8 Types of Marketing Campaigns (With Strategies and Tips)

Marketing campaigns are important for improving a company's growth, and they allow businesses to increase their brand awareness, achieve specific goals, attract new customers and generate more sales. There are several types of marketing campaigns, and the campaign you choose may depend on the business and industry in which you operate. Learning more about marketing campaigns, including their benefits and the various campaign types, can help you improve your overall marketing efforts.

In this article, we discuss what a marketing campaign is, describe the benefits of marketing campaigns, list eight different types of marketing campaigns, explain a few marketing campaign strategies, offer tips for executing a campaign and provide examples of useful campaign insights. 

What is a marketing campaign?

A marketing campaign is a strategic marketing effort that involves promoting a specific product, service or brand on behalf of a company or individual. Marketing campaigns help retain consumers' attention in a variety of ways. Television, print advertising, social media and email marketing are all examples of mediums for marketing campaigns. The primary goal of a marketing campaign is to increase awareness of an organization and attract new customers. The components of a marketing campaign usually include:

• Promotion: This refers to the activities that communicate the existence of the product, brand or service to its target audience or user group. 

• Advertising: This refers to the messages that highlight the value of the product, brand or service and detail how it fulfills customer needs. 

• Distribution: The distribution of a marketing campaign is the process of making it accessible to customers.

• Merchandising: This refers to the process of displaying products or services to customers in creative ways that entice them to make a purchase.

• Pricing: This is the process of adjusting prices based on market conditions, customers' willingness to pay and a variety of other factors. 

Related: How To Create a Market Positioning Strategy for a Brand

Benefits of marketing campaigns 

Effective marketing campaigns involve well-thought-out, well-researched and cost-effective strategies designed to increase brand recognition and awareness. Marketers develop strategies by gaining insights that are directly relevant to the target market. They may use primary research methods like surveys and focus groups or previously published research like peer-reviewed studies to better understand the customer and their motivations for buying. To ensure a successful campaign, it's important for marketers to consider how their strategies might influence customers. There are many benefits to a successful marketing campaign, such as:

• Increased sales: Organizations rely on marketing campaigns to increase their sales and improve their finances, allowing them to increase their customer base.

• Better brand recognition: Marketing campaigns allow companies to improve their brand recognition, allowing them to enhance their overall advertising campaign and attract a greater number of customers.

• Enhanced brand image: New campaigns can help improve a brand's overall image, which can be especially beneficial after negative press or a general decline in interest.

Types of marketing campaigns

There are several types of marketing campaigns you can use to achieve various marketing goals within an organization:

1. Traditional media campaign

A traditional media campaign relies on traditional media outlets to increase brand awareness and promote a product or service. Common traditional media outlets for this type of campaign include TV, magazines, radio and direct-mail advertising. An example of a traditional media campaign is placing ads in your local newspaper to inform potential consumers about a sale a nearby store is running.

Related: Traditional Marketing: Types, Advantages and Disadvantages

2. Seasonal push campaign

A seasonal push campaign aims to promote seasonal sales, products or services. Companies that experience a seasonal influx of business, such as retail chains and restaurants, frequently use this type of campaign. For example, a local retail store may create ads on social media informing consumers of a winter sale to increase revenue during the winter months.

Related: Seasonal Marketing: Benefits and How To Create a Campaign

3. Product launch campaign

Launching a new product often involves creating a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the product and explain why customers need it. The manufacturer typically executes a product launch campaign in coordination with any distribution partners. For example, a shoe company that launches a new pair of women's sneakers may create a product launch campaign to target women of a certain age group. It may include social media advertising and emails to existing customers notifying them of the new sneakers. 

Related: How To Launch a Product Marketing Campaign (With Examples)

4. Brand awareness campaign

A brand awareness campaign involves strengthening the awareness of a company's brand and its product or service offerings. Larger brands may implement regular brand awareness campaigns to maintain their popularity. For example, a company may create a blog and produce high-quality content that's relevant to its target audience. This ensures that when the target audience searches for an answer to a question that the company has addressed in its blog, they can also learn more about its brand and its unique value proposition. 

Related: How To Conduct a Brand Awareness Campaign: A Complete Guide

5. Rebranding campaign

A rebranding campaign is when a company uses marketing to promote an important change, such as a new company name or logo or a merger with another organization. Companies that no longer appeal to their target audiences and wish to retain their interest may also use this type of campaign. For example, a fast-food restaurant that's attracted negative media attention for its unhealthy meal options may use a rebranding campaign to advertise new healthy options and promote its commitment to encouraging health and wellness among its customers to encourage new sales.

Related: A Guide to Successfully Rebranding Your Company

6. Brand launch campaign

Similarly to a product launch campaign, a brand launch campaign allows a company that's created a new brand to increase awareness of that brand and its purpose. For example, a large company that recently developed a new brand for a new market that the company previously hasn't operated in may use a brand launch campaign to advertise it on social media. It may also send emails to existing customers offering them a discount to encourage them to make a purchase from the new brand.

Related: Product Launch Strategy: Everything You Need To Know

7. Contest marketing campaign

Contest marketing campaigns encourage organic website traffic and aim to increase awareness of the company and its products through the use of contests. For example, a company might implement a contest marketing campaign on its social media accounts to promote a new product. To enter the contest, individuals can tag three friends in the comments on the company's post and follow its main account. This provides the company with new followers and allows participants to tag friends who may not know of the brand, increasing overall awareness. The company may then send the contest winner a free product. 

8. Email marketing campaign

Companies use email campaigns to keep in contact with current customers and inform them of sales, coupons, discounts and new products or services. For example, an organization may send out an email campaign to all of its customers at the same time each week or month that informs them of an upcoming sale and offers them an additional 10% off coupon. Email marketing campaigns allow you to create more personalized content and collect customer feedback through the use of regular surveys and questionnaires. 

Related: How To Create a Successful Email Campaign in 11 Steps

Marketing campaign strategies 

Here are a few helpful marketing campaign strategies you might consider employing if you want to improve your overall campaigns and achieve your marketing goals:

Target repeat customers

You can use direct mailing lists, email blasts and loyalty programs to target past buyers. An email blast is the process of sending a single email to a large audience, while loyalty programs allow you to offer special incentives to repeat customers. Re-engaging recent buyers with surveys and questionnaires offering discounts on future purchases can be an effective strategy for increasing repeat sales and brand loyalty. It can also be useful when employing seasonal push campaigns.

Related: Benefits of Targeting in Marketing (And How To Do It)

Market to competitor consumers

You can use ads on social media in conjunction with search engine results to target competitor customers. Use tracking cookies to engage users who have recently visited a competitor's website or social media page. In addition, consider using pay-per-click ads on search engine results pages that feature competitor keywords and use organic content to increase overall visibility. These ads allow companies to pay a fee to have their website appear at the top of the search results.

Establish a new niche 

Companies and brands may choose to expand their offering to new target audiences. To do so, they may use a well-liked, familiar spokesperson that the new target audience can relate to using both traditional ads like TV and radio, along with more nontraditional ads like social media and digital promotions. Creating a new niche can be beneficial in rebranding campaigns, and it allows businesses to establish a loyal customer base while also reviving their existing base. 

Related: How To Find Your Niche in 5 Steps (Plus Tips and Benefits)

Tips for executing an effective marketing campaign

The following tips can help you ensure that your marketing campaigns are as effective as possible:

• Use social media in your campaigns. Social media is where many people discover new brands, products and services. Incorporate your marketing campaigns into your social media strategies by posting to your accounts regularly and interacting with customers whenever possible. 

• Know your audience. Conducting market research on your target audience and using your findings can significantly increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. Take time to find out as much as possible about the people you want to attract with your marketing campaign and optimize your campaign based on your research. 

• Consider influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a popular way to increase brand awareness and improve the reach of your marketing efforts. Consider working with influencers in your niche to promote products or services on social media.

Related: 12 Marketing Tips for Your Marketing Campaign

Examples of insights from a marketing campaign

Marketing insights are collections of data that can provide marketers with valuable information about the effectiveness of their campaigns and the needs of their target market. You can use a variety of methods to collect these insights, including surveys and comprehensive data analysis using social media or search trends. Here are three examples of marketing campaign insights:

1. An email survey finds 75% of a brand's customers are repeat buyers.

2.  Focus group panels show that customers are more likely to try a competitor's product.

3. Studies show that a brand's target audience is no longer 18- to 30-year-olds.