What is a Marketing Campaign?
When something is as much a part of your daily work as the development and execution of campaigns, it’s easy to assume that everyone you speak to knows what you’re talking about when you mention the word.
Turns out, they don’t.
Maybe it’s because the word “campaign” is used also to describe political endeavors, or maybe it’s that it isn’t clear what distinguishes a campaign from any other marketing activity.
So, maybe that’s a good place to start.
While we didn’t invent the phrasing, it does get circulated without definition. Let’s begin there - by breaking this phrase apart, and outlining what it means when used at KineticHealth.
“Marketing” is defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as
the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
“Campaign” can be defined as
a connected series of operations designed to bring about a particular result.
We make an important distinction between “advertising campaign” and “marketing campaign” for healthcare. While advertising - things you might hear, see, or read - drives audiences toward a transaction, it doesn’t always connect as directly and completely with desired patient experience or changes in patient behavior.
When we talk about a KineticHealth “marketing campaign,” we’re actually talking about the broader scope of communications mechanism by which a patient (or community member) experiences a desired health message and/ or services offering.
Can the “talk” translate into an experience at the clinic?
Can the patient explore the topic beyond the soundbite (perhaps with associated and thematic long form research, educational materials, or sample experience)?
And at KineticHealth, we also ask “are we providing simple, actionable steps - “nudges” - that can put a patient or community member on a track to healthier living?” - a central focus of our mission.
What makes a campaign different from any other marketing task?
A marketing campaign is different from the day-to-day activities of general marketing in that a campaign is specifically designed to generate new revenue, enhance end-user experience, and/or increase consumer engagement. Sometimes, it might be just the latter — increasing engagement or building awareness. For us, and for many organizations, a campaign has a specific topic that it’s built around, and a call-to-action that will help us measure its success.
Examples of our own campaigns include:
The Opioid Misuse Prevention Campaign — designed for health centers to build awareness around the dangers of opioid misuse, and to direct people to resources if they or someone they love is abusing prescription drugs.
Prenatal Health Campaign — designed to raise awareness of the importance of the first trimester of pregnancy and to increase first trimester appointments among expecting parents.
Diabetes Prevention Campaign — designed for health centers to educate patients on the small steps they can take to prevent Type 2 Diabetes.
Building blocks of a KineticHealth campaign
There are typically three parts to a campaign:
Planning. During the planning stage we identify the goal of the campaign, the need behind it, and the target audience.
We begin by identifying the gap we want to address, and conduct the resarch to name clear target metrics for success.
We often develop “personas” (or simple composite representations of an ideal patient, see more at Persona 101 and Persona 102) for whom the campaign message will most resonate. This allows us to determine not only what the messaging should be and the tone to be used when it’s delivered, but where it will be delivered:
social media?
direct mail?
in-clinic posters?
onsite health fair and “sample” experiences?
lunch-and-learn trainings for the community?
radio? television?
newspaper? magazine?
billboard?
A combination of a few or of many of these?
Defining and Assigning action items and setting firm deadlines around deliverables will go a long way toward securing success for a campaign.
Coordination. An effective campaign is comprised of hundreds of little tasks done well. Successful campaigns include the successful collaboration and integration of many specific marketing disciplines: strategists and copy writers, designers and media buyers, SEO specialists and PR professionals, just to name a few. Not every campaign will use every player, but most good campaigns will use a few.
Execution. This is the hard part. There are dozens of moving parts in most campaigns. Getting them all moving well, in sync, and pointed in the right direction is no small task.
Timing is critical. The cooperation of the entire team is essential. Being able to gauge response and adjust accordingly during early execution is often the difference between a failed campaign and a total success.
An effective campaign is comprised of hundreds of little tasks done well.
Years of experience developing campaigns in the healthcare space has honed our expertise in campaign planning, coordination, and execution. If you have a campaign need for your organization, we’d love to be part of that conversation.
Not getting the results you want out of your marketing and communications budget? Reach out to discuss augmenting your efforts with KineticHealth services, or explore what a branded Campaign-in-a-Box solution could look like for your community.