Marketing, much like fitness, is often a task that starts off with strong motivation and a willingness to get something going. However, without careful attention and dedication, it is something that can start to dwindle away if you’re not careful. So, are you doing everything you can to keep your marketing efforts “in shape”?

Note: This article is focused specifically on Salesforce campaigns. If you can answer “No” to any of the following three questions, you’re probably not going to benefit much from reading this.

1. Are you a marketing professional?
2. Do you use Salesforce?
3. Do you feel you’re NOT fully using the awesomeness that is Salesforce campaigns?

Campaigns are a standard object in Salesforce which, unfortunately, is often ignored, overlooked, or misunderstood. Salesforce campaigns are powerful. They allow you to track the effectiveness of specific marketing initiatives and tie them back to leads, contacts, and ultimately revenue.

And us marketers love proving revenue.

Just to clarify, a lot of companies are “using” campaigns—just like a lot of people “use” the gym. So here are four things you can start doing NOW to get those Salesforce campaigns in shape.

 

1. Make a Plan.

I know, you’ve heard this a million times before. But there’s a good reason for it. Just like working out (consistently) or losing weight (and keeping it off), your chances of success improve by having a plan.

So what does this plan entail? Well, parts of it can be different for different companies, but you should be thinking about things like:

• Building hierarchies: More on this down below.

 

• Setting up the correct fields: Determine which fields you need to track your various marketing campaigns. Define what your business considers campaign “Types.” Do you need custom fields added? If so, get them built and in there.

 

• Setting Goals: You need to set a goal for each campaign. And no, generally using the same goal for all campaigns is not a good idea. For example, your goal for a tradeshow may differ wildly from your goal for a paid search campaign.

 

2. Use Hierarchies Correctly.

What does a Salesforce campaign mean to you? The answer can be very different depending on who you ask. For example, marketers use campaigns to track the actual tactic that was used (i.e. a specific email being sent out inviting people to attend a webinar). Others may use them for a higher level overview of a certain marketing event or initiative (such as everything that went into a specific webinar). And others still may use campaigns to view all initiatives of a certain type (perhaps a summary of all webinars).

So if we use the webinar example above, the parent campaign could be Webinars Q1 2016. The children campaigns would be specific webinars, and the next level of children campaigns would be the various tactics used.

So why does this all matter? Hierarchies, if built correctly, allow you to:

• See the big picture: The parent level campaign shows you the overall performance of all the campaigns beneath it. Key data also rolls up, so you can easily see how much revenue all sub-campaigns brought in by looking at the parent level.

 

• Drill down to see the details: Hierarchies also give you the ability to see how much each sub-campaign is contributing to the parent campaign.

 

• Compare: You can now easily compare how one campaign does against another one on the same level.

So now that you’re all pumped up and ready to build some hierarchies, remember that a hierarchy can contain a maximum of five levels. Each Salesforce campaign can have only one parent campaign but an unlimited number of sibling campaigns. By default, the Campaign Hierarchy related list appears on the campaign detail page but does not contain records until campaign hierarchies are configured for your organization.

 

3. Turn On Campaign Influence.

Contrary to what various late night infomercials may say, there is not a single exercise that will completely work out your entire body perfectly. Similarly, there isn’t just one magic campaign that does all the marketing work. In real life, most prospects don’t just find your site and then buy immediately. According to Salesforce, it takes 6 to 8 touchpoints before the person becomes a viable lead. So which Salesforce campaign should this new lead or opportunity be attributed to? The first point of contact? The one that finally got the lead to convert to an opportunity?

With Salesforce, you don’t have to pick just one. By activating Campaign Influence, Salesforce can attribute multiple campaigns to a single deal.

 

4. Actually Use Salesforce Campaigns.

I know, this sounds redundant, but so is me telling myself, “I’m going to start hitting the gym” and never doing it. For each marketing campaign you’re running, there should be a corresponding Salesforce campaign. It takes work and dedication to build all your campaigns out correctly and to maintain them, but it’ll be worth it. Because if you do, you can get…

Closed-loop Reporting.

Imagine, being able to prove exactly which marketing efforts influenced which deals that ended up closing and bringing in revenue. Or seeing which lead sources are the best. Or determining the effectiveness of a specific piece of content. The list goes on. All of this is possible with closed-loop reporting. This allows marketers to prove their value, to show exactly where they helped move the needle forward.

 

Using Salesforce campaigns correctly is critical in helping you get the data you need to make smart decisions (along with the credit we both know you deserve). Remember, it takes some time, effort, and dedication. Like the gym, it doesn’t do you any good if you try once and then never try again. Plan your Salesforce campaigns out, use hierarchies, turn on campaign influence, and then actually use them. It’s absolutely worth your time—and easier than getting a six pack.