Not everyone masters an experiential marketing campaign on their first try. There are ways to increase the chances of success. Use these 11 building blocks of an experiential marketing campaign to establish a marketing campaign that gets consumers talking.

Be Believable

As you build your marketing campaign, make sure it’s believable. If consumers don’t believe it’s true, you’re not going to draw the traffic you hope. It can also become costly if it’s found you’re faking it.

Volkswagen touted its cars as being environmentally friendly and low-emissions with “Clean Diesel.” It came out that the company was equipping the cars with devices to help them pass emissions tests. The company has paid close to 10 billion in fines and settlements.

Be Consistent

When you’re marketing your brand, you need to be consistent. Changing your product’s design regularly will make it hard for consumers to quickly identify your products. Take time to come up with recognizable, high-quality branding that consumers won’t miss.

Logos are not the only thing to make consistent. Send a consistent message and make sure you proofread it before you go live. The U.S. Department of Education was promoting the importance of education in a 2017 campaign. The problem was they misspelled a word within the message.

 Be Engageable

Have you considered how you will engage with your target audience? You need to be engageable, and that means remembering that not everyone uses the same technology. As odd as it seems in today’s world, not everyone has a cellphone or high-speed internet. You need to consider those people who get their information from store displays and trade show booths.

You might have younger users who rely on social media sources like TikTok over a website. Others may prefer a website to social media. Come up with a plan to engage with everyone, no matter how they prefer to interact.

Be Flexible

Make sure your marketing plan is flexible. You’ve started your campaign and find it’s not going as well as hoped. If you’ve left room to be flexible, you can tweak things to see if it draws more traffic, sales, or sign-ups.

Be Personable

What attitude are you giving off? You must be personable or your brand could be impacted by what people perceive as a rude, disinterested attitude. Make sure your responses, even to the negative feedback you get, are friendly.

Years ago, Chef Gordon Ramsay was called in to help save an Arizona restaurant. At first, Ramsay was surprised as he found the bakery offerings to be exceptional. Then, he discovered that the owners constantly called patrons liars, accused them of trying to skip out on paying bills even if the food was not properly cooked, and threatened to call the police. Their attitudes were not pleasant and that was the restaurant’s issue.

You always have to be kind to your consumers. Even if they’re the worst, being polite and maintaining a sense of calm is essential for being personable. You may never please that consumer, but others will appreciate how you remained poised. Your reaction says a lot about your brand.

Be Relatable

Get to know your audience. Read social media and see who is interacting with your brand. Where are they located? Do they spend the most time on your website, Facebook page, or watching videos about your brand? Use this information to build a profile of what that consumer thinks, does, and likes.

Once you know your target audience, form a relationship by being personable. You know what they like, so provide them with the experience they’d want. This insight is essential when it comes to being relatable. Find the bonds you share and tap into those connections.

Be Remarkable

Ensure your brand is remarkable. You do this by making sure you personalize the experience you provide. How can you become remarkable? Look for a personal touch that helps your brand stand out from the crowd. You’ll blend this building block of a marketing plan with other approaches like knowing your audience and being personable.

As an example of a remarkable marketing campaign, look at a pop-up that Birds-Eye frozen foods pulled off in 2014. London diners were invited into the pop-up The Picture House restaurant for a meal. The company used the information that more than 50% of people regularly take pictures of the meals they’re eating and share them with friends and family.

Once seated, diners have the option to skip paying a bill for the meal. Instead, they took a photo of themselves and their meals and shared them on Instagram. To date, more than 1,200 photos have been shared on Instagram.

Be Responsive

Once you’ve started your experiential marketing campaign, you need to respond to everything. You can’t ask consumers to interact with your brand if you don’t check messages and respond back. If you don’t have the manpower to respond to posts, comments, and emails, you could end up angering the consumers you’re trying to connect with.

When you respond, try to respond within a business day. Waiting days or even weeks to respond also won’t please consumers. If you don’t know the answer, state that you are researching the matter to ensure that person knows they’re not being ignored.

Be Shareable

As you create your marketing campaign, you need to consider how consumers will spread that message. There needs to be a clear way to share it. Social media can be a huge help. Find ways to encourage your followers and fans to spread the word about your brand.

Atlas Coffee, a subscription box service, offers a $10 store credit when its subscribers share referral links and get others to sign up. Both the current customer and the new customer get $10 when they sign up. Links are available to make it easy for consumers to share the message, and the graphics used are attractive, all adding to the “be sharable” rule.

Be SMART

How well do you know the SMART goals for project management? They can be a tremendous help when you’re building a marketing campaign. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Relevant

T – Time-Bound

Breaking them down, as you’re planning your marketing campaign, start out with “S” or the specifics. What emotions are you hoping to evoke? If you own a candy company, you might put happiness and joy at the top of your list. Your marketing plan needs to evoke those emotions.

How will you measure if your marketing plan is successful? Will you track success through increased sales, newsletter/mailing list registrations, or increased website traffic?

Make sure your goals are attainable. If you hope to triple sales in a month, that may not be realistic. Create goals that you’re confident you could achieve within the timeline you’ve set.

Your marketing plan has to be relevant to your brand. If your company touts being environmentally friendly, it may not be on-brand to give out free single-use water bottles at a tradeshow. A refillable water bottle is a better choice.

Finally, you want a marketing plan that is time-bound. If the message you’re sending becomes outdated, it’s not going to be as effective. To do this, have a timeframe in mind. You’re releasing a new iced tea line and plan to give out free samples. Waiting until the fall or winter won’t have the same allure as a product sample in the heat of the summer.

Be Targetable

Finally, be targetable. Make sure you’ve come up with ways to identify your target market. What segments of the market are best suited for your brand, product, or service. If your brand fits into more than one segment, what products or services best fit each one?

Make sure you’re targeting the right market with the right products. When you do, you’re less likely to miss the mark.

It sounds like a lot of work because it is. Marketing takes time to plan, measure, and adjust. Is your team prepared for this? For a smaller company or one without a dedicated marketing team, it can seem overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be.

Factory 360 specializes in experiential marketing. Talk to us about your social media presence, plans for a live or virtual event, or desire to use sampling to draw consumers to your brand. Our experts help you plan and deliver a remarkable campaign.