annu Communication, Marketing & Advertising, Media Advocacy

Planning a marketing campaign

Making a strategy

What should be taken into consideration when planning a media advocacy campaign? How do I know if my campaign plan is good or not? Here is a Q&A for campaign and advocacy planning.

What is a campaign and what does it aim to do?

A campaign is planned course of action formulated to achieve defined objectives. To put in other words, a campaign is any series of actions or events that are meant to achieve a particular result in for example marketing, public relations, quality enhancement, revenue generation, safety standards – or in case of a political campaign – to put a candidate in office.

Campaigns may be…

  1. Marketing
  2. Awareness raising
  3. Policy change

And their objectives may be…

  1. Institutional –> Policy change, Practice change
  2. Individual –> Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, Behaviour

 

What is a good campaign?

When planning out marketing communication activities, things that have to be taken into account include the target group, intended impact, method of implementation and the assessment of impact. A good campaign is well planned.

A good rule of thump is that a good campaign is SMART:

 Specific, Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time bound.

What is a communications plan?

A communications plan is a tool for organizing and evaluating  your overall advocacy strategy before you actually start spending any money or doing anything else. It should involve at least the 5 following topics:

    1. The main objective of the campaign
    2. Description of your target audiences
    3. Secondary objectives for each audience
    4. List of activities for each audience
    5. Budget

 

To put in practice, how should I plan campaign content for my target audiences?

When the communications plan is ready, it is time to create more spesific contents. Campaign content plan may include following contents:

  • Messaging: slogans, narrative
  • Examples of social media content: Facebook posts, tweets, shared images, hashtags
  • Storyboard for a short campaign video
  • Drafts of posters, flyers or other printed material

Remember your key message!

 

 

Keep Reading:

Planning a marketing campaign; Media Coverage of Elections in Palestine
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