6 Reasons to Run Marketing Campaigns All Year Long

Do you only communicate with your customers every few months?

Do you only hope to find new clientele a few times a year?

Do you only put effort into advertising your business once a year?

We hope you answered NO! to these questions.  And hopefully you thought we were a little silly for even asking these questions, because any savvy marketer knows that marketing is a strategy that we implement every single day. Well we're here to show you why your Campaign strategy should be no different. The truth is that year-round Campaigns can benefit your business more than you think, but sometimes it can be hard to convince the boss, or yourself, of the value of ongoing Campaigns. Hopefully this article will make it a little easier.

Here are 6 reasons every business should be running marketing Campaigns all year long.

1. For Constant "Top of Mind" Awareness

How often do you think of Harry and David's fruit baskets? Or Martinelli's? I find that I only think of these items during the holidays, because that's when they do a majority of their advertising. However, I would love to drink Martinelli's year-round and I can think of quite a few events where a fruit basket would be a great gift. These companies have done a remarkable job of marketing for the holidays, but they don't come to the front of my mind throughout the year.More than half (60%) of consumers around the world with Internet access prefer to buy products from a familiar brand than to switch to a new brand. Consistency keeps your brand top of mind and brand familiarity is what will make someone choose your brand over a competitor. For that reason, it will benefit your business to have ongoing Campaigns to keep your brand in the mind of your followers all year long.

2. For Continual Lead/Data Collection

When it comes to data collection there will always be seasonal spikes. It's similar to how brick and mortar stores see a spike in shoppers during the holidays. This doesn't mean they close their doors for the rest of the year. Keeping your "doors open" all year may even result in discovering some seasonal trends that are unexpected. For example: maybe you assume demand for your product is highest in the spring, but by collecting data year round you could see a surprise spike in demand in the fall. You won't know unless you are trying to collect the leads or data consistently.In addition, the more leads you collect throughout the year, the bigger targeted list you have to market to during those seasonal times.

3. To Have a Vessel for Customer Feedback

A promotion is a conduit for customer feedback. Often times when we're running a contest, we get a big increase in general feedback and conversations with customers. "Hey guys! Hope to win X and I also wanted to say thanks for adding that new feature." or "I just entered the contest, thanks. I also wanted to ask if your product can do xyz?"  That feedback and interaction can be very valuable, so why not try to have it all the time?People who run Campaigns consistently throughout the year see increasing engagement from their fans.  Engagement remains and will always be one of business's main goals on social media.

4. To Test, Test and Re-Test

Marketing efforts are an ongoing test. We're continually seeing what makes our audience click that call-to-action button, enter that promotion, go to our website, sign-up for that newsletter or simply engage with our brand.Continually creating and testing various Campaigns, promotions, giveaways and lead-collection methods will help you understand what your audience responds to the best. You might find that giving away an iPad tends to result in many but low-quality leads (this is true), whereas giving away a two-hour professional consultation gets fewer but much better qualified leads (also true).

5. Because it's Easier Than You Think

The most common excuse we hear from businesses about why they don't run ongoing Campaigns is because they don't have ideas for Campaigns to run, or because it's too difficult to run a Campaign all year long. First off, ShortStack keeps a running list of Campaign ideas that we continually update and we even have on-staff team members whose sole purpose is to help you develop your next big Campaign idea! The other thing that businesses don't realize is that you can reuse, repurpose and automate most aspects of your promotions. If you spend a little time planning your strategy, after the initial setup, it's smooth sailing. A lot of people are nervous about the man hours involved in a long term promo strategy, but with our templates and built in automation, it's easier than you'd expect.

6. So You Can Set It and Forget It

We talk a lot about promotions and contests because they're the most common type of Campaign, but they're not the only Campaign option. With ShortStack.com you have the ability to run any type of Campaign you can think of and we are especially fond of "set it and forget it" Campaigns. These are Campaigns that you build once and leave running throughout the year with little maintenance or hassle.An example of a "set it and forget it" Campaign would be a landing page for a valuable resource. Here's an example of one that we did that provides 46 ways to promote your Campaign. This started as a blog post that we turned into a landing page that we continually link back to from blog posts and our website. The landing page was built using ShortStack, and it requires no maintenance.Another example is from a brewery we worked with to build a contest. They initially wanted to run just a single contest, but we suggested they build a Campaign that shows their brewery tour times and allows people to make reservations straight from their Campaign. They loved the idea and admitted that they had been trying to think of a way to connect those two things but just hadn't quite figured it out yet.Some other "set it and forget it" Campaign include menus, reservations, house listings, listing your services, a welcome page, the list goes on! The next time you can't think beyond a promotion, email our team and we'll be happy to brainstorm ideas with you. ShortStack recently commissioned a large-scale original study that looks at how running frequent campaigns increases a brand's reach and power. To see our "Design, Promote, Repeat" white paper, just click the link below.