Help! I need a marketing campaign.

• Author: Clapp, Bruce A.
• Position: Fundamentals: Marketing Campaigns

This plea may sound familiar to those new to the job or to community banks new to marketing or the unlucky staff members who, because they had a marketing class in college, ended up in charge of the next campaign.

To assist these people--as well as to give a refresher for seasoned marketers--we offer the following wrap-up.

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Here's some basic guidance on how to create and execute a marketing campaign. This information is intended for more than just novices. We have included some tricks of the trade picked up from other marketers over the years. Even if you are an experienced pro, you may learn something new that you can put into practice.

Before you can begin a campaign, there are a few "big picture" questions that you need to answer:

Does the campaign fit within your bank's strategic plan?

Does the operations area support the product?

Is there a balance-sheet need for the campaign?

Each of these questions could start as the jumping-off point for an entire article in itself. For the sake of brevity, let's assume that you have already thought about and affirmatively answered each of these preliminary questions.

Now let's get to the "meat and potatoes." For ease of discussion and implementation, we will break the campaign process into four parts.

Prework

Design

Delivery and management

Follow-up and measurement

We will list the most important actions and details associated with each component. These topics will guide you in developing effective organization, creating a timely process, and involving the "right" players. By following this process, you can achieve a successful campaign, bolster your marketing department's image and have everyone talking about what a great job you did!

Prework

This is the "secret" of a successful campaign and a step that many people underestimate or fail to plan properly. The prework sets the stage and helps determine the best opportunity to leverage your resources.

1. Determine the campaign goal and product/service to be promoted. The overall goal of the campaign is critical. Will you focus on customer growth or customer retention or a combination of both? A clear goal will help you select the product/service to be promoted. The product/service can be based upon the needs of the balance sheet, the opportunity to create or expand a competitive opportunity, or the dictates of the calendar (example: spring is normally the best season for promoting home equity loans). Product or service selection is important for campaign success and expected response from the marketplace. For sharper focus, select only a single product or service for each campaign.

2. Determine the target audience. The more targeted, the better the response and the lower the overall cost--and the better the use of your dollars. Audience selection is like a funnel: At the top are macro decisions (which geographic market will be the focus) and the bottom is specific questions (what demographic, psychographic, product and balance details will be the focus). Start at the wide part of the funnel and work your way down to the...