It has almost become a cliché to declare a formerly key facet of the industry ‘dead’: ‘email marketing is dead’, ‘direct mail is dead’, ‘outbound is dead’.

In the face of such change, marketers are shifting from a brand-outbound to a customer-inbound perspective, leading many to ask, ‘Is the campaign dead?’ Simply put: No. But it has changed.What a mess we marketers have made for ourselves. There is no question that technology has radically changed marketing over the last 10 years — the customer is clearly in charge. But I would argue that has as much to do with the lack of value in marketing (from the customer’s perspective) as it does the advances in technology that have made brands transparent. 

Look at it this way: Your new always-on approach is a campaign in itself, simply with no end date. It still must have a clear brief (grounded in customer insight), defined target audience(s), clear measurable goals, and a content strategy as part of a larger engagement plan. 

Many successful B2B CMOs have always run a form of always-on brand campaign throughout the year, supplementing it with a series of direct campaigns targeted to specific audiences. This hasn’t changed, but the lines are blurring.  Always-on campaigns are becoming less focused on brand and more focused on inbound inquiries. And direct campaigns may now include account-based marketing (ABM), especially if you are going after the big fish.

The key to this is integration. If marketing departments attempt to plan and execute always-on and ABM campaigns separately, the customer experience will no doubt suffer. Channels (yes, including social media), audience insights, conversations and content can and should be shared between them as part of the strategy, not treated as campaigns within themselves. 

So keep on with your campaigns, but make sure they are genuinely customer centric, with a strategy that allows your marketing to be proactive versus reactive. Or you may end up chasing your tail!