Web-based advertisements, email marketing and social media...oh my! With so many ways to promote your products or services nowadays, planning out your marketing strategy can be a challenging, drawn-out process.
From more traditional methods, such as print ads, to sharing on newfangled social media sites, marketing just isn’t what it was back in the good ole days. Or the days when all you had to worry about was how much space you had to advertise on a billboard.
This is where an integrated marketing strategy comes into play. Utilizing integrated marketing communications can help your company clearly communicate your marketing message to a larger audience.
What Is An Integrated Marketing Strategy?
So, what the heck is an integrated marketing strategy anyway? Well, since you asked nicely, an integrated marketing strategy, or integrated marketing communications (IMC), is the delivery of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and nontraditional marketing channels. By combining various promotional methods, businesses can ensure that their target audience is reached no matter where and how they are consuming information. Long story short, an integrated marketing plan prevents an “all your eggs in one basket” or “siloed” approach to marketing because let’s be real, it’s unlikely that focusing all of your budget and efforts on any one channel is going produce the results and marketing ROI you need.
When done well, an integrated marketing strategy offers numerous benefits and opportunities for marketers:
- Builds trust - An integrated marketing approach can help build trust in your products or services. If customers encounter your marketing message on a regular basis across a variety of channels, it will give them a sense of familiarity with your business, and they’ll be more willing to put their trust in you.
- Sets you apart from the competition - Developing a successful integrated marketing strategy can blow the competition out of the water. Each marketing channel gives you a unique opportunity to clearly communicate your branding, voice and value and differentiates your company from the competition.
- Attracts more customers - An effective integrated marketing plan increases brand visibility and drives traffic to your website. Each time your customers see your brand and message, it’s reinforced in their minds. So, when they’re finally ready to make a purchase, they will be more likely to do business with you.
- Creates a cohesive identity - All the different marketing items work together to create a seamless branding experience. Customers are able to see a clear connection between your website, your email, your Facebook account and so on, recognizing a uniform visual brand identity.
Now that you know how effective integrated marketing communications can be, we’re sure you want to get started. Right? But before you begin, you need to understand what works and what doesn’t work when planning out your marketing efforts.
A successful integrated marketing plan isn’t created overnight. It takes considerable time and resources. Before you rush into anything, consider these pointers for developing an effective integrated marketing strategy. You won’t regret it.
Tips For An Effective Integrated Marketing Strategy
While there’s no magic formula for planning the perfect integrated marketing strategy, there are definite steps you can take to increase your chances of success.
1) Identify your target audience - Who is your ideal customer? Who is most likely to buy from you? It’s important to build buyer personas to gain a better understanding of your target audience, their demographics, interests, pain points and challenges, motivations and so on, before you can figure out the best communication channels to focus on, the key message you want to develop and the content they may be interested in.
2) Pick your communication channels - The identity of your ideal customer will determine the marketing channels you use to reach them. What social media websites are your target customers active on? Do they prefer visual content? Do they frequent blogs? Are they reading print publications? You need to answer all of these questions before deciding on the most effective channels. Not everyone is going to be on Facebook or LinkedIn or reading magazines, so it makes sense to concentrate on the channels that are worth your time and effort.
3) Create a consistent look - Creating a visual brand identity means more than just placing your logo everywhere. Customers should see a clear visual connection between your print materials, website, emails and even your Facebook account. All of your marketing efforts should have the same feel or overarching design, whether that means using the same color scheme, fonts, graphics style, etc.
4) Communicate a clear marketing message - Every aspect of your integrated marketing strategy, whether it be a blog or social media post, an eBook, a Spotify radio ad, or your website homepage should send a clear, consistent branding message. You should never leave the customer unsure about the most ideal next step to take, your company’s who/what/how/why, or your ability to help them. Make sure there is always a call to action or an actionable directive to the message.
5) Measure your results - How can you know your integrated marketing approach is effective if you don’t analyze the results? You can’t. Measuring the results of your marketing activities is crucial. It allows you to see what’s working well, what you could have done better and any changes you need to implement in the future. Take the time to look at website visits, traffic sources, conversion rates, click through rates, new blog subscribers, email subscriptions and whatever other metrics indicate success for your specific marketing plan.
We never said developing an effective marketing strategy was easy, but it is essential for any business that wants to maximize visibility, awareness, recurring revenue opportunities and brand recognition. An integrated marketing approach enables you to reach qualified prospective customers, increasing both your sales revenue and marketing ROI.
Does the thought of actually doing all of these things an integrated marketing strategy requires leave you feeling exhausted and stressed? It’s understandable but know that you have resources who can help you. Marketing agencies like Stratus Interactive work tirelessly to help companies like yours implement the kind of plan we are talking about. If you want to find an agency that can help you, use this free guide, 7 Tips for Selecting the Right Marketing Agency, to make sure you choose a marketing partner ideal for you unique needs.
