How do you make decisions about the order in which different tactics go live on each channel within the larger campaign strategy?

Your buyer's journey as well as your demand funnel, play a key role in this decision.

• First set of channels & tactics: A rule of thumb that has worked for me when launching a campaign is to select the channel(s) that provide the widest audience reach. I've consistently observed that 'Audience reach' & 'Frequency of reach' have had a clear impact on overall campaign performance (qualified lead volume and pipeline). 

But the way I think about 'Reach' is that it is a necessary, not a sufficient condition. 

So what else matters? Curating the right 'offers', and the right 'format'.

For example, Linkedin (the channel) offers a reasonable reach per month for most B2B SaaS players. What offer you choose to launch the campaign with is equally important? Should it be a global virtual summit headlined by Top influencers or a Playbook with interviews from well-regarded industry practitioners? Here two very different offers are served on the same channel. 

• Next set of channels & tactics: As you start thinking about the Demand capture phase of your campaign, you'll work with channels that reach fewer audiences. These channels include SEO, Paid Search, In-product journey, SDR engagement, etc. Most of these channels involve high-effort, and a high-volume of output, so prioritization is key. A way to allocate budgets toward these channels is by prioritizing them by reach, expected buyer engagement & intent.

It is important to recognize that the B2B buying cycle is not linear. Various buyers can be in different stages of the buying cycle and the best way to address this is to have:

1. Always-on tactics such as paid search, paid social, and email nurture. These are by nature evergreen campaigns and must be optimized quarterly or based on performance
2. Time-sensitive tactics such as webinars, tradeshows and in-person and online BOF events such as executive round tables

That said, it is important to have the MOF/BOF tactics such as email nurture and SDR outreach sequences live before you launch paid media campaigns. This will ensure the right follow-ups are triggered the moment the first content lead or the first demo lead or the first event lead hits the CRM.

This question is very similar to a prior response I provided for the question: What factors affect the timing between different tactics going live?

From my perspective, this shouldn’t be approached in a “one size fits all” mindset or formulated approach. This has to be tailored to your campaign’s goals and your target audience. Performance data needs to be monitored and you should respond based on what’s working and what’s not working. I do not recommend a “set it and forget it” approach. Keep your eyes on the data and how customers and prospects are responding.

Alignment of channels and the customer journey will be critical too. Depending on your specific customer journey, the order of tactics may need to differ.

Lastly, I highly recommend approaching this from an experimentation mindset. Continue to iterate and respond to the data. Just because an order of channels or a strategy is set, does not mean it can’t be improved upon in real time.