When contemplating what to write about for this post I thought a lot about the new projects my team is getting, what we’ve seen in the proposal and pitch process. As a result, I’ve decided to tackle the topic of campaigns v. digital strategy.

While the actual term campaign does not have a length in its definition when it comes to marketing campaigns we typically put a length on it. Most people say 45 days is best (here’s another post on that). While there’s not a hard and fast rule about campaign length, it usually depends on budgets, assets, goals, etc. we should all agree that marketing campaigns are short.

This leads me to the topic I want to explore in this post. Is a campaign, or a series of campaigns what your brand really needs? As a marketer and the leader of a marketing team at an agency, I run a lot of campaigns. I also work with my team to craft a lot of larger digital strategies that use campaigns in specific ways. So what’s the difference?

A Marketing Strategy v. A Marketing Campaign

A marketing strategy is a marathon. It’s not a short term plan, but instead is a long term approach. A campaign on the other hand is a sprint. It’s a short term, meant to capture on a moment in time.

For a campaign to be successful it needs to be guided by a marketing strategy.

Campaigns are not focused on SEO or rankings, they’re focused on paid ads, social conversations, and marketing automation. They simply are not around enough for organic ranking goals to be a part of the equation. On the other hand, a marketing strategy is often a multi-year plan. So ranking goals and organic success are more important.

An Example

I worked with a global nonprofit organization to increase fundraising and grow their unrestricted giving. I’ve spoken about my team’s efforts in the past on this blog, but am happy to explore our approach a bit more here.

Our marketing strategy was called “Faces” – our approach was to change everything they did from focusing on the results they achieved to highlighting the people they helped. This sounds subtle, but it was based on the concept that people act on emotion and then justify logically. The ROI is logical, the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “how” are all logical statements. The “why” is the emotional one. It’s the most important statement.

Once this approach was laid out, we mapped large goals (we used SMART goals, but for this post, I’ll just give an overview) – increase organic ranking, grow newsletter subscribers, increase donations, increase time on site, reengage with lapsed donors, and acquire new donors.

From there we started created our campaign plan. This is where we identified the stories to use, the media to buy, the ads to create, and the landing pages to create.

By having a well thought out strategy before running campaigns you ensure that your campaigns are tethered to larger goals. Your campaigns can be different or feel out there, but at their core, they’re tied back to who you are and where you’re trying to go as an organization.