Back in September, I became a Litmus-certified marketer. This was the result of a few month's worth of webinars, a project to test and show my campaign-building thinking, and $450 I was able to expense through work as continued education. While I don't know what this certification will mean in the years to come, I like Litmus, I like doing things first (🙃), and I was glad for the opportunity to be a part of the program.

Anyway, also in September, I tweeted that I would share my project publicly soon. Well, it's December and I'm just now posting it. But time is human-made and "soon" is relative, so better later than never.

Why I'm sharing this

Before getting to the prompt and the project, I want to say a bit about why I'm sharing this publicly in the first place.

It's not because I think what I've done here is spectacular or that my way of thinking is the best way. I don't. It's not even my best work (I have feelings about the idea of "best work" and what capitalism robs us of, but that's a conversation for another time).

My approach to the prompt below is just that—my approach. Other people might do it differently and that's great. We're different people and we think differently.

Instead, I'm sharing it because:

• it might help newer folks to the industry learn—and if so, I'll call that a win
• I needed blog content
• Transparency is important and secrecy about this sort of thing is a tool of capitalism

The project prompt

I'm not going to share the full prompt out of respect to Litmus, but here's the gist: we were given three potential business scenarios to choose from and instructed to create a full campaign plan for one of them.

For what it's worth, all three were out of my comfort zone. I've spent my career so far in tech, working in-house doing lifecycle for financial institutions and now for a SAAS product. The scenarios were about a direct-to-consumer retail brand, a brick-and-mortar store, and a nonprofit. Which is to say, this was new for me.

At a high level, the campaign plan needed to include:

• a full launch plan
• tactics and deliverables
• the team required
• what a post-campaign review would look like

So, without further adieu, here's my project as-submitted (with minor edits where appropriate).

Sarah's Litmus certification project

What's included here:

Context (I made the prompt my own)

Launch plan

• Goals
• What's included
• Team
• Deliverables and owners
• Timeline/project plan

Deliverables

• Product page
• Emails
• Social
• Direct mail

Post-campaign review template

Context

Sick Hair is a direct-to-consumer hair product brand that specializes in affordable hair and beauty products designed specifically for chronically ill people—so they can play while avoiding allergens and without using too much energy.

Given the organic and preservative-free nature of some of our products, the shelf life isn’t longer than a few months. We’re launching a monthly subscription box with smaller sizes of our custom shampoo, conditioner, one styling product, and a product from an independent creator each month.

This subscription box will help us better serve the needs of our chronically ill community, highlight new creators, and help us create a sustainable business.

Subscription Box Launch Plan

Launch date: October 6, 2020

Goals for the first 2 weeks of launch

1. 500 subscriptions
2. 250 new social followers
3. 50 video and selfie submissions (see rest of plan)
4. Increased word-of-mouth sharing
5. Demonstrably improve the lives of our chronically ill customers

Note: I’ve specifically kept email sign-ups out of the goals, because I never aim to have a goal of email sign-ups for the sake of it. If folks purchase and explicitly opt in to emails at purchase, great! But I’d rather focus on conversion and building the social community than growing the email list on this one.

What's included

We have two things running in tandem here:

1. The actual launch of the subscription box
2. To hype the subscription and also to gain some social/word-of-mouth traction, we’ll also be introducing an Instagram/Twitter series of getting ready videos and finished look selfies

Team

• Product marketing: overall launch direction
• Lifecycle marketing: emails + direct mail
• Community management: social media
• Brand design: asset creation and website management
• Customer support agent: no tasks, just informed
• Orders + fulfillment: no tasks, just informed
• Head of marketing: no tasks, just informed

Deliverables and owners, by channel

I initially had this section organized as a table, but I can't make a table in Webflow CMS, so I've listed the info out below.

Website

Owner: Product marketing manager

• Subscription box product page copy

Email

Owner: Lifecycle marketing manager

• Box announce w/ A/B test
• Subscription welcome

Direct mail

Owner: Lifecycle marketing manager

• Sample box with handwritten note to our 100 best customers to thank them for their support so far

Instagram/Twitter

Owner: Community manager

• 5 getting ready video posts (+ creation of videos)
• 5 finished look selfie posts
• Posts about how to submit your own
• Sharing customer videos and selfies to our Story/RTing them when on Twitter

All

Owner: Brand designer

• Graphics for email
• Direct mail card design
• Product page design + build

Timeline/project plan

I initially organized this section with a series of tables, showing tasks and sub-tasks as they might be organized in Asana or a similar tool. But, again, no table functionality in Webflow CMS, so instead: lists.

Project kickoff

Date: August 24, 2020
Assignee: Product marketing

Product page

• Copy draft
  Date: September 2, 2020
  Assignee: Product marketing
• Team copy review
  Date: September 4, 2020
  Assignee: All
• Copy finalized
  Date: September 9, 2020
  Assignee: Product marketing
• Design draft
  Date: September 16, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Design review
  Date: September 18, 2020
  Assignee: Product marketing
• Final design
  Date: September 23, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Build ready for QA
  Date: September 30, 2020
  Assignee: All
• Build complete
  Date: October 2, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design

Emails (both)

• Copy/audience drafted
  Date: September 2, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing
• Team copy/audience review
  Date: September 4, 2020
  Assignee: All
• Copy/audience finalized
  Date: September 9, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing
• Design draft
  Date: September 16, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Design review
  Date: September 18, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing
• Final design
  Date: September 23, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Build ready for QA
  Date: September 30, 2020
  Assignee: All
• Build complete
  Date: October 2, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design

Getting ready videos

• First video cut and template
  Date: September 4, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• First video team review
  Date: September 9, 2020
  Assignee: All
• First video final version
  Date: September 11, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• Remaining four video cuts
  Date: September 18, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• Team review
  Date: September 23, 2020
  Assignee: All
• All videos finalized
  Date: September 30, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• Social post copy w/ submission info ready
  Date: October 2, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager

Finished look selfies

• Call for staff selfies in Slack
  Date: September 2, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• Review and choose selfies
  Date: September 23, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• Final selfies cropped and slated for posting
  Date: September 30, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager
• Social post copy w/ submission info ready
  Date: October 2, 2020
  Assignee: Community manager

Thank you sample boxes

• Card insert design draft
  Date: September 4, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Card insert team review
  Date: September 9, 2020
  Assignee: All
• Design finalized
  Date: September 11, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Cards printed
  Date: September 22, 2020
  Assignee: Brand design
• Staff signup for card writing - post in Slack
  Date: September 11, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing
• Card writing assignment + schedule
  Date: September 16, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing
• Card writing days
  Date: September 24–30, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing
• Ship packages
  Date: October 2, 2020
  Assignee: Lifecycle marketing

Deliverables

Product page

Copy structure

• Headline
• Description: 1-2 sentences about what makes this box special
• Breakdown of each product included, including ingredients
• Linked tags for skin conditions/illness the products are helpful for
• CTA to add to cart
  

Imagery (all w/ alt text)

• Photos of each product and labels
• 3-5 employee selfies
• Icons for linked tags

Emails

Announce w/ A/B test

Hypothesis for test

‍Customizing the announce email with information we already know based on previous purchases and interests quiz will result in more clicks to the product page, as well as more actual subscriptions.

Metrics

• Click:open ratio - deciding metric
• Subscriptions - deciding metric
• Open rate - health metric
• Unsubscribe rate - health metric‍

‍Audience

Anyone who has placed an order in the last 6 months who we have consent to email.

For people we have interest data for:

• Control of no customization
• Variant of customization of showing the products relevant to them.

No test for people we don't have interest data for.

Draft copy

From: Sick Hair, hello@loveyour.sickhair.com

Subject A/B:

• Introducing the sickest of monthly boxes
• New: Sick Hair monthly boxes
• Sick hair, all month long

Preview text: Get your favorite Sick Hair products delivered right to your door each month.

[imagery with personalized products]

The finally here, [name]!

Get your fave Sick Hair products, like [their shampoo] and [their conditioner] delivered to your door each month for just [price]. Plus, try  something new, like [box product that aligns with their needs].

Button copy: Check out Sick Hair Box

Box welcome

Audience

‍Customers who sign up for the box.

Draft copy

From: Sick Hair, hello@loveyour.sickhair.com

Subject: Welcome to your sickest hair yet

Preview text: Make your new subscription your own

We’re so glad you’re here, [name]!

Our team is assembling your box, complete with [product list] now, and we’ll send you an email when it ships.

Helpful management info for the meantime:

• [instructions to customize future boxes]
• [other management box info]
  

Plus: we’d love to see the looks you come up with! Share your getting ready and finished look selfies on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #SickHairDay for a chance to be featured!

-with love, the entire Sick Hair team

Social

Notes:

• 1-2 sentences introing them w/ their handle and fact about them
• List products they use
• Include info for how people can submit their own
  

Direct mail

Notes:

• Standard first month box with their usual products
• 3-4 sentence handwritten note thanking them for their support thus far
• Include a short url for the product page

Post-campaign review template

These notes will be stored in Asana and in our campaign folder in Dropbox Paper for review later.

Attendees

• All involved in the campaign
• Someone from the customer support team
• Someone from the orders and fulfillment team
• Head of marketing
• Facilitator and note-taker (ideally someone not connected to the project but with working knowledge of it, so all participating can fully participate)

Brief timeline of events

What happened and when.

Metrics

Review campaign goals

How did we do against our original campaign goals?

Review channel metrics

Email

• Open rate
• Click:open
• Conversion rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Opt-in growth

Instagram

• Follows
• Likes
• Story reshares (estimate)
• Hashtag usage (estimate)

Twitter

• Follows
• Likes
• RTs
• Hashtage usage (estimate)

Direct mail

• Subscription box orders

Product page

• Time on page
• Conversion
• SEO

What went well?

What went really well about this campaign and where did we excel?

What didn’t go well?

What didn’t we do as great of a job at? Be kind. Avoid “should’ve” to help avoid bias, and instead be future-thinking.

What will we do differently next time?

A list of things that could be improved upon the next time we run a campaign of this scale.

Action items

A list of actionable takeaways from this meeting that we can assign people and dates to.