A Campaign and Campaign Activity are separate from the standard hierarchy of the CRM. It's quick and easy to create a Campaign and Campaign Activity - let us show you how!
What's covered in this article
What are Campaigns?
A Campaign usually encompasses the overall marketing effort which is taking place. For example, you may be exhibiting at an event, so an appropriate name for your overall Campaign could be 'Exhibition Q3 2022 Bristol'.
What are Campaign Activities?
Campaign Activities are what contribute to the overall Campaign. For example, you may have several marketing activities taking place before, during and after the exhibition, including email invitations, telemarketing/calling, letter invitations and follow up emails. Each of these would be a Campaign Activity.
To help manage larger Campaign Activities, you can split them into multiple activities. For example, you may wish to contact the people you want to invite in stages, rather than all at once.
Step 1: Create a Campaign
The first step is to create a Campaign in the CRM. This is done by clicking on the plus icon on the right-hand side, and then selecting 'Campaign'.
This will then open a new record window where you can add information about the Campaign.
Description: Remember this is the overall, 'umbrella' Campaign. Even though you want to keep the Description quite general, it's useful to add some specifics, including the year and quarter in which you're running this Campaign, e.g. 'Exhibition Q3 2022 Bristol', as this will make it easier to search for later - particularly if you're running lots of Campaigns.
Managed By: This is a user of the CRM who has overall ownership of the Campaign. This is for internal reporting purposes only, and doesn't restrict other users in the CRM from taking over ownership.
Total Budget: A budget can be associated with Campaigns to help keep track of spending and also be compared to any Quotes which are created and associated with the Campaign. Again, this is for internal reporting purposes only, and is not a required field.
Start Date & End Date: This is the period which the whole Campaign will be active for. For this example, the exhibition may only last 2 days, but all the individual Campaign Activities which contribute towards this may occur before, during and after the actual exhibition, so we'd advise keeping these dates relatively open-ended. Again, these dates are for internal reporting purposes only, should you wish to report on this information.
Once you've entered the required information, simply click 'Create'.
This will then create the new Campaign and allow you to add a more detailed description on the main Details page, as well as alter any of the information you entered previously.
On the pages on the left-hand side, you'll find any Activities which have been created under this Campaign (Activities page), Opportunities which have been associated with the Campaign (Opportunities page), Contacts in the CRM who've been added to Campaign Activities under this Campaign (Target Contacts page), and information about how recipients have interacted with any Campaign Activities (Email Marketing page).
Step 2: Create a Campaign Activity
To create a Campaign Activity under the Campaign, simply click on the plus icon and select 'Campaign Activity'.
This will then open a new record window where you can add information about the Campaign Activity.
Description: Try to make this really specific and relevant e.g. 'Initial Email Invite - Customers'. Remember - if you want your Sales team to log Opportunities against this Campaign Activity (i.e. we got 3 Opportunities off the back of this e-shot), then it needs to have a relevant, searchable name.
Type: As standard, you'll have options available in the drop-down here including 'E-Shot', but these are configurable by your CRM Admin user if you'd like to add to/amend these. If your Sales team might log Opportunities against this Campaign Activity, and wants to attribute this Campaign Activity to the Opportunity, the Campaign Activity 'Type' (in this example, 'E-Shot'), will go in the Source field on the Opportunity, which can then be reported on. This allows users to know how many Opportunities were generated from this marketing effort.
Managed By: This is a user of the CRM who has overall ownership of the Campaign Activity. This may be different to the overall Campaign, but by default it'll inherit whatever you chose on the Campaign. This is for internal reporting purposes only, and doesn't restrict other users in the CRM from taking over ownership.
Cost: A budget can be associated with this Campaign Activity if required. Again, this is for internal reporting purposes only, and is not a required field.
Start Date & End Date: This is the period which the Campaign Activity will be active for. For this example, our email invite may only go out on 1 day, but we may wish to keep the End Date fairly open-ended, as the Sales team may wish to log Opportunities against this Campaign Activity several days, or even weeks afterwards.
Once you've entered the required information, simply click 'Create'.
This will then create the new Campaign Activity and allow you to add a more detailed description on the main Details page, as well as alter any of the information you entered previously.
Step 3: Add Filters
Adding filters to your Campaign Activity will remove any unwanted Contacts. These options relate to the Communication page on a Contact, where you select the Contact's preference flags.
It's important to ensure you only send marketing communications to those who wish to be contacted, and these filters can help you do this, as long as they're used and managed correctly.
You can also choose to eliminate people if they're in another specific Campaign Activity. For example, this could be handy for businesses who are sending a similar promotion or discount email campaign as one sent recently, and want to ensure they've removed people who have received the previous one.
Once you've toggled on the filters you'd like to apply, simply click 'Apply Filters'.
Step 4: Role Filters
You can also filter by role to ensure you're targeting the correct type of person within the business. For example, you may wish to only send to the Managing Directors and Sales Directors, as this email is specifically designed for them. Furthermore, you can limit the number of contacts per Company. This means you can choose to only send this e-shot to 3 people at the business, rather than every single person. This may be worth considering if you have e.g. 20+ Contacts at every single Company in your CRM.
Step 5: Add Target Contacts
You've now created your Campaign and Campaign Activity! It's now time to add some targets to this Campaign Activity - check out our article here on how to do this. Once you've added the Contacts to the Campaign Activity, they'll be listed under the 'Target Contacts' tab on the left-hand side. This list can then be used as a calling list or sent to Spotler or Mailchimp if the integration has been set up.
Associate Enquiries and Opportunities to Campaign Activities
If you have used a Campaign or Enquiry from within CRM, you can use the Source option to link Opportunities to Campaign Activities. This allows you to record potential income based on Activities you have performed, i.e. how many Opportunities and subsequent Quotes were generated after holding an Exhibition. Check out our articles on the Enquiry and Opportunity pages to learn more about these functions.