At the start of August, I undertook the creation and development of a marketing campaign for DarkHeart Brewing, a local brewery here in Sacramento.
It began as the idea of running their marketing for them and changed into handing them a full marketing campaign outline at the end of the month.
If you want to see how my project progressed, you can follow along in order at these links:
- Portfolio Project Thoughts
- Creating a Marketing Campaign
- Week 2 Update: Beating the Clock
- Week 3 Update: How to Rock Digital Marketing
- Week 4 Update: Copy and Data and Adverts, Oh My!
Why Did I Do This?
- To get some hands-on experience: The concept and philosophy of marketing were still somewhere “out there” in Somedayville, so focusing on a marketing campaign was the perfect project to jump into the deep end.
- To familiarize myself with the technology: The software and data services that undergird the modern marketing world are, to be redundant, intriguing, and I was so ready to learn more about them.
- To create a campaign that would benefit the business: I set out to do this so that I could put into practice the philosophy of prioritizing value creation.
- I wanted to challenge myself: I pushed myself by learning a new field from the very beginning and dedicated myself to excelling at it
What Were the Challenges Facing Me?
There were two great challenges:
- I had never designed a marketing campaign before.
- I was working without access to DarkHeart Brewing’s social media.
This made my approach to the project a bit unique. I worked in hypotheticals rather than with hard data. Using Google Analytics without real-life data actually plugged into it left me stumbling in the dark at times. And attempting to work with Mailchimp without access to DarkHeart’s website, held similar struggles.
But having never designed such a campaign before, the unexpected upside was how much I was learning every day! Copywriting, email marketing, social media interaction, and data analysis are just some of the things I was absorbing like a sponge. I have a much clearer understanding of the marketing process and how vital it is to the construction of a business brand.
What Did I Accomplish?
- An analysis of local businesses’ marketing outreach
- Created several videos exploring features of Mailchimp
- Wrote two articles covering basic guidelines for copywriting:
- Discussed Google Analytics’ capabilities here and made two videos about useful aspects in Analytics
What Didn’t I Do?
The toughest part of any project is knowing what you planned to get done and didn’t accomplish. My initial plan involved running ads through social media for DarkHeart Brewing. Unfortunately, running those ads through Facebook, Twitter, and Google ads did not come to fruition on this project. It’s something I still want to learn how to do, so it will have to be something I tackle on the next marketing project. In spite of this, I still created two advertisement flyers for DarkHeart, one of which announces their grand opening.
I also initially had plans for a website redesign for DarkHeart to make it more user-friendly. Alas, such a plan fell through.
What Would I Do Differently Next Time?
The biggest change I would make would be to adopt the permissionless mindset earlier. Instead of worrying about how I would complete my project (as initially planned, anyway) without hearing back from the company it was centered around, I would have jumped straight into doing the work for it anyway. After all, this project was at least partly for me to learn how to get stuff done; I don’t need to wait on anyone to start doing that!
The next biggest thing is time management. There is a myriad of apps out there to supplement the pen and paper method I’m fond of, one of which is Trello, an app I’ll be adopting immediately! But keeping on top of several aspects of the project required more than I was able to do on my own.
What I’ll Do Next
This project threw me headfirst into the deep waters of marketing and only increased my interest and fascination with the field. I’ll happily continue learning more about it and using the tools of the trade wherever I can. Even as I explore and gain proficiency in other roles, marketing will not stop being a useful tool!
Services I Used
Canva: for flyer design
Mailchimp: for email marketing and campaign tracking
Google Analytics: for more comprehensive campaign tracking
HitFilm Express: for video editing
Audacity: for audio editing not covered by HitFilm’s free version
Copyblogger: for copywriting guidelines