The term ‘playbook’ might not be familiar to workers in the UK, but you work at a global company you will probably have heard of the term.
It comes from the world of sport, where a notebook containing descriptions and diagrams of the ‘plays’ of American football teams are used as a set of tactics to gain competitive advantage. Therefore, the term seems very appropriate in marketing. After all you are trying to get ahead of the competition during your campaigns.
Playbooks are used so that all marketers are aware of the goals of the campaign and to reach your objectives for the target audience.
Frameworks will help you to plan and execute the marketing campaign for the best results, and learn from best practices.
It is important to create a playbook for your organization. If a campaign goes wrong, you will to access this information – fast. Ideally the playbook will be wiki or other online collaborations software that can be updated as marketplace changes occur.
Planning an effective recovery plan, should the worst happens, should be one of the cornerstones of any plan.
High-level goals for your playbook should be:
- To clearly detail strategy and planning guidance for marketing campaigns
- To provide industry-specific best practices for digital marketers
- To provide a comprehensive framework for delivery of marketing campaigns and strategies.
- To provide frameworks for measurement and optimisation of campaigns#
To create your strategy you need to have a structured approach. You need to know who you are going to target, why you are targeting them, how you will carry out your plan and what technology you will use during the campaign.
Who – the audience. Marketers need to define and segment their audience so that a marketing campaign can be as effective as possible. They need to identify where the audience already engages online and how they prefer to communicate. The goal of the marketer is to deliver content to inform, post enough interesting and engaging content to encourage engagement, and develop a suitable influencer program to reward and encourage the lovers of the brand.
Marketers need to create personas for the types of people they will target. Not everyone has the same shopping habits as you, so marketing to one type of buying behaviour will not appeal to others with a different approach to purchasing.
Marketers need to analyse how their audience interacts online to determine the best way to connect with them. They also need to find a way to identify influencers in their audience who will spread their message for them. Most importantly, the audience you intend to attract should be at the centre of your marketing campaign.
Why – your marketing objectives. Understanding your audience is vital to the success of the online campaign, but the campaign must be carefully crafted too. Marketers should align their campaigns to the overall goals of the business. Having a clear objective should enable the marketer to identify exactly when that objective is reached.
How – the joined up approach. A good marketing campaign spans different online channels and optimised as the campaign progresses. The channels could encompass traditional channels such as TV and radio, online channels such as video, or blogs, and embedding a social element, such as a hashtag or search term that the audience could use.
What – choosing the correct tool. In all campaigns, marketers must note that there is not one prescribed formula for success. As digital technologies and social platforms evolve, so must the marketing campaign. Whether that is chatbot technology, AI, voice, or robots, the campaign must be adjusted to best engage the customer.
The playbook should also go onto detail on how you plan to carry out the strategy. For this, you will need a set of frameworks, methodologies and worksheets to organise your tactical approach and deliver your execution plan.
In the next post, we will talk about creating your digital strategy and setting goals.
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