The Resources You Need to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign

Picture this: You’re back at the office, sitting at your desk, ready to work. You’ve taken a look at how your marketing offers performed in 2013, and you’ve got fresh ideas on how to get more leads or drive more website traffic in 2014. You’ve been dreaming of marketing campaigns. You’re on fire! Well ... not quite. You haven’t done anything just yet.

But we know you will, and we’ve got just the thing for you: We’ve compiled the ultimate kit to running inbound marketing campaigns, complete with templates, checklists, worksheets, and even a step-by-step guide on how to run inbound marketing campaigns with HubSpot.

What’s an inbound marketing campaign?

As a marketer, you probably hear the word “campaign” a lot. Historically, running a marketing campaign usually meant using one marketing channel, like email or paid ads, to announce a product launch or establish expertise in your industry.

But then the internet blew up, and now that’s not the only way your prospects learn about your company. They visit your website, follow you on social media, and probably even read your blog.

Inbound campaigns are different than traditional campaigns. They take into consideration the way people learn about your company online and align every one of your marketing channels around your marketing goals, creating the best experience for your prospects.

Now, when a potential prospect opens an email from you, they’ll see the same message on your website, on social media, in your blog posts -- everywhere. Unifying your message across all your marketing channels helps convert your website visitors.

Resources for Executing Inbound Marketing Campaigns

We promised you a one-stop shop, and we always like to deliver. So here it is! All of the resources listed below can be found in our aforementioned Campaign-in-a-Box kit.

Resource #1: Free Template: Determine Your 2014 Marketing Goals

Why You Need This

Before you start creating an inbound marketing campaign, you’ll need to decide why it’s necessary to run one. What are you trying to achieve? By when? And how? We call this “SMART” marketing because these kinds of goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timebound -- just like your inbound campaign should be.

How to Use It

This template will help you stay on task when creating goals for your campaign. It’s easy to set a “goal” and forget about it (New Year's resolutions, anyone?), but this template will help you create concrete (SMART!) goals for your campaign.

Also, it’ll show you how the inbound marketing campaign you’re running helps achieve your overall marketing goals for the year -- think of it as a giant piece to your marketing puzzle (and who doesn’t love puzzles?)

Resource #2: Worksheet: A Marketer’s Template for Creating Buyer Personas

Why You Need This

Now that you have SMART goals in mind for your campaign, you’ll need to think about the right audience for what you're offering. The best place to start choosing your audience is from your buyer personas. Your campaign audience might consist of multiple buyer personas or one specific persona that fits the criteria.

How to Use It

The template will help you understand buyer personas and give you a foundation to start building your own. Bring any research or survey data that you already have on your prospects and customers to help fully flesh out your personas. Once you’ve built them, choosing personas for your campaign will be easy.

Resource #3: Worksheet: Blog Editorial Calendar

Why You Need This

Once you’ve built your offer, there are several ways to promote it to your campaign audience and even new visitors. One effective way to do this is through blogging. Because your offer should be based on a topic that your audience cares about, there are likely multiple angles to blog about.

For example, if you’re offering an ebook, pull an excerpt from it and expand on it in a blog post. It’s a great way to get your audience interested in your offer before they’re even asked to download it.

How to Use It

This worksheet will help you create an editorial calendar for your blog specifically for topics around your campaign. It’s a great at-a-glance view of how your blog will help promote your offer based on the topics you’ll be writing about. You can even use it to bring in other details about your campaign, like any relevant keywords, links, and your campaign personas.

Resource #4: Worksheet: Social Media Scheduling Template

Why You Need This

Using the social media channels where your campaign audience hangs out is another great way to promote your offer and keep your campaign messaging coordinated with all of your other marketing efforts.

You'll be able to determine which channels to use from your buyer personas. And because your campaign audience is likely to visit more than one of your social media channels, it’s important to organize your social media so you’re not spamming your followers with the same message over and over again.

How to Use It

The scheduling template is a worksheet that allows you to plan for social updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. It even includes a content repository, so previous links and offers are easy to find.

Also, the template provides recommendations for publishing frequency. But don’t forget: Even after you publish your social messages, you’ll still need to monitor engagement and reply regularly to your fans and followers.

Resource #5: Worksheet: Google AdWords Template

Why You Need This

In the spirit of transparency, you might not need this worksheet to run an effective inbound marketing campaign ... but, you might. How do you know? If you have marketing budget to spend, and you’re familiar with and use Google AdWords, it doesn’t hurt to support your campaign with pay-per-click ads.

How to Use It

Once you download the worksheet, you’ll be able to manage all ads you’re running through Google AdWords in one template. It helps you organize ads through every stage of the marketing funnel, and you can easily record all ad variations, keywords, and destination URLs right in the worksheet.

Resource #6: Worksheet: Nurturing and Automation Planning

Why You Need This

Your campaign is now up and running. You’ve set goals, you’ve got a target campaign audience, your offer is built, and it’s out in the world via your marketing channels. But the campaign’s not over, because you still need to nurture your prospects based on how they're interacting with your campaign. For example: Someone saw your offer, clicked on it, and downloaded it. What’s next for them?

How to Use It

First of all, it’s good to familiarize yourself with what marketing automation is -- and what it isn’t. Once you've got a good grasp on it, this nurturing and automation planning worksheet will help you segment the leads you’ve been generating through your campaign and nurture them based on the goals for each segment.

Resource #7: Worksheet & Presentation Deck: Monthly Reporting Template

Why You Need This

Just like goals set the foundation for your campaign, reporting on your campaign will help you understand which marketing channels are helping you achieve your goal -- and which ones could use a little love.

Reporting on your campaign should happen throughout, but a wrap-up of takeaways and lessons when your campaign is over is just as important.

How to Use It

First, the excel template will help guide you through the metrics that contribute to the success of your goal. If Excel isn't your thing, don’t worry -- it’s filled with formulas and helpful tips to make sure you’re reporting correctly. There’s also a pre-made PowerPoint deck template so you can take the reporting you’ve already done and turn it into a nice presentation for your boss or clients. See, we think of everything.

Are you already running inbound marketing campaigns? What other resources are useful to you? Let us know in the comments!