Load up your marketing platform with your message and fire! What about taking aim? Nah somebody’s going to be interested surely? I have been amazed lately at how many healthcare businesses are prepared to engage in a multi-channel campaign without any strategy or thought for the quality of the creative output.
It seems that some feel that by covering all the bases and firing messages out to different channels will produce results. Channel selection should be made at planning phase (You don’t have to use them all, all of the time), but without the strategy, market sizing, target persona development, customer journey mapping, key driver development and KPI’s in place, there is every chance the campaign will fall on deaf ears.
A campaign should be about engagement and opening a two-way dialogue or eliciting a direct action. An outbound email or piece of Direct Mail is a potential opportunity to open up a conversation by giving the audience an option to request more information or talk to you directly. Social Media platforms will allow you the opportunity to engage in conversations. Both could also be used for direct response. Your website should have information clearly signposted and accessible. Sounds simple I know, but there are still many who do not take the time to understand every step in the customer’s journey in order to develop the right content and distribute it via the right channels. This normally results in a campaign achieving only two out of three of the prime objectives for any campaign which are ‘Right Message, Right Person, Right Time’ and this could be the difference between success and failure.
Even with a solid plan in place, if it is poorly executed creatively then the result will probably be the same. Great creative that is on-brand inspires action. From that one-liner that says it all, to the perfect image designed to provoke a response. Joining up all the dots, understanding what you want from the campaign, solid strategy and fantastic creative output is the only way to ensure positive measurable results.
If you are building your campaigns on solid foundations, bravo! I am sure you will reap the rewards. If you are loading up the blunderbuss, then good luck!
