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Integrating Your Marketing Efforts
By Sandra Pearce, MPA Media Marketing Coordinator
Over time, your business and technologies will change, but the one thing that will never change is this – marketing is critical to the success of your business. Regardless of your business type, product or services, a lack of consistent communication with your current and future customers can cost you in the long run. As people's information gathering habits change and evolve with technology's advancements, we as marketers must change and evolve the way we communicate with them.
If you're like most business owners and decision makers, you likely have a set marketing budget. With no money to waste, your main goal is to get the most for your marketing investment. If increasing your ROI appeals to you, then consider an integrated marketing strategy.
Before you can determine how to structure your integrated campaign, let's first answer this question: "What is integrated marketing?" Simply put, it is targeting the same audience in more than one media platform with the same branded message. This creates the synergy that is at the core of a successful integrated campaign. The answer may seem simple, but implementing this strategy is critical.
Market research consistently shows that online advertising is a good way to boost brand impact but print advertising is still as relevant as ever. Experts tell us that media combinations create synergy and synergy creates momentum. The bottom line is that there is strength in numbers – using multiple media platforms together has greater impact than an individual medium on its own. Utilizing additional ways to communicate your brand and product values has even greater impact.
In a mass marketing environment, using these types of advertising venues is very effective. Translating this same philosophy to a targeted market focus requires finding the right media platforms. Once you find them, the rest is implementation. The same product, the same message, the same branded communication, to the same person using different delivery methods is what integration is all about.
What does integration do for your company and your products? According to experts, it leads to a 50% higher recognition rate. And we, as marketers, know that recognition lowers barriers to sales by increasing brand awareness. That means that as soon as a prospective customer has a need or desire for a product like yours, your company is the one they think of and the one they call.
Let's use the example of driving home from work. As you drive along the highway, you see a billboard. You see it, but you might not recall what it said a few miles later. You turn on the radio and hear a commercial for the same product that was advertised on the billboard you just passed. You hear it, but may not have a full recollection of the product or message. You get home and turn on the evening news and a commercial is on. It's for the same product advertised on the billboard you just saw and in the radio commercial you just heard. Now it registers and you realize you just saw the same thing on a billboard and heard about it on the radio.
Here is what successful integration can add to your marketing campaigns:
Momentum – Consumers gather bits of data about products and services from different sources to construct the whole picture. Each impression builds on the other by reaching the consumer in a different way and at a different time in the buying cycle. If the message and branding are consistent across various online and offline advertising media, the repetition will capture and retain the consumer's attention, increasing your chances of getting the sale.
Relationship Building – A well planned integrated campaign focuses on three elements; audience, media and message. Integrating mediums increases the number of "touch-points" with the customer, resulting in a stronger relationship. Relationships lead to repeat business and referrals.
Once you find advertising mediums that your current and future customers are consistently reading or visiting, communicate a consistent message with them through as many touch points as possible. The touch points include print, Web, e-mail, inserts and online events such as Webcasts. Each touch point is an opportunity to create a connection, communicate your value propositions, build a relationship and ultimately, make the sale.
Sandra Pearce
Marketing Coordinator
MPA Media
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