Company Analysis of Tesco

Company Analysis of Tesco Introduction The purpose of this report is to analyze internal opportunities and threats, external strengths and weakness, vision statement and mission statement of Tesco Corporation, example of achieved mission, and recommendation of strategies to develop the organization in future.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Company Analysis of Tesco specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Background of Tesco Corporation Tesco Plc. is the giant of global glossary chain shop operating in fourteen countries and considered as the third largest player in terms of revenue generation. The company originated in UK in 1919 as small grosser and now turned into FTSE 100 Company listed in the LSE annual revenue of  £ 60.93 billion and £ 2.67 billion Net income accounted in 2011. Tesco possesses 2,715 outlets in UK occupying Total area 3,411,586 sq meter space while the company has diversified its business in telecommunication, banking, ICT , club card, beauty salon film producing gold trading and many more sectors with successful record of accomplishment. The company has 2,665 stores with 70,718,000 sq. meter floor space worldwide excluding the total number of UK stores, while the numbers of outlets have been increasing with a remarkable rate of expansion. Tesco’s expansion strategy, strong organisational structure, and core business concept those are the facts that provided the competitive advantages that no other competitors can bid. There are a number of complain about the Tesco’s corporate governance, tax manipulation and corporate social responsibility including workplace environment in third world factories but above all Tesco turned in to a power of the UK society that may not be depress the business environment. However, the following table gives more information about the company List Some Key Features About the Company Stores Tesco has about 4,331 Stores all over the world and among the m 2,306 stores in the national market, 571 stores in Thailand, and 319 stores in Poland to offer wide range of products and services to the target customers Employees Tesco has more than 472000 employees all over the world and it is going to recruit more staff to operate the business more smoothly Tesco Personal Finance It is a combination of the Banking and Insurance service that started operation initially only in UK and in 2003, Tesco decided to buy the 50% share of Royal Bank of Scotland of  £950 million to own the total share of TPF Food It is the largest business segment for Tesco as it offers 40000 food products, such as – 400 ‘Healthy Living’ products which are low in fat and sodium 150 ‘Free From’ product to make life easier for customers with food allergies and intolerances In addition, it offers 40 Special healthy Kids snacks and 1,200 Organic product lines Table 1: Products and services of Tesco Source: Self generated from T esco (1)Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More SWOT Analysis of Tesco Corporation: Strengths: Brand Awareness: the main strength of Tesco is the brand awareness of the company as it is the largest grocer of UK and the third largest grocery retailer of the world; Employees: The company has more than 4,72,000 highly educated, enough efficient, and good manner employees including 12 international markets, and it has plan to increase 16,000 employees within very short time; Rapid growth: the market share is growing very rapidly throughout the UK and outside market, for example, according to the report of Datamonitor (14), this company hold 13% market share of the UK retail superstores market. At the same time, market growth of few segments like Tesco personal Finance is outstanding in the local market, Toyota Lotus in Thailand has delivered strong growth in spite of recess ion and adverse political situation, Tesco in Slovakia saw excellent growth, and Malaysia has had an exceptional year though this was not a potential market for Tesco from 2001 Asian crisis; Financial position: Tesco is happy with its performance in recent years as many company suffered huge loss and some companies needed government support but Tesco continues with its own financial strength and never faced loss though the earning has decreased from few segments. In addition, it has strong liquidity percentage and strong asset utilization and managerial efficiency; however, the following figure shows that the share price of the company is quite position in London Stock Exchange Figure 1: Basic Chart of Tesco for 2007 to 2011-05-02 Source: Yahoo Finance (1) Variables 2010 ( £ million) 2009 ( £ million) 2008 ( £ million) 2007 ( £ million) Total assets 46,023 45,564 30,164 24,807 Total liabilities 31,427 32,715 18,349 14,301 Total revenue 56,910 53,898 47,298 42,641 Gross Profit 4,607 4,185 3,630 3,240 Total Operating Costs 53,878 50,940 44,648 40,274 Operating Income or Loss 3,032 2,958 2,650 2,367 Net Income 2,327 2,133 2,124 1,892 Table 2: Financial Overview of Tesco Source: Self generated from Tesco (130) and Yahoo Finance (1) Corporate governance system: many large company has collapsed due to lack of the practice of corporate governance practice but Tesco never faced such position as all the members of board of directors, and auditors are worked with integrity and for the development of the company; Market leader: Tesco was successful to become the market leader in the UK, Technology: It has advance technological support to enhance its profits from its products and service area; as a result, it can offer online purchasing facilities, online baking facilities and maintain customer relation by using advance technology. Shareholders: Shareholders are a key strength of the company as they are generating the ultimate investment ca pacity for the company; however, they consider following factors to invest Tesco Plc 2010 ( £ million) 2009 ( £ million) 2008 ( £ million) 2007 ( £ million) Current Assets 11,765 13,479 6,300 4,576 Current Liabilities 16,015 17,595 10,263 8,152 Working capital = (current assets – current liabilities) 11,765 16,015 = -4250 13,479 17,595 = -4116 6,300 10,263 = -3,963 4,576 8,152 = -3,576 current ratio = Total current assets/ current liabilities 11,765 / 16,015 = 0.73462379 13647 / 18040 = 0.756485588 5992 / 10263 = 0.58384488 4168 / 8158 = 0.511285574 Basic EPS 14.78p 12.97p 26.95p 23.61p Table 3: Ratio analysis of Tesco Source: Self generatedAdvertising We will write a custom report sample on Company Analysis of Tesco specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Product range: according to the annual report 2009, this company offers wide range of products and services including insurance facilities and credit purchasing facilities. In addition, Tesco personal finance is achieving more and more milestones besides retail services; such as, in 2003 the insurance service achieved 1 million motor insurance policies and other segments like Credit cards, savings, deposit schemes, pet insurance, travel insurance and life insurance are continuously escalating its potential to offer fully operated banking service; Leadership: On the other hand, Tesco has achieved this success for the continuous efforts and capabilities of its top management team, including the CEO of Tesco Terry Leahy who has taken many decisions to increase its performance in global market Tesco’s UK sales are now 71% larger than Sainsbury’s; Quality: Moreover, Tesco always offer high quality products and services for the customer as the company would like create strong loyal customer base. Weaknesses: Dependence on the UK market: Datamonitor (16) reported that Tesco is mostly depends on the UK market (as more th at 73.8% of its revenue generates from the market); Media: Interference of media some time creates hindrance of the business, for instance, the UK TV broadcasted in a documentary on Tesco’s corporate social responsibility and poor personnel morale on the employees by claiming that Tesco encouraged child labour in order to offer low price to the customer. For instance, one of the major sales product of Tesco is Jeans at $4 for rough use and Tesco advertise that purchase our useable low cost Jeans instead of waste money for washing powder, but media claimed that Tesco can offer at $4 only exploit the child labour of Bangladesh. On the other hand, the CEO of Tesco stated that they have no responsibility about their supplier as Tesco never suggest to exploit child labour to reduce production cost, and he further added that they visited the garments of the supplier but found no child labour; Reduction of debt: Tesco’s aggressive expansion strategy limits the corporation to expend money except investing; as a result, debt reduction became problematic, which may adversely affect on the company. Opportunities: Advantage from Recession: Tesco can take advantage of recent economic downturns by changing its strategies; for instance, it can sustain as a global leader by reducing costs, offering at lower price, pushing on with expansion, and increasing total assets value; for example, Tesco (9) reported that the price of land and property has decreased significantly due to recession. International Growth: Tesco personal Finance initially offers online banking facilities only in the national market but Tesco has the opportunity to expand the operation of this segment in international market as it was most successful segment in recessionary period in national market; Health: The sales revenue from health care and beauty products is increasing in the UK market as Tesco is the market leader in both toiletries and healthcare retail sectors along with baby goods markets; therefore, Tesco invests regularly to develop this sectors so it has 19 stores with opticians and almost 200 stores with pharmacies; Further Expansion: According to the annual report of Tesco, it has earned a significant profit from international market particularly from the Korean market; as it can consider further expansion with it various types of new services along with the existing services in Asian, European and American countries; Non-food Retail: The management team of Tesco confirmed that they would continue non-food retail segment as it has generated 23% share from this segment in 2004, Other: Tesco has efficient employees to boost the profit, and it has been experienced satisfactory profit margin all over from retail services those open new dimension to start new business or expand existing business. Threats: Major Competitors: The main threat in retail business of Tesco is the strong competitors of national and international market, for instance, ASDA is the s ubsidiary of Wal-Mart has large market share in the UK market. At the same time, Sainsbury PLC and Morrisons have huge participation in the market those change companies’ strategies regularly in order to develop the market position and gain competitive advantages over the Tesco Plc; Expatriates Management: Tesco has always eager to expand its business all over the world by opening their subsidiary; as a result, the company need to recruit a significant number of employees from the home countries of subsidiary. However, the top management of parent company would like to train all employees to develop their communicational skills to increase sales in international market, but many employees leave their job if they get job at home; therefore, retention of employees is a great challenge for Tesco; Global financial crisis: Tesco has experienced huge lose from some international zone due to the adverse impact of the global financial crisis though net profit has increased each year. In addition, Tesco’s annual sales revenue from few products and service was not outstanding in the UK and global market considering the performance of previous year and investment because the purchasing power of the customer has reduced and they mainly purchased necessary products; Customer Buying behaviour: frequent change of customer mind regarding the product selection is also problem for the retail customer; Price War: As price is the prime attraction that clasps the customer’s attention and primarily inspires them to engage with the promotions carried out; therefore, all competitors try to make sure that the pricing is in fact attractive to the targeted customers, which is one of major challenges for the Tesco Plc; for example, Datamonitor (17) reported that Morrison reduced Safeway’s prices by up to 6%; International expansion: Tesco needs huge amount of investment to enter international market and it has to face high competition in outside of the UK mark et; as a result, Tesco has not generated satisfactory profits from some Asian countries; Other: Natural crisis, foreign direct investment policy of overseas government, unfriendly approach of the government of international market, instable political condition of certain area, factors related with taxation policy, and entry barriers, local regulation and listing requirements have influence on Tesco’s operation in global market. The vision statement and mission statement of Tesco The Vision Statement of Tesco A vision statement is an inspirational explanation of what a business would like to attain or bring about in the mid term or long-standing future it has deliberated to provide an apparent direction for selecting present and upcoming patterns of actions for the company in order to gain the advantage of the market throughout its operational period. However, the main vision of Tesco is to create value for clients to gain their lifetime loyalty by concentrating on the custo mers, understanding and fulfilling their needs and showing responsibility on the community. This company has some other long-tem objectives to achieve the core vision such as Tesco ensures equal opportunity for all employees to get highest outcomes from them, provides guidance to work like a team, and develops mutual understanding by exchanging their views to give the highest satisfaction to the customers. This statement also pointed out that all workers would be treated as part of a large family that indicates Tesco always create excellent environment for the staff to jointly work together as a team member, where they enjoy equal opportunities in terms of salary, pension, leave, and other job facilities. The Mission Statement of Tesco Mission statements are printed assertions of businesses’ central goal and objective that usually stays unaltered over time, acting as sifts to distinguish what is imperative, affirming which markets to penetrate, and transmit a sense of deliber ated roadmap to the whole business; moreover, a mission is something to be accomplished, whereas a vision is something to be pursued for that accomplishment. The mission of Tesco has designed considering the vision statement that is â€Å"to create value for lifetime customer† and the mission of the company is to survive as a market leader in the global financial crisis by offering the best products at lower price to retaining loyal customers. However, this mission statement mainly focused on three short time objectives those are interrelated, such as Overcome from the adverse impact of global financial crisis The customers will come again and again Offer lower price than the competitors Mission that achieved by Tesco and Justification Tesco has already achieved three components in the mission statement and the flowing heads discuss about the mission statement and showed justification about the findings–Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Market leader in recession: One of the greatest missions of Tesco was to sustain in the UK market as market leader in the adverse economic environment. According to the annual report 2009 of Tesco, Figure 2: Basic Chart for Tesco Plc vs. Sainsbury Source: Yahoo finance (1) However, the above figure compares the financial position between Tesco Plc and Sainsbury in the stock market, and it represents that Tesco’s share price is much better than Sainsbury’s position in London Stock Exchange (LSE). On the other hand, Datamonitor (14) pointed that Tesco’s sales revenue is highest in the UK market and third position in global market and it generated sales revenue is 71% greater than nearest competitor. At the same time, one of the foremost missions of Tesco was to offer products and services at lowest price in order to target all types of customer for those who want to purchase from this company. From the very beginning, this company followed cost effective strategy and the company reduced its price at highest level in order to protect competitors to capture while it found that competitors is going to draw attention of the customer by their special offer at low price. In order to offer lower price, Tesco has to create strong supply chain by maintaining good relationship with the suppliers, and the management of the company always try to find out low cost suppliers who would provide quality products, such as, Bangladeshi readymade garments suppliers has fame to provide high quality products with low price. On the other hand, Tesco has successfully create large loyal customer base in national and international market by implementing its low cost strategies and it also concentrates on the cultural factors to operate its outlet in foreign countries, which also help the company to retain customers. For instance, the trading conditions of South Korea, China, Ireland have deteriorated due to global financial crisis but the company was reduced operati ng costs and the price of the products, which balance the profitability level as the customers are loyal; as a result, this company regain its market position in those areas within very short period. Suggested Strategies to Tesco for future development This report scrutinise the present strategies of Tesco to recommend the most suitable strategies those the company should follow in near future and this report also suggests some strategies in light of some effective strategic tools to gain competitive advantage over competitors. Ansoff Matrix for Tesco According to the annual report 2009 of Tesco, this company has already positioned it as the UK market leader in retail business and it is in the third position in global market; as a result, it would be easy for Tesco to consider this strategy to develop its business at existing or new market. However, the following figure shows the Ansoff Matrix for Tesco Market penetration: This strategy concentrates on the development of existing products at existing market and it is an effective strategy for Tesco since the customers of existing markets would like its products because they are loyal customers and company has strong brand image, low price and high quality. However, the flowing figure shows the sales of its existing products in existing markets Figure 3: Sales by region Source: Tesco (9) Market Development: Tesco has business operation in 14 countries; therefore, its existing products and service range has bright prospect in other developed countries in the world. In order develop markets in European or Asian countries, Tesco should apply this strategy with their regular price offer as pricing is one of the important factors to the customer as well as company. Figure 4: Ansoff Matrix Source: Self generated from Kotler Armstrong (221) Product Development: Johnson, Kevan and Richard (29) argued that this strategy indicates new product development in existing market and this strategy is effective for the future prospect Tesco. However, Tesco has already developed 500 new products for the UK market in the recessionary period as part of its ‘Discount Brands at Tesco’ initiative, and This company introduced 27 new items for the Malaysia’s stores; Diversification: Tesco should not drive to follow this strategy in this stage, as new products development in existing market is profitable but it not always easy for retailers to develop new product for new markets; however, Tesco can expand its operation in the new areas with existing products. Porters Generic Strategies Cost Leadership Strategy: Tesco always offers lowest price to the target customers, such as, its overall food price has fallen more than 17% from 2000 to 2006 and Tesco restructure its pricing strategy in the period global financial crisis to cut production costs to provide lowest price in the market. At the same time, Tesco should carry on this strategy as market is highly competitive where pricing is the prime factor to retain customers; however, the following figure demonstrates decreasing price in food sector Figure 5: Trend in real food prices since 2000 Source: Tesco (1) Differential strategy: from the above discussion, it is clear that this strategy is fruitful for Tesco as it always eager to offer new products for the national and international customers; therefore, in 2009 it introduces 500 products to save the company from recession; Focus Strategy: As this strategy refers to focus on a narrower market segment through achieving cost advantages, Tesco should not follow this strategy. Lynch’s Expansion Method Matrix This expansion matrix is the process by which the company can select appropriate route of entry; as a result, Tesco can increase its market share both in national and global market by adopting subsequent methods, for example, merger, Acquisition, Joint Venture, alliance, etc. The following diagram shows the expansion method with more information Figure 6: Expansion Method Matrix Sources: Self generated Current Market: According to the annual report 2009 of Tesco, this company is more concentrates on the UK market expansion as more than 70% of its total profit is generated from this market. However, Tesco is increasing its number of outlets in local as well as other 13 countries where it has operation, for instance, in 2008 and 2009, its total stores were 2318 stores and 4331 stores accordingly, but it has now more than 5380 outlets in the current 14 market place, which demonstrates that this is an effective strategy for Tesco. However, the above figure demonstrates some expansion strategy for Tesco to expand the business (such as International, Core UK, Non-food, Retailing Services, and Community) in current national and international market; New Market: It is important to mention that Tesco has business operation only on 14 countries though Tesco is one of the most successful companies in international market. As a resu lt, it should start operation in new zone for example it can start operation in Singapore and Hong Kong as Tesco has experienced to operate successfully in Chinese market and Korean market; however, it can develop its market by joint venturing with local competitors or applying other mode of entry strategies. Datamonitor. Tesco a Corporate Profile. 2004. Web. http://people.exeter.ac.uk/wl203/BEAM011/Materials/Lecture%204/TESCO%20Company%20Profile.pdf. Johnson, Gerry, Kevan Scholes and Richard Whittington. Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text Cases. London: FT Prentrice Hall, 2008. Print. Kotler, Philip, and Armstrong Gary. Principles of Marketing. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall, 2006. Print. Tesco. Annual report 2009 of Tesco. 2009. Web. Tesco. Low prices everywhere. 2011. Web. Yahoo Finance. Basic Chart of Tesco Plc. 2010. Web. Yahoo Finance. Financial Statement of Tesco Plc. 2010. Web.

Social Media Campaign Planning How to Crush It (Free Templates)

Social Media Campaign Planning How to Crush It (Free Templates) Strong social media campaigns start with strong planning. There are no shortcuts to success. Planning isn’t easy though. It takes both creative and strategic thinking to really get it right. It also requires clear communication with everyone involved in approving and executing your ideas, including your own team members and those of your client (if you’re working as a consultant or in an agency). What you need is a solid process and the right tools for the job. In this post, we’ll show you: How to lay out an effective planning process. How to document your entire campaign strategy. How to get it all done with some free templates (which we’ve included for you to download). Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work. How to Crush Social Media Campaign PlanningSo, What’s the Point of Social Media Campaign Planning? Planning allows you to be thoughtful and intentional about your work. Let’s say you have an event coming up. You could just create some posts here and there to get the word out. Or, you could plan a cohesive campaign with clear and consistent messaging is much more likely to deliver results. Which approach do you think would produce better results? We’re not saying everything you say and do on social media needs to be planned out ahead of time. Some spontaneity is good. Social media moves fast, and you want to stay relevant. However, executing an entire social media marketing strategy completely on the fly, well, sucks. Itll leave your social team constantly scrambling to create and share content. The results will, almost certainly, feel rushed and unfocused. So, stop pulling your hair out while creating crappy content. Start planning instead. Stop planning crappy content. Start planning ahead instead.Do It Yourself: Free Social Media Campaign Templates + Bonus Calendar Make planning out your next campaign easy. Download these free templates: Social Media Campaign Plan Template: Outline all the details for your campaign. Social Media Campaign Content Template: Create all your campaign messaging and image direction. Social Media Calendar Template: When its time to execute your campaign, plan every post on your social media calendar. Each of these pieces will make it easier to put the following advice into action. Make social media campaign planning easy with these free templates:Manage and Measure Social Campaigns With : is the industry's leading content + social media marketing calendar solution. Here are the features that make it possible: Social Campaigns: Create and schedule entire campaigns on your calendar. Social Campaign Reports: Measure cross-channel campaign performance, compare campaigns side-by-side, and more. Best Time Scheduling: Ensure every post in your campaign publishes at the best time, automatically. When you're ready to upgrade from free templates, schedule a demo with our team, or try us free for 14 days. So, What Does a Social Media Campaign Really Look Like, Anyway? A campaign is really just a coordinated series of posts. They could all share a certain slogan or messaging, or promote a particular event, product, or piece of content. Those posts might be tied together with a consistent hashtag or visual aesthetic too. If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these roundup posts of successful campaigns: Top 10 Influential Social Media Marketing Campaigns of 2016  from Adhere Creative. The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2016  from Tint. The 30 Most Brilliant Social Media Campaigns of 2015  from Salesforce (a little old, sure, but the examples includes are still great). Recommended Reading: 24 Creative Social Media Campaign Examples to Boost Your Inspiration Getting Started: Choose Your Channels There are a lot of ways to get started with campaign planning. However, there are a couple reasons why we suggest starting with channel selection: Your goals will depend in part on which social networks your campaign content is on. Creating that content would be nearly impossible without knowing which networks you’ll be using. For example, post copy that works great on Facebook might not translate into a quality tweet. If you need some assistance determining which channels might be best suited to your campaign, check this quick visual guide: Some other reasons to choose particular networks over others might include: Which networks typically perform best. You might want to focus on your top-performing networks. Which emerging networks are you considering experimenting with.  It's important not to chase every new network for no reason, but experimentation can lead to major success. Which networks have potential for your brand, but are currently underperforming. You might also choose to plan a campaign to improve your performance on one that’s struggling. Bonus Tip: Determine if your campaign will focus on one network, or span multiple networks. This will make it easier to gauge how long it’ll take to plan and execute your campaign. Set Your Goals Successful campaigns need a purpose. Before you get too far in your planning process, determine exactly what you want your campaign to achieve. Here are some ideas: Increase followers Generate email signups Promote an event Raise awareness around an issue Inform your audience about a new product or feature Once you have some broad overarching goals, connect them to actual metrics to measure success. The data you use to measure success to be directly connected to your goals. In order to set realistic goals, however, you’ll need to know how your content typically performs on social media. One way to do this is to dig into in-app analytics available for each social media network. Facebook: A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Insights  from Kissmetrics Twitter: How to Use Twitter Analytics  from Twitter for Business Instagram: Free Instagram User Report  from Simply Measured Pinterest: A Guide to Pinterest Analytics  from Pinterest LinkedIn: Understanding Company Page Analytics  from LinkedIn Google+: Google Plus Analytics: How to Measure Your Results  from Steady Demand Once you know where to gather your performance data, you’ll need to know how to connect your metrics to your goals. Here’s a quick visual guide: When you’re preparing your campaign plan, you can summarize your goals following this format: â€Å"This campaign aims to improve [INSERT GOAL] by [INSERT PERCENTAGE] over [INSERT TIMESPAN].† Your goal can get even more specific than what’s on the graphic shown above, too. If your goal is to improve brand loyalty, your goal statement might read something like this: â€Å"This campaign will strengthen brand awareness by growing our Twitter following by 25% over three months.† Simple. Specific. Accountable. That’s all your goals need to be. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Analytics to Create the Best Content Figuring Out Your Audience The first step in social media campaign planning is determining your audience. This could be your core customer base, or simply a specific segment of your total audience. For example, if you sell automotive parts, you might create a campaign promoting winter vehicle accessories to followers in snowy areas. Or, if you sell musical instruments, you might create a campaign targeting people who play a particular instrument. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects Next, You’ll Need an Idea Successful campaigns are driven by big ideas. In traditional advertising parlance, a â€Å"big idea† is a general overarching theme or concept you want to communicate. Nike’s â€Å"Just Do It† slogan is a classic example. The company realized people’s aversion to working out was a roadblock stopping them from buying running shoes. So, they devised messaging that pushed people to â€Å"just do it† anyway. How do you come up with creative ideas like this? Start by connecting two things: A problem for your audience. A solution you can solve for them.Your Audience's Problems + Your Brand + Creativity = Your Next Social Campaign IdeaYou could also approach this in terms of finding an intersection between your audience’s interests in general, and your product or service. This connection is what makes most classic creative slogans work (and good content marketing in general). Recommended Reading: How to Generate Better Social Media Campaign Ideas Like a Creative Genius Determine Your Post Frequency and Schedule Write your posts first. Start off by determining two things: How many posts will you write? How far out will these posts be scheduled? The answers to each point above depend on the importance of what you’re promoting, the size of your budget, and how much time you have. Here are some hypothetical examples to consider: Your business is planning a summer sale. Ideally, your first post would kick off on the first day of summer. From there, you plan weekly posts throughout the duration of the sale. You’re planning promotions for a major charity event. Since you have sufficient budget to shoot video, you choose to focus on video-friendly platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Your boss hands down a specific directive to increase your Twitter following. You decide to focus on a high-volume Twitter-only campaign that encourages sharing. These are all common situations marketers find themselves in. They’re also all completely different from one another, requiring different numbers of posts across varying numbers of social channels. So, what you’ll need to determine is how much content does your campaign really warrant. Then, you’ll need to lay out a plan that fits an appropriate level of effort and attention. Here’s what a hypothetical posting schedule might look like for a large-scale social campaign: 12 Facebook posts 12 posts on Instagram 24 tweets Eight Google+ posts Five LinkedIn updates Three Pins on Pinterest Let’s say you have a smaller campaign promoting an original research report you’ve produced. You decide your Facebook audience might not be interested, but your followers include a high number of professionals on Twitter and LinkedIn. In this case, here’s what your post outline might look like: 12 tweets Three LinkedIn updates One Google+ post These aren’t scientific numbers by any means. The key takeaway here is to simply consider how many posts you’ll create for each network you’ve selected. Getting this right might take some trial and error, and that’s okay. Just make a plan, execute it, and see what happens. Just make a plan, execute it, and see what happens. #social #mediaKeep the Rest of Your Social Scheduling in Mind, Too If you’re curating content, resharing evergreen content, or running multiple campaigns at once, keep all of that in mind. Be careful not to oversaturate your social channels. Recommended Reading: How Often to Post on Social Media? [Proven Research from 10 Studies] What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media The Social Media Posting Schedule That Will Boost Your Traffic By 192% Put Your Campaign Plan Into a Proposal If you’re a consultant or agency marketer, you may need to get approval for your campaign. One way to do this is with a well-crafted proposal. Generally speaking, your proposal should include: The name of your campaign. A brief summary describing your idea. A quick description of your intended audience. An outline for how many posts you’ll create. Clear goals tied to specific performance metrics. If you’re running a smaller campaign, you might go into more detail and include an outline for each post in your campaign. For example, if you were running a contest, your post outline could look like this: First post: Campaign kickoff introducing the contest. Second post: A promotional post explaining that the contest is underway. Third post: Another promotional post telling your audience time to win is running out. Fourth post: One last post encouraging people to enter. Fifth post: A â€Å"contest closed† post letting people know you’ll be announcing a winner soon. If you’re planning an extremely high volume of posts, mapping out each one this way may not make sense. However, if it’s reasonable to do so, it can help you lay out a clear purpose for each post throughout your campaign. And doing things with purpose is why we’re investing in campaign planning in the first place, right? Recommended Reading: How to Quickly Build Social Media Proposals That Win Clients (Free Template) Putting Your Campaign Plan Into Action Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get the real work done. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Write Your Post Copy As you’re writing your social media posts, keep these things in mind: Do these posts need to be in sequential order? For example, if you’re running a contest, you might need posts announcing the start and end dates, plus more posts in between. Make sure your posts make sense within context of one another. Would this campaign benefit from using a hashtag? If so, would it be better to leverage an existing hashtag, or create one specific for this campaign? What sorts of visual content will these posts need? For each one, give your designer some kind of direction to work with. Make sure your post copy will match those images, too. It’s also important to craft unique messages for every social network. What works well might not be a good fit on Twitter, and so on. Write out each post either in a spreadsheet or word processor (the download bundle in this post includes a free spreadsheet for this purpose). For each post, include the following: Post copy Image direction A URL (if you'll be including a link) The post's order in your campaign A hypothetical example might look like this: Post 1 Copy: This is an #awesome social media post. Image: A person doing something awesome. URL: awesome-site.net/super-awesome Recommended Reading: This is How to Write for Social Media to Create the Best Posts A Few Writing Tips to Help Your Designer Out Assuming you’ll be creating images for your posts, we recommend having a writer put together image direction first. The two-person writer / designer team structure goes back to traditional advertising. Typically, a writer will sketch out an idea that a designer helps bring to life. If you have a designer on staff, this approach can help create a seamless workflow for your campaign creative. Sometimes, writers and designers can butt heads. This is sometimes the result of miscommunication. If you want to keep your designer happy, follow these tips: Be realistic about what your designer can accomplish. It’s easy for our imaginations to be bigger than what’s possible within our budget and timeline. If you’re not sure if your designer can create something, ask. Communicate your vision as clearly as possible. Be specific or don’t complain when the results don’t turn out how you would have liked. If your images need stats, charts, or graphs, provide that data. Let your designer know exactly what you're envisioning. If you find yourself struggling to explain your ideas for an image, consider using MS Paint (Windows) or Paintbrush (Mac) to make a rough sketch of what you’re thinking. It doesn’t have to be great, as long as it conveys what you’d like the end product to look like. Recommended Reading: How to Use Hashtags the Right Way on Every Network Then, Move Onto Creating Visual Content Once your copy is prepared, it’s time to create visual content. This could mean having a designer create images, or you might choose to shoot videos. Follow these tips for keeping everything consistent: Stick to one aesthetic. Use a consistent color scheme throughout your visual assets. Whether you choose photos or illustrations, consider sticking to one or the other. This will help give your campaign assets a consistent look. Stay on-brand. Ensure all visual content matches your company's brand standards. Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing Put All Your Posts Onto Your Social Media Calendar The next step is to drop all your content onto your social media calendar. If you're using a spreadsheet (or ), we recommend color-coding campaign content. This will make it easier to quickly see which posts belong to which campaign: This social media calendar template is included in this post's free template bundle. Recommended Reading: 2017 Social Media Marketing Calendar: How to Organize a Year of Content the Easy Way How Can Make Campaign Planning Easier? ’s Social Campaigns and Social Templates features make campaign planning and execution easy. Let’s look at how it works before we wrap up this post. Start by creating a new calendar item and create a new social campaign: Then, give your campaign a name and fill in the description field: Next, let’s apply a Social Template. These are reusable posting schedules you can build and save in . If you don’t have a social template you’d like to use, create a new one. Start by selecting +New Template. Then, click Create New: Give your new template a name and click Next: Then, start adding social helpers. You have three options here: Text Helpers Image Helpers Video Helpers These are essentially fields that allow you to create text, image, or video posts. Pretty self-explanatory so far here. Select one, and then give the template a name: Next, add your post content (leave this blank if you’d like to create a generic template to reuse later): Use the â€Å"Select a social profile †¦Ã¢â‚¬  dialogue box to choose a profile for each post. Then, select the day and time you’d like to schedule each post (or use Best Time Scheduling to automatically determine your optimal posting time): Repeat this process until you’ve added all your campaign content. Once your posts are scheduled, they'll appear on your calendar alongside all the rest of your content: Social messages can be toggled on or off to appear on your calendar. If you’re looking for a more detailed demonstration, this video breaks down how Social Campaigns work: Social Campaign Reports: Measure Social Campaign Performance in Once you've executed your campaign, it's time to measure your results. The easiest way to do this is with Social Campaign Reports in . This report makes it easy for your team to: Evaluate campaign performance across multiple networks (in one place). Unite campaign data from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest in one report. So you can gauge the success of your latest event promotion, product launch, or other specific campaigns across social media. Eliminate those â€Å"gut feelings† and use hard data to make strategic decisions. Get access to performance metrics that help you analyze trends, identify problem areas, and continually refine your social content. Quickly pinpoint correlations between two campaigns with side by side comparisons. Compare similar social campaigns or posts side-by-side to test what’s working (and what isn’t). So you can continually fine-tune your messaging for your evolving audience. AND create presentation-ready reports to share with your team and VPs.  Provide data-driven feedback to your employees and define your marketing decisions to your CEO with metrics and analysis people can actually understand. Learn more about how it works, or schedule a demo with our team to see it in action. Crush Your Next Social Media Campaign Planning out social media campaigns can sometimes feel like a waste of time. It isn’t. The better you plan, the better you’ll execute, and the greater returns you’ll see from your efforts. It’s time well spent, and now you have the knowledge and tools to do it right. What’s your top tip for planning social campaigns? Drop us a comment below and get the conversation started.