In today’s interconnected world, successful marketing efforts incorporate an integrated approach. Historically, integrated marketing meant creating a campaign that might span TV, radio and print ads — but cooperation among platforms often ended there.
The internet and social media — along with consumer demands for immediate gratification and information — now mean that marketing efforts must span all avenues available to you. Along with social media, you’ll want to consider a variety of other methods of reaching your target audiences, including public relations, advertising, video content, blogs, newsletters and promotional events.
What should integrated marketing entail, and how can it help support your business goals?
Integrated marketing defined
For most organizations, the overriding goal of marketing is bringing in qualified leads and making sales. Integrated marketing combines various news and traditional approaches — including both inbound and outbound strategies — to make the lead-gathering process more effective.
When you make integrated marketing part of your business strategy, you work with your marketing agency to marry various methods — including personalized and broader approaches. By joining forces and unifying your efforts, you make the total marketing effort stronger than the sum of its parts.
Integrated marketing also includes effective use of data that you and your agency gather in each stage of your sales process. Customer service shares information with product development and distribution — and vice versa.
Making use of integrated marketing
How can you use integrated marketing to support your overall business goals? First, work with your agency to take stock of all the marketing efforts you’re already using, along with the resources you have available.
Your agency can assist you in developing strategies to leverage each marketing channel more effectively, as part of the bigger picture. For instance, if you’re planning a live event to demonstrate products and services to potential customers, you’ll want to incorporate various methods for promoting the event.
Well in advance, you might post an announcement on your website and create an article for your newsletter, and you might create a series of print, TV and radio ads. You might begin using appropriate social media platforms to generate buzz, personally contact influencers to make sure they’ll attend, and periodically drop enticing hints about giveaways and other special attractions.
After your event, you might use methods such as email marketing or direct phone calls to follow up with prospective customers. You also could consider creating followup articles and social media postings to help spark interest for the next event.
With integrated marketing, no channel is necessarily superior to another — and none are necessarily obsolete. Newer forms of marketing, such as social media, join with traditional methods like advertising and PR to create a unified message — and a means for reaching your potential customers in a variety of ways.
How can you begin incorporating an integrated approach into your marketing program? Consider these steps:
- Work with an agency with significant experience in integrated marketing concepts and methods.
- Conduct a thorough review of your past and current marketing efforts to identify areas for potential integration.
- Take steps to improve areas that need work. For example, if you lack a presence on specific social media platforms that may prove effective for reaching your existing and prospective customers, you’ll need to begin posting content and engaging with users.
- Work with your agency to develop a long-term integrated marketing approach, ensuring that all available marketing channels work together for maximum — and most cost-effective — results.
- Ask your agency to set initial benchmarks and collect data to measure the effectiveness of your integrated marketing efforts.
A holistic approach
The holistic approach of integrated marketing techniques offers consistency and increased effectiveness of your marketing efforts. By considering every marketing channel available to you — and how they can all work together — you ensure that you’re putting the right resources toward the right message. Integrated marketing can help you gain confidence in your marketing program and the best use of your marketing budget.
The post What is integrated marketing, and how can it support your business goals? appeared first on Walker Marketing | Digital Agency | Internet Marketing | Web Design | Concord, NC.
