The purpose of advertising is to generate results. Those results differ depending on the type of campaign scheduled. While an awareness campaign is longer-term and designed to build your brand, an action campaign is a focused short-term investment that motivates people to quick response. Action campaigns are perfect for hitting goals and boosting sales, but what happens when the results fall short? It’s important to examine all factors in figuring out what to adjust so that the next campaign is successful. To do that, here are three important considerations when your action campaign doesn’t meet expectations.

Troubleshoot Your Action Campaign

1. Check Your Marketing Bridge

Start by examining the five elements that come together to create your Marketing Bridge. The Marketing Bridge comprises everything that connects your businesses with customers. When one element is off point, it can skew the results of your advertising.

The 5 Elements of the Marketing Bridge are listed here, and you can download a copy to review for your business:

1. Advertising
2. Business operations
3. Merchandising
4. Personal selling
5. Price/value

The Marketing Bridge is everything in your business that connects to your customers. These touch points must align so that your customer’s experience, when they respond to your action campaign, fully supports your desired results. 

2. Check Your Ad for UTOPIA

Examine how effectively your ad meets the standards of UTOPIA. A 6-step checklist for an action campaign’s creative, the UTOPIA quiz is specifically designed to create successful messaging that drives results. These principles must be in place for creative to meet the standards of an effective action campaign:

• Urgency - Is your copy compelling enough to make people stop and pay attention? Is there a defined time limit?
• Theme or Hook - Does your ad have a memorable and meaningful message?
• Offer - Does your ad have a compelling offer? Is the offer clear defined and aligned with a customer’s need?
• Price – Are you transparent about costs or requirements?
• Item - Can you fulfill what your ad promises?
• Action - Are you asking your audience to do something specific? Is there a clear and obvious call to action?

Action campaigns are for the purpose of driving a short-term measurable response, whether around an incentive or an event. UTOPIA will ensure the offer is one to which listeners will be motivated to respond. 

3. Check Your Frequency

Finally, find out whether your current advertising schedule is truly serving you. For action campaigns to generate results, your ad must be heard often enough that it sticks in the mind of listeners. Dominant frequency is the concept of putting everything into one solid marketing medium instead of spreading the message around. For an action campaign to achieve results, dominate one medium of advertising rather than diluting the campaign across a lot of different places.

Think of each marketing medium as a cup. You goal should be to fill up one cup before you start on the next. The temptation to spread yourself too thin, thereby doing too little over a lot of different mediums, only serves to undermine the effectiveness of any of them.

Summing It Up

Everything you do in an action campaign needs to be focused on driving results. This includes all the elements of the Marketing Bridge that work together to provide a consistent customer experience. If just one element doesn’t meet expectations, it will cause a prospective customer to reconsider their buying decision. Double-check the UTOPIA formula in your advertising creative. Make sure your offer is one that inspires listeners to act. Next, examine how often your ad is being played. Dominant Frequency is a critical part of making sure listeners hear the message enough times to remember and respond. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, don’t get discouraged and don’t give up! With all aspects of your business channeled in the right direction, you’ll be celebrating results in no time.