First off, keep in mind that a campaign should be in broad strokes. Adventures should be the more developed pieces of campaigns. These instructions will give you the basics of your setting, adventure flavor, and how influential players and PC actions are to the campaign.
I go through several choices, in this order:
defining features, party/plot motivator, adventures' flavor, and Player influence
1. What kind of campaign do you want? Defining features.
For Cloudy with a Chance of Death, my original decision was to bring in the weather, since it's a topic that I thought could be fun but many DMs avoid. Here are a few topics to choose from, which in no way represent all of the defining campaign features you can choose from: God campaigns, dungeon crawls, magic gone awry, plane-hopping, dragons, someone is trying to take over the world, survival, horror, dreams.
2. What drives the plot or party? Plot/Party Motivator.
This might be what your party will typically be fighting against, such as "monsters" for a dungeon crawl or "undead" for a crazed mage campaign. It could also be something they have to protect, destroy, or simply something that motivates others in the campaign to an extent that the party is drawn in. In Cloudy with a Chance of Death, it was a half-broken weather machine designed to keep the crazy, magical weather in the main setting from making it unlivable. There were missing pieces, which lots of groups were searching for at any given time, including patrons of the party.
3. What kind of adventures do you want? Flavor of adventures.
Not every adventure need fall under the category you designate, but I find that having a category shapes the feel of the campaign. Then I know where I'm going with my adventures later on. The choices are more or less endless. For Cloudy with a Chance of Death, I chose two flavors: political intrigue and backstory (both of the PCs and the setting). You can choose anything from the ever-classic "creative monster deployment" (brush up on the Monster Manuals) to creepiness/thriller (check out Heroes of Horror).
4. How will your players interact with the world? Player influence.
Now you decide how much influence the players have on the plot and setting. Want to designate world-building? Have them develop their country of origin. Want them to self-design adventure hooks? Make it a backstory campaign. On the flipside, if you don't want the campaign to change much from your plans, don't ask the players for a backstory.
Keep in mind that player/character influence can range from absolute (in a sandbox) to meaningless (in a pre-set or railroad campaign). Most players prefer something between the two, and it's up to you as DM to figure out what will work best for them and you. Don't mistake monster-bashing campaigns for inherently choiceless campaigns, however. To inject more choices, let your party choose which dungeon- or, for that matter, forest, cave, or mountaintop- which door to go through, which foes, and give them a rich selection of weapons and tools to buy when the come into down.
Now your campaign skeleton is designed! It may feel like you haven't filled in a lot, and to some extent, you haven't. There's still world-building and adventure creation, which aren't campaigns but are, of course, crucial to them. Now you have the skeleton inside which they will fit. Good luck!
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