So far in this series on making the MOST of your campaign, we’ve talked about:

That only leaves one more step: Selecting tactics.

People often reside in one of three camps:

  1. They follow this process.
  2. They randomly select tactics with no strategy.
  3. They get confused and stuck, unable to select tactics.

If you’re in either camp 2 or 3, pack up and join us in camp 1, and start by reading those first three articles, which, in summary, explain:

  1. Why knowing your company’s mission can help you align with your most ideal customers.
  2. Why knowing what you’re trying to achieve can help you manage, measure, and define success–doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
  3. Why thinking less tactics-first and less business-first, and instead thinking more audience-first, helps you think strategically.

Thinking audience-first means knowing you need to reach people where they are. So if you know your audience is very social both in person and virtually, you might consider a few social media tactics–Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram–and decide on the best ones for that audience. Let’s say you’re a local boutique retailer targeting women 35 and older; you may decide that your highly visual business is perfect for Instagram and Pinterest, knowing those are two platforms your audience visits often.

And how do you know that? Research. Yep, still some more work to do. I’m a big fan of what Pew Research Center provides for social media research, including its Social Media Fact Sheet and its annual articles (haven’t seen 2020’s yet) on social media usage in the U.S.

Knowing your audience and knowing where they can be reached can help gather an array of tactic options. Research can help you choose the best ones.

And knowing your objectives can help round out your tactical plan–fill up your toolbox, if you will. If you have an objective of “consideration,” and you’re measuring that with a SMART goal of, say, “increasing website traffic by 10% year over year,” you need a well-built website as a destination for your audience. In our example: You’ve found them on Instagram and Pinterest; now make sure you’re providing links (as applicable) back to your website, where you can capture sales, leads, email addresses, and other first-party data for future remarketing.

Email addresses, you say? Absolutely. Collect email addresses by offering a 15% off coupon; promote that coupon through Instagram and Pinterest, drive traffic to your website, exchange a coupon for an email address, generate the sale, and use that email address for marketing more products in the future.

You just created a customer journey map by knowing your mission, your objectives, your strategy and your tactics.

There’s a reason I won’t be writing a series on rocket science.

Once you apply these steps, you’ll be creating the MOST of your campaign. Well done!