Basic campaign example: Professional conference

The following is an example of a basic campaign for a professional conference. This example follows the business goals for Campaign Management:

1.  Plan the campaign.

2.  Define the campaign.

3.  Define the appeals and solicitations for the campaign.

4.  Specify communication efforts.

5.  Tracking responses

6.  Monitor and measure performance.

Planning the campaign

The ABBA professional society hosts a major conference each year. The goal of the Annual Conference Campaign is to recruit 20% more attendees than last year.

Overhead costs are tracked at the appeal level. For the first appeal, the first two solicitations have different creative concepts to test effectiveness. The more successful concept will be used for the brochure and conference signage. One source code is assigned to each solicitation.

The hierarchy for this appeal is simple:

Campaign = Annual Conference

Appeal = Save the Date postcard

Solicitations = Creative A to Segment 1 (source code 000134), Creative B to Segment 2 (source code 000135)

First Mailing

The first mailing is a Save the Date post card. The goal is to get people to put the conference date on their calendar and to plan to attend. Because there is not a true call to action associated with this mailing, it is an ideal situation for testing a creative concept. There will be inquiries from:

■    People who want to register right away

■    Companies looking for sponsorship opportunities

■    Companies looking for exhibitor opportunities

These inquiries indicate the more successful concept to be used throughout the campaign.

Second Mailing

After determining the more successful concept, ABBA incorporates the concept into the full conference brochure. The brochure contains sections on schedule, tracks, speakers, and entertainment options and is the most important mailing in the campaign.

The basic structure for this appeal is:

So far, ABBA has a sound plan:

■    The appeals help them separate out invoices for each mailing to determine the true return on investment for each one.

■    Solicitations break down the mailings into logical and broad groups of records with varying estimated response rates. It is likely there will be a higher response rate from past attendees than from people who have never attended.

■    Source codes further break down the groups for customized mailings and different estimated response rates. The source codes can be seen as declining levels of expected positive responses.

Defining the campaign

Campaign definition is straightforward:

■    Name = Annual Conference

■    Status = Active

■    Start date = today's date

■    Campaign type = Event

■    Predicted end date = today's date + three months

Defining the appeals

Define each appeal:

■    Name = Save the date postcard

□    Status = Active

□    Start Date = today's date

□    End Date =  today's date + three weeks

□    Predicted Response Rate = 10%

■    Name = Conference brochure

□    Status = Active

□    Start Date = today's date + 6 weeks

□    End Date = today's date + 3 months

□    Predicted Response Rate = 30%

Defining the solicitations

Define each solicitation similarly to the first one:

■    Name = Conference Save the Date Postcard Creative A

■    Status = Active

■    Start Date = today's date + 1 week

■    End Date = today's date + 1 month

■    Predicted Response Rate = 5%

Specifying communication efforts

This is the point at which the target groups, inserts, source codes, and packages are defined.

Select target groups

 ABBA will use the same lists as last year: Segment 1 and Segment 2.

Create inserts

Create inserts for each mailing similarly to the first one:

■    Name = Annual Conference Template_NS_Segment1

■    Status = Active

■    Insert Type = None

Define source codes

The inserts will be attached to a source code and combined as packages for each mailing.

Set up source codes similarly to the first one:

■    Code = 000134

■    Description = Segment 1

■    Status = Active

■    Predicted Response Rate = 7.5%

■    Target Revenue = $7500 (from attendees who want to register immediately)

■    Source Code Type = Run Once

■    List Member Type = Contact

■    List Type = Segment Definition

■    Add Segment 1

■    Attach insert to a package: Add Conference Save the Date Postcard Creative A.

Generate output

Generate output for the first appeal to produce labels for the postcards and to ensure that responses will be tracked:

■    Open the appeal and generate output.

■    Output process = Postcard labels (from list of available choices)

Repeat for the second appeal when appropriate.

Example display

This example campaign will display similarly to:

Example: Professional conference display