How many advertising campaigns have you seen? How many of them do you think worked?
Have you ever thought about why some campaigns work while others don’t?
Here you can find the answers.
Advertising is a bundle of communication techniques created to persuade a specific audience or masses to take particular actions towards the product, service or idea you advertised.
Advertising is always connected with the present; daily updates and newly born channels, either online or offline.
So, to drive the whole process and get the required results, every step has to be well-planned
And here, the secret lies in the word “advertising plan “.
An advertising plan is a documented strategy that shows how the company intends to communicate with the audience to deliver the desired key message through determining the audience, key message essence and the medium between them.
A successful advertising plan mix should answer the following questions one by one.
1. How can you describe/analyse the company’s current situation?
Make a “list” of the company’s problems VS their open opportunities in the market.
An advertising message should address a problem and turn these problems into opportunities.
*Apple Problem Statement
Apple has experienced a decline in iPhone sales due to a lack of innovation, along with a higher price tag. After conducting research, it seems that Apple has become complacent with their product line and did not feel the need to completely change their latest iPhone.
So Apple needs to reevaluate their production process and include more quality checks. This will ensure the company’s vision is met with their latest product. By increasing their Research and Development, Apple will be able to redesign their iPhone and recover from their decline in sales.
2. How should you structure a framework for your company’s approach?
• Define specific advertising goals
• Get the revenue and market share statement for the required (product –service)
• Add another list that includes: Your company’s top competitors – their services/products – their marketing strategy – their advertising applications.
• Mention your company’s products/services accompanied by results of any marketing research you have conducted
“Amazing things will happen when you listen to the customer.”
Jonathan Mindenhall
To get a significant result, you need to set your audience profile (Demographics – interests – behaviour)
• Define your company’s competitive advantage
3.How should your advertisement look and feel?
After answering the previous questions now, you can set a guideline for the campaign creative that gathers all your recommendations for the visuals, content, tone, etc.
For example:
Color palette: primary and secondary colors
Typography: font styles, sizes, and spacing
Other imagery: photos, illustrations, and artwork
Voice and tone: how the campaign uses language and emotion
4.What is your promotional plan?
Top 3 elements you need to consider while setting your promotion plan.
• The most effective cost route.
• Duration and timing of your advertising (Yearly, seasonally, etc.)
• Determine the best promotional channels (Influencer marketing, Offline advertising, Online advertising, Partnership marketing.. ETC)
5.How should you set your budget?
Balance is the “Key” neither spending too much that causes a waste of resources nor spending too little, so you will not achieve your goals. Also, you must remember that new practices or services will require more advertising.
6. How can you measure the success of your advertising campaign?
Take it as advice but don’t EVER think about “tracking the campaign results” after you have started it.
Tracking the results methods are as essential as creating the campaign itself. Starting a campaign means that you have already determined your results tracking methods as “Website Analytics, Phone Tracking, CRM Tracking, Split Testing, KPI Tracking.”
That each method of them may need another article. But for this one, I think we are done now. Always remember, “Creativity without strategy is called art, creativity with strategy is called advertising”
Now, I want to let you sum up all the previously asked questions, rearrange your priorities and start to prepare for each, reclassify your resources to answer them. Specify your company’s situation, certain your framework and set your budget to get wonderful results.
In your opinion, what do you think is the most important step to building your advertising plan?
