The common individual sees over 4,000 adverts each day, will get 121 emails, and is mostly flooded with advertising and gross sales pitches. One-off campaigns and messages simply don’t work in 2024. To chop by the noise, you want to market in a constant and memorable method.
And what’s a easy, but ignored, strategy to realize this and get essentially the most out of your advertising efforts?
Thematic advertising.
Themes are precisely what they sound like. They focus your advertising throughout all channels round one idea, or theme. It might be a particular downside, a characteristic, or an occasion. You possibly can persist with a theme all through your advertising actions for as lengthy or as quick as obligatory. It supplies a cohesive framework that aligns together with your advertising technique.
In my profession of driving development at fast-growing startups and main advertising groups of as much as 30 individuals at Assist Scout and G2 — each acknowledged amongst America’s fastest-growing firms, I’ve discovered a ton. I’ve discovered that themed campaigns are one of many few constant ways in which work throughout firms no matter trade or dimension.
On this article, we’ll delve into the best way to undertake a thematic strategy to advertising and what it might unlock for you.
The chaos of selling
Advertising and marketing groups are continuously pulled in 1,000,000 totally different instructions. At some point you are crafting an e mail marketing campaign; the following you are planning a webinar. By the tip of the week, you are scrambling to place collectively social media posts.
It’s laborious to construct a cohesive model story once you’re leaping from one marketing campaign to the following, every with its remoted focus. This fragmented strategy not solely drains your assets but in addition dilutes your message.
Add to this the truth of reduce budgets and restricted assets, and you have got a recipe for chaos.
The truth of reduce budgets and restricted assets
Advertising and marketing departments are sometimes the primary to really feel the pinch when budgets are tightened. The strain to do extra with much less can result in hasty selections, rushed campaigns, and a disjointed model message.
And let’s not neglect the interior silos. Even inside advertising groups, there’s typically an absence of cohesion. Content material groups, demand technology, and product entrepreneurs work of their bubbles, not often collaborating on a unified technique. This not solely wastes assets but in addition undermines the potential for impactful, built-in campaigns.
Why themes matter
In any given quarter, you in all probability have emails, adverts, webinars, outbound campaigns, podcasts, and occasions occurring. These are often handled as one-off campaigns. One-off campaigns can create buzz, however they’re typically short-lived. As soon as the marketing campaign ends, the workforce goes again to brainstorming the following attention-grabber, typically shedding the momentum you simply constructed.
As a substitute, think about constructing a theme round a month or 1 / 4. It might be about maximizing productiveness, guaranteeing information safety, or facilitating distant work. Select a theme that aligns together with your product’s strengths and your viewers’s ache factors.
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The advantages of themed campaigns
Though themes could not assure success, you achieve effectivity in your advertising efforts. It ensures that each piece of content material, each marketing campaign, and each interplay contributes to a much bigger image. Right here’s why themes are the key sauce for environment friendly development:
- Seamless storytelling: As a substitute of remoted campaigns, a themed marketing campaign affords a cohesive narrative. This consistency makes it simpler on your viewers to observe and have interaction together with your story.
- Bolstered model positioning: Let’s be trustworthy: Most individuals received’t bear in mind a message they see as soon as. Within the crowded SaaS house, a constant theme helps reinforce your model, making you extra memorable.
- Optimized assets: Groups can produce content material, instruments, and assets extra effectively when specializing in a theme. You get extra ROI for every advertising effort as a result of every can construct off the opposite. Your social posts can level to your weblog posts, which supply a extra in-depth dive by way of a webinar, and so forth.
Methods to implement themes in your advertising
Implementing themes in your advertising will be carried out in 4 steps.
Step 1: Select a related theme
First, decide a theme that aligns together with your product’s strengths and your viewers’s wants. For instance, in case your product is a mission administration device, you may select themes that maximize productiveness, guarantee information safety, or facilitate distant work. The secret is to pick out a theme that resonates together with your target market and addresses their ache factors.
Step 2: Plan throughout a number of channels
After getting your theme, plan the best way to talk it throughout a number of channels. Create a content material calendar that outlines how the theme will probably be expressed in webinars, weblog posts, social media snippets, e mail campaigns, and different advertising actions. The purpose is to make sure that every bit of content material reinforces the theme and contributes to a cohesive narrative.
Step 3: Create engagement loops
One of many vital benefits of thematic advertising is the power to create engagement loops. For instance, a weblog publish can introduce the theme and supply a hyperlink to a associated webinar. The webinar, in flip, can promote a sequence of social media posts that delve deeper into particular elements of the theme. This strategy retains the viewers engaged and encourages them to work together together with your model throughout totally different platforms.
Step 4: Monitor and regulate
As with all advertising technique, it’s important to watch the efficiency of your thematic campaigns and regulate as wanted. Use analytics instruments to trace engagement, conversion charges, and different key metrics. Take note of viewers suggestions and be able to tweak your content material and strategy based mostly on what works greatest.
Thematic advertising in motion
So how do you select the best theme on your advertising? There are many methods to go about it and no incorrect approaches so long as it aligns together with your product’s strengths and your viewers’s ache factors.
Let’s discover how one can successfully implement thematic advertising by specializing in three frequent approaches: particular options, concentrating on explicit verticals, and selling key advertising messages.
Give attention to a particular characteristic
Think about you are advertising a mission administration device with a brand new characteristic for real-time collaboration. For the quarter, you select the theme “Actual-Time Collaboration for Seamless Mission Administration.” Each piece of content material will now revolve round this theme within the following methods.
- Webinars: Host a sequence of webinars demonstrating how real-time collaboration enhances productiveness and streamlines mission workflows.
- Weblog posts: Write articles showcasing case research and success tales of groups which have benefited from the characteristic.
- Social media: Share ideas, infographics, and quick movies highlighting the advantages and greatest practices of real-time collaboration on social media.
- E mail campaigns: Ship focused emails emphasizing the brand new characteristic to your customers and leads, inviting them to attend your webinars or learn your weblog posts.
Focusing on a particular vertical
Suppose you need to develop into the healthcare trade together with your information safety software program. You select the theme “Securing Affected person Knowledge in Healthcare” for the quarter. Right here’s what you are able to do:
- Webinars: Manage webinars with trade specialists discussing the significance of knowledge safety in healthcare and the way your software program can assist.
- Weblog posts: Publish articles on the newest developments in healthcare information safety, regulatory necessities, and the way your product meets these wants.
- Social media: Share related information, ideas, and success tales from the healthcare trade to interact together with your target market.
- E mail campaigns: Craft emails tailor-made to healthcare professionals, highlighting how your information safety options defend affected person data and guarantee compliance.
Selling a particular advertising message
Let’s say you need to market your distant collaboration device with the message “Empowering Distant Work.” This turns into your theme for the quarter. You can take the next steps in your advertising marketing campaign:
- Webinars: Host classes on distant work greatest practices, that includes visitor audio system who’re leaders in distant work.
- Weblog posts: Write in regards to the challenges of distant work and the way your device can resolve these points, offering real-life examples and ideas.
- Social media: Run a sequence of posts highlighting options that make distant work simpler and extra productive, together with person testimonials.
- E mail campaigns: Ship out newsletters and promotional emails specializing in distant work options, providing free trials or reductions to draw new customers.
Select correctly!
Thematic advertising is a robust but underutilized technique that may considerably improve your advertising efforts. By selecting a related theme and speaking it persistently throughout a number of channels, you may create a cohesive narrative that engages your viewers, reinforces your model positioning, and optimizes your assets.
Earlier than leaping headfirst into one other standalone marketing campaign, take a step again. You can and must be telling a extra compelling, longer-lasting story. Ask your self — What’s your theme going into the following quarter?
Bear in mind, it isn’t about reinventing the wheel each single time. It is about driving it in a path that builds momentum, traction, and impression.