Marketing campaigns boost business growth and support sales and marketing objectives. For small businesses, though, the demands of campaign planning and execution can be overwhelming.
Campaign management can be challenging due to limited time, tight budgets and multiple channels to manage. However, with the right structure and tools, small businesses can run effective campaigns that get results.
In this article, you’ll learn how to successfully manage a small business marketing campaign. You’ll also discover the best campaign management software and how to make the most of it in your campaigns.
What is campaign management?
Campaign management is the process of planning, executing and evaluating marketing campaigns. There are several types of campaigns that marketing teams can run, depending on their goals.
Email marketing campaigns | Sending a series of emails to a targeted list to inform, nurture or convert prospects into customers. Email marketing involves customer segmentation, copywriting and scheduling. |
Social media marketing campaigns | Coordinating social media activity to boost engagement or visibility. Social media marketing involves planning and scheduling social media posts on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. |
Content marketing campaigns | Using blog posts, landing pages, video marketing and events like webinars to attract and convert audiences. Content marketing involves content creation, search engine optimization (SEO) and content distribution. |
Paid advertising campaigns | Putting paid placements on search engines, websites or social media platforms. In digital marketing, paid advertising involves copywriting and bidding on ad space and keywords. |
Affiliate marketing campaigns | Partnering with third parties to promote offerings. Affiliate marketing involves recruiting affiliates, tracking links and managing commissions. |
Influencer marketing campaigns | Collaborating with creators to reach specific audiences. Influencer marketing involves influencer outreach, content approval and performance tracking. |
OOH (out-of-home) marketing campaigns | Placing physical advertising in public spaces like billboards and vehicles. OOH marketing includes media buying, creative design and placement logistics. |
Here’s an example of an email marketing campaign from Spark, an AI email management platform and calendar app:
The campaign announces a new feature to an audience familiar with the tool, keeping them up-to-date and offering more opportunities to engage with the brand.
Running a successful campaign involves different roles and coordinating several moving parts. Some of the main campaign management tasks include:
Customer segmentation
Creative asset creation
Automation setup
A/B testing (where marketers test two versions of an asset to see which performs best)
Performance tracking
Note: Multi-channel campaigns require even more sophisticated marketing management. That’s because multi-channel marketing involves multiple assets, marketing activities and customer touchpoints.
How can small businesses benefit from campaign management?
Campaign management isn’t just for large corporations. Effective campaign management delivers value to small businesses in several ways.
Aligning on objectives
Campaign management allows team members to align on shared goals for their campaigns. These goals might include:
Announcing a new product launch
Building brand awareness
Generating leads or signups
Guiding users through the customer journey
Retaining customers throughout the customer lifecycle
For example, sales and marketing teams can coordinate to ensure campaigns announce a new feature that the sales team wants to push in the coming quarter.
Achieving campaign goals
Good campaign management allows small businesses to run campaigns effectively and efficiently. Having a plan before executing allows for thoughtful, data-driven decision making. As a result, campaigns are more likely to reach goals like attracting and converting new customers and growing a brand’s reach.
Evaluating success
By tracking the performance of their marketing activities, teams can discover what’s working and what’s not and adjust their campaigns accordingly.
This data-driven approach helps avoid wasted spend and effort. These are valuable outcomes for small businesses with limited budgets and resources.
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What does campaign management involve?
A structured approach to campaign management involves various stages of planning, execution and measurement.
Let’s explore each stage, using the example of a productivity software company running an email campaign to promote a new product launch.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is the process of defining goals, target outcomes and messaging for an effective marketing campaign. It also involves aligning campaigns with the small business’s marketing strategy.
The strategic planning process ensures that every campaign serves a clear purpose and supports business growth goals, such as lead generation.
In our productivity software example, say the company wants to support business growth by increasing revenue from new product sales. The team plans a campaign specifically intended to support the new product launch.
Strategic planning is a vital first step in the campaign management process. It helps teams stay focused and maximize their efforts and resources.
Audience segmentation and targeting
Audience segmentation and targeting involve dividing your audience into groups so you can tailor content to each group’s needs and preferences.
Effective audience segmentation and targeting ensure relevant content reaches the right people. This outcome is central to the success of any marketing campaign.
In our example, the productivity software company might segment its target audience by:
Customer demographics, like occupation or industry
Prospects’ level of engagement with previous campaigns
Existing customers’ in-app behavior
The company would then send each group different content about the product launch.
Potential customers might receive introductory information about the company, for example. Meanwhile, experienced users could receive advanced productivity tips or upgrade offers.
Personalized emails enhance the customer experience by delivering relevant content. When email messaging speaks directly to a customer, they’re more likely to engage and take the desired next action.
Creative development
Creative development is the process of creating the messaging, design and overall look and feel of a marketing campaign.
Creative development ensures the campaign and its message resonate with audiences. The process also focuses on aligning the campaign with the company’s brand positioning.
In our email campaign example, creative development might involve:
Planning the sequence of messaging within the email journey
Designing the visual components for the campaign
Writing the email content, subject lines and CTAs (calls-to-action)
Creative development involves multiple stakeholders collaborating to shape the campaign. These stakeholders usually include designers, writers and brand managers.
Execution and channel management
Execution and channel management are about launching and managing a campaign through specific channels.
This aspect of the process is crucial for the success of any campaign. It ensures timely delivery and smooth operations across platforms.
In our email campaign example, execution and channel management would involve:
Building and testing the full email sequence. This sequence might include promotional emails, feature highlights and productivity tips.
Setting up triggers for automated follow-up emails based on user behavior. This behavior might include email opens, link clicks or form submissions.
Ensuring email deliverability by verifying list quality, subject lines and domain reputation.
Careful execution and channel management ensure all campaign activity takes place as planned.
Monitoring and optimization
Monitoring and optimization involve tracking performance during the campaign. This stage is also about making adjustments to improve results in real time.
In our example, the productivity software company might monitor and optimize its email campaign by:
Tracking campaign performance (i.e., by measuring clicks and conversion rates)
Conducting A/B testing to experiment with variations in email subject lines
Adjusting send times based on engagement data to improve open and click-through rates
Monitoring and optimizing activity also allows small businesses to make better use of their marketing spend by continually identifying which efforts offer the most return on investment.
Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics involve reviewing the data at the end of the campaign. The aim is to evaluate success and inform the direction of future campaigns.
In our example, the productivity software company would evaluate what worked well – and what didn’t – in its email marketing campaign. To do this, the company would analyze email marketing metrics such as:
Open rate
Click-through rate (CTR)
Unsubscribe rates
The marketing team would then turn this data into actionable insights for the next campaign. For example, a high unsubscribe rate from a particular audience could suggest a need for better customer segmentation.
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Best marketing campaign management software
Campaign management software can make planning and executing campaigns quicker and easier for small businesses.
Here are four of the best marketing campaign management software solutions for SMBS:
1. Pipedrive
Pipedrive’s CRM helps marketing and sales teams manage and optimize email marketing campaigns.
In Campaigns, Pipedrive’s email marketing software, customizable dashboards offer real-time insights into campaign performance. The system’s drag-and-drop functionality makes campaign building quick and easy.
Pipedrive’s project management software allows marketing teams to assign campaign tasks, plan work and track progress.
Pipedrive integrates with tools like ActiveCampaign, Zapier and Google Ads Lead Forms to connect marketing data across platforms.
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2. Brevo
Brevo is a marketing automation platform built for multi-channel campaign management. It allows businesses to conduct outreach campaigns through SMS, WhatsApp and chat from a single interface.
Brevo’s customizable templates make it easy for small teams to scale their campaigns while personalizing communications at every marketing campaign stage.
3. Hive
Hive is a project management tool for campaign planning, task coordination and team collaboration. It supports campaign management through built-in templates, timeline views and approval workflows.
For marketing teams, Hive is useful for coordinating campaign stakeholders. The software’s integrations with tools like Zoom and Slack help streamline internal communications.
4. MailerLite
MailerLite provides small businesses with a suite of email marketing tools for campaign management.
The software supports full-funnel A/B testing and dynamic customer segmentation.
Other features include:
Drag-and-drop builders for one-off emails and newsletters
Landing page creation tools
Embedded sign-up forms and pop-ups
MailerLite’s integration with Pipedrive allows you to track customer interactions and use the data to refine your sales strategies.
Best practices for using campaign management tools
To make the most of the marketing campaign management tools you use, follow these best practices:
Centralize campaign assets and data
Keeping all campaign assets and data in one place helps small businesses stay organized. It also allows them to maintain version control and reduce errors.
Use your campaign management platform to store all the content relating to your campaigns, including:
Campaign visuals
Email and social media templates
Audience lists
Performance data
Centralization ensures everyone on your team can access what they need easily, whenever they need it. Many platforms allow you to group assets by campaign or channel, making the material easier to find.
Having a single source of truth for campaign material saves time and supports consistency. It also makes onboarding new team members smoother.
Set clear objectives and KPIs for the software
Knowing what you want from a campaign management system helps you choose the right tool and use it effectively.
For example, you may want a tool to help you:
Save time on repetitive tasks
Streamline team collaboration
Gain better insight into campaign performance
Setting clear objectives allows you to prioritize the right features when evaluating the options.
After choosing which software to use, identify KPIs to measure how well the software supports those goals (e.g., faster approval times).
Make use of automation functionality to save time
Take advantage of all of your software’s time-saving automations. Many campaign management tools include functionality to reduce manual workload, speed up execution and ensure timely and consistent communication with your audience.
In Pipedrive, for example, you can create automated marketing campaigns for a wide range of use cases, including:
A welcome email every time a new contact subscribes to your email list
A product introduction every time a new person enters your deal pipeline
A feedback request email after a cold call
A follow-up email after each sales demo
An upsell drip campaign after the sales team closes a deal
Using these triggers, Pipedrive executes email campaigns without manual input, saving time and effort for sales and marketing teams.
Use collaborative features to streamline communication
Strong communication is essential for effective campaign management. Look for collaborative features in your campaign management software, such as:
Task assignments
Calendar apps
File sharing
These tools reduce the need for long email chains and prevent misunderstanding.
Features supporting content approvals, feedback and deadline management keep campaigns on track. These options also help ensure teams work efficiently without missing any steps in the collaborative process.
Use analytics and reporting to review and optimize campaigns
Analytics and reporting are vital for understanding what’s working and where to improve. Monitor marketing metrics like open rates, click-throughs, conversions and cost-per-lead to assess campaign performance.
Most platforms offer customizable dashboards and real-time reporting to give you instant visibility into results.
For example, Pipedrive’s email analytics and reporting shows you:
Conversion and engagement metrics | Monitor open and click-through rates to understand who’s engaging with your emails. |
Delivery | Ensure your content reaches the right audience so your most significant leads don’t miss out. |
Campaign performance over time | Get real-time updates about your campaigns’ performance, so you can update your marketing strategy as needed. |
Link performance | See how your contacts engage with embedded links in your emails. |
Who’s unsubscribing | Track when contacts subscribe or unsubscribe to comply with GDPR. |
Bounce rate | Trace how many emails aren’t delivered successfully. |
Here’s an example of a campaign performance report in Pipedrive:
You can use this data to optimize creative assets, refine targeting or adjust timing in future campaigns.
Final thoughts
Campaign management is essential for executing focused, coordinated and measurable marketing initiatives.
A robust campaign management system helps small businesses align campaign efforts across channels. By streamlining key processes, the software allows SMBs to save time and drive growth through their campaigns.
An all-in-one CRM like Pipedrive helps small businesses plan, automate and track campaign activity. Sign up for a free 14-day trial to try Pipedrive’s campaign management system.
