your content

Your content should reflect the key interests of your demographic audience. If you are looking for your brand to resonate with a younger audience, and an identified interest of this audience was fashion, it would therefore be poignant to create content talking around a key fashion event. This would help to draw attention from the group about a key “shared” topic of interest, and by proxy brings attention back to your brand, engaging in an otherwise potentially missed audience.

AR Filters to Live streaming

Furthermore, when planning how to create your content, consider what media you talk through to reach your target audience. Whether you choose to create an instagram post, reel or story – it is important that the content you share is told in the right way. Key features in social network channels can be utilised, such as AR filters, live streaming, highlights and sound and these should be a consideration of the creative process.

Craft a content calendar

You can start by fairly quickly mapping out a content calendar, months across the top and channels down the side.

Identify key dates that resonate with your audience As important as it is to stay topical and relevant to current affaires. It’s a great idea to plot any key dates / months that the audience will be particularly interested in. e.g. Xmas / Black Friday / Mothers day (dates that also cross over with your brand).
Begin to populate with themed ideas (topics of interest) to share and talk about. Plot out the volume of content per channel.

In conclusion – the key to a successful social media marketing campaign is:

Understand your audience
Identify the channels and tool kits
Plan your content / themes ahead of time
Creatively explore
Post regularly to stay front of mind
Try not to be to precious, content will come and go much like any newspaper headlines

If you found this article interesting, take a quick look at our Top 5 social posts of 2021.