One of the critical elements of a marketing strategy is promotional campaigns. It plays a significant role when you launch a new service or product, or you plan to expand your market reach into new regions or verticals.

A successful promotional campaign can help you to achieve the following

• Reach to your target audience.
• Give them a feel of your product through promotional items.
• Stimulate them to take action.

Let us know see how to design the best promotional campaign that helps you to receive the desired penetration.

Steps to design a promotional campaign that works

• Access the opportunities

The first step is to access the possibilities of the campaign. And for that, you need to inspect and comprehend the requirements of your target market. Whom are you targeting? Is your campaign for your existing customers, influencers, decision-makers, or the general public? Knowing the requirement of your target group also includes understanding their wishes and desires.

• Select the best channels

Once you have decided the market, now you need to select the channel of communication which has maximum reach in these markets.  There are many forms of communication, like online, print, outdoor, personal communication, etc. So, you have to decide whether you want to opt for personal communication channels like direct meetings, telephonic conversation, or perhaps through an individual sales executive? Or will go for the non-personal communication channels like newspapers, hoardings, or direct emails?

• Know your objective

Why are you planning to run this campaign? What do you want to accomplish through this campaign? Your broad marketing objective can be the base of your campaign’s objective. Mostly the marketing objectives include long term goals, but the promotional campaign goals are both short term and long terms. Your goal depends on the people who have been exposed to the campaign. These objectives must be clearly stated, in measurable forms, attainable, in sync with your product or service, and suitable to the stage of market development. These decisions are tough to take, but if you can execute this step with precision, you will surely get the maximum of your promotional campaign.

• Derive a promotion mix

There are various channels of marketing and promotion, and the best marketing team uses more than one of these. Mostly to ensure that if one channel does not bring the desired results at least, the others will. A well-planned promotion mix is a holistic plan and includes the channels that will help your target audience to recall your brand time and again. In this super-competitive market, you cannot afford to miss any chance – your plan will be such that you become the top of the mind brand in your target audiences’ group. For example, if you are launching a new garment, use banners to inform your target audience about the same, distribute promotional clothing, and the social media to remind you about the new launch.

• Fix the budget

You must now decide the overall promotion budget. This includes defining cost breakups per region and promotional mix channels. Take out time to allocate and determine your company’s affordability, percentage of sales, and draw a competitive parity between these. Once you break up the cost, it be will easier for you to get a better idea, and you can calculate and gauge the potential success of your campaign. You should always keep a balance between your promotional expenditure, sales expected from it, and the actual sales. While you need to invest in campaigns, overspending can also harm your company terribly.

• Access the effectiveness of the campaign

At the very initial stage of drawing your marketing plan, create timetables for effective incorporation of promotional elements and the methods and timing of measuring the outcome. Have achievable targets and compare the actual results with the projected ones at the end of each milestone. Getting feedback from your target audience becomes imperative as they are essential in your promotional campaign.  Ask them if they can recognize or recall your campaign, what message they remember, can they relate to the message, and if their approach toward your company has been affected after the campaign.