Now is the time for great conversations. My family and I hosted a St. Paddy’s Day open house in March and seeing my guests engaging with one another was inspiring. The atmosphere my family and I created with this little neighborhood gathering provided the context for meaningful interaction. First, our guests came in the door with their contributions to the table. Then, my family and I supplied their first beverages and made introductions. After that, the guests mingled easily with one another and helped themselves to food, beverages and each other’s company. After the pandemic held us back from hosting our party for two whole years, this person to person event was wonderful to watch! Facilitating meaningful engagement is what a good party does and it’s what a good marketing campaign does too.
Designing marketing campaigns for consideration
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I follow, and teach, a simplified customer journey inspired by Hubspot’s. It includes the following stages – Awareness, Consideration, Decision and Advocacy. In awareness campaigns, use a voice of warmth and hospitality with your target audience, couching your message in the context of their day to day realities. The big goal is telling them who your organization is and the problem you can solve for them. For a deep dive into awareness campaigns, have a look at this post I shared last month.
In the next stage of the customer journey, consideration, we design campaigns that invite target audience members to engage more closely with the brand. One way they engage is by sharing their contact information for future communication. This may occur through completing an opt-in form to download a piece of content, receive a newsletter or register for an event. But, today we have to cope with an environment heavy with digital noise. How can we draw our audience members in so that they can choose to hear from us? This is the challenge for many marketing teams.
An award-winning marketing campaign
In every class I’ve ever taught, I help my students build professional skills by having them work in small groups. At this point in the semester, in teams, my students are shaping their final marketing campaign projects. A number of teams are using consideration as their business objective. Some will measure their campaign’s success through app downloads, some through blog subscriber acquisition and some are still figuring out what their KPI will be. In my marketing analytics class, we studied the WNBA’s 2022 Shorty Award winning campaign called Tap to Cheer, which measured its’ impact through app downloads.
During the pandemic, stadiums stood empty while players competed in their “bubble”. The WNBA still wanted to sustain engagement with their fans. But how? They accomplished this goal by inviting fans to download their app. And the app included a new “Tap to Cheer” function which allowed fans to interact with one another and the WNBA during game broadcasts. After launching this campaign, the WNBA had a 75% increase in mobile app downloads. This consideration campaign was a big win for the league. It was also a big win for their fans, who were craving opportunities to engage with their favorite teams and each other. Through this campaign, they received the gifts of engagement and connection.
Reflecting on my own consideration marketing campaigns
This WNBA campaign is a powerful example of marketers offering something of value that supports audience members in their own personal or professional goals. Some of the most powerful consideration campaigns I’ve led revolved around research. The subjects of the research were stakeholders in the work of my target audience.
During the pandemic, I led the development of a collaborative, longitudinal research project on digital learning. The project produced downloadable assets, including infographics and reports, and we showcased the results through sponsored webinars. The webinars were moderated by a higher ed influencer and featured the research lead and representatives in the roles of those surveyed. Our target audience of higher education leaders registered and attended the event in high numbers, eager to see how students, faculty and administrators were coping with teaching and learning while adopting new, digital tools to mediate the changing environment around them.
What I remember most from this series of virtual events was the high engagement in the chat. The subject matter and speakers on the program provided an opportunity for authentic engagement and connection for the people in our audience. And this campaign, completed in partnership with a media outlet that served our target audience, achieved its goal by helping us build a new, opt-in audience that we could message again in the future. Consideration goal accomplished!
Is your organization looking to create opportunities for your target audience to engage and connect? What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing in making this happen? Maybe I can help! To learn more about how Marketing Strategy Leader supports organizations, please visit my Client Case Studies page.
Be well!
Hester
Hester Tinti-Kane is the founder and CEO of Marketing Strategy Leader. She’s an award-winning, strategic marketing leader with deep experience in digital communications strategy.