In 2019, social media users are expected to reach an all-time high of 2.77 billion users. That means that more than one-third of the entire global population uses social networking websites.

While digital marketing campaigns are certainly not a new phenomenon, effective marketing strategies continue to change and evolve. This makes running a social media marketing campaign successfully one of the most important tasks any business will face.

The creation of the internet took the world by storm, moving at speeds faster than business owners, legislature, and the consumer could keep up with. Moreover, as technology changes and develops so too does our society and marketing discourse. This is why digital marketers must be flexible, knowledgeable, and adaptive to an ever-changing technological and social landscape.

Despite more competition, running a social media marketing campaign is still an effective way to build brand awareness, boost sales, and create loyal customers. Read on to learn how to create an effective social media marketing campaign to see results.

1. Brand Identity

Getting in touch with your brand identity will help you determine the best marketing campaign strategies. Your brand identity consists of your logos, mission statement, values, and tone. Together these components relay a message to your consumers which should ultimately convey what matters most to your company.

Consistent brand identity helps consumers to connect with your product and your company. The best brand identities are clear about their goals and what matters most to them as a company beyond sales and financial gain.

Before you begin a marketing campaign, revisit your brand identity. You should also evaluate how effective your brand identity is at relating and connecting to your customers. If you need to make adjustments, then do so at this time before creating content.

2. Target Audience

Your brand identity is one portion of the equation of what makes your company successful. Another important factor in this equation is an understanding of your target audience. Your target audience is the people your products or services will benefit the most from and who will be attracted to them.

Identify the demographics of your target audience. This includes their age, economic status, job title, and other social factors. It should also include what social media platforms they frequent.

Successful brand identity plus an accurate depiction of your target audience’s preferences and lifestyle will make it easier for your company to connect and achieve your marketing goals.

3. Understanding Social Media Platforms

Each social media platform is different and attracts different target audiences. Before you begin your marketing campaign, get clear on which social media platforms make the most sense for your brand and for your target audience.

You should also read up on the best ways to run a campaign on each of these platforms. This will ensure that you’re following the rules and maximizing your content creation and analytic capabilities.

4. Setting Goals

What is your social media marketing plan trying to achieve? What’s your company’s reason for investing in a marketing campaign in the first place? In other words, what are you trying to gain?

Most likely, your company would like to boost its sales, customer base, and brand awareness. It’s a marketer’s job to determine how these goals will be measured from your marketing campaign. Some key performance analytics could include conversion rates, reach or shares.

Set primary and secondary goals. Then, decide how you will track and analyze data related to these goals for a successful social media marketing campaign.

5. Creating a Vision

After you set some goals, it’s time to determine the best strategies for reaching those goals by creating a vision. Your vision for your marketing campaign should include the angle your focusing on, the type of content you’ll create, and the overall aesthetic of the campaign.

Get clear on what your vision is and what your company would like to focus on the most.

6. Effective Engagement

How will your company engage with consumers throughout the social media marketing campaign? Will your company respond to comments? Will you ask your followers to share the content?

Decide in advance what effectively engaging with your target audience will look like. You should also plan for how you’ll react if the marketing campaign isn’t well-received by some.

7. Studying the Competition

Take some time to analyze what’s working for your competition. While you don’t want to copy them, get a feel for how they’re achieving success. For example, which social media platform is performing the best for them?

What are people connecting with the most? And, how often are they putting out content?

8. Publishing Content

Make a content calendar to determine when, where, and what content you’ll post on social media. Base this off of research such as when you’re followers are most likely to be online. See how each post performs at those times and then adjust your strategy as needed to match the data.

9. Analytics

Most social media platforms now have a way to track the analytics of social media marketing campaigns. Use these features and other tools to determine how well your campaign is performing. The data you focus on the most will be determined during the previous goal-setting step.

10. Review and Re-Strategize

Review the overall success of your marketing campaign. Gather all the data and see what audiences connected with the most. You should also see what social media platform performed the best as well as what type of content helped you most to reach your goals.

Reviewing and re-strategizing will help you to improve future campaigns and make adjustments moving forward with your current campaign as needed.

Implementing a Social Media Marketing Campaign

Implementing a social media marketing campaign is a challenging process. But, preparation is key. The more you understand your business, your target audience and your goals the more effective your marketing campaign strategies will be. At the very least, you’ll be able to look back and determine what worked and what didn’t and improve future marketing efforts.

Need help developing your marketing strategy and conducting market research? Contact me today to learn how to improve your digital marketing efforts.