Today’s advertisers are spoiled for choice. In the earlier days, it was just print or out-of-home advertising. Today there are numerous channels available like TV, internet, mobile devices, and many other ways and traditional media. One can safely assume that almost all customers will regularly see at least two or three of these channels. Such increased viewing means that companies will get a broader audience to convey messages. However, there is the danger of being inconsistent in different media. Integrated marketing helps to send the same messages on all the platforms.
What Is Integrated Marketing Strategy?
An integrated marketing strategy delivers unified and consistent messages across all the channels that a company uses. This will ensure that wherever customers interact with the company, they will get the same message. Whether they look at a company’s website, talk to their representatives or visit an exclusive showroom, buyers will see continuity all through. They will see the same message being conveyed at all touchpoints with the firm. It takes an intentional effort to ensure that customers see the same communication everywhere.
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Suppose a customer sees a new brand on Instagram. Out of interest, the person visits the firm’s website and finds a different message being conveyed there. This will create confusion in the person’s mind, and they will decide not to proceed further. They will find it difficult to understand what the brand is all about. Integrated marketing strategy eliminates such disparities and ensures the alignment of all marketing campaigns across various channels. This strategy helps multi-channel marketing present the same idea across all media.
Now that we have understood what integrated marketing is, we must understand why it is essential for businesses. All marketing courses deal with this subject extensively. One can join such online marketing courses through ed-tech platforms like Talentedge, which offers courses from all reputed institutions.
Importance of Integrated Marketing Strategy
All organizations advertise with a single aim of getting a place in the customers’ minds. But a customer sees an innumerable number of ads in various channels in a day. Hardly a fraction of these will be remembered a day later. One way to ensure that customers remember a brand for a long time is to expose them to the same messages on different channels. Someone who has seen a billboard is more likely to remember the product name if he or she sees the same message online or on TV.
Campaign performance improves when there is consistency in them across different media. Integrated marketing campaigns help to save money. Companies can use the same content in other channels. The message can be included in the company’s brochures also. Companies can also give salespersons the same narrative to convey to customers. There is no need to create multiple contents, and this saves money. Brand management courses teach that when customers see the same message, they become familiar with it, improving their experience with the brand.
Trust is vital for brands. People should start trusting a product if they must buy it. When customers see the same messages in all channels, they develop trust in the product. When a person gets interested in an item and visits the company website, seeing similar words and color schemes helps build familiarity. This will result in better trust in the product. If an organization mentions the same features in all product brochures, they will stay in a person’s mind for long as they don’t have to remember too many things.
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How Do Companies Benefit By Integrated Marketing?
Better Reach
The success of all marketing activities depends on how many people have seen or heard them. It is the reach that counts the most. An integrated promotion enables companies to meet the customers where they are. When the same message is sent through different channels, you get the maximum coverage. People who spend more time on TV see the ads. Those who have their faces buried in their laptops will also get the same message. As these ads are played on mobile phones also, there is hardly anyone who it does not affect.
Better Frequency
Many studies prove that a person’s average attention span is only eight seconds. Marketing courses from IIM Lucknow teach that someone must see an ad at least seven times before taking any action. Integrated campaigns are launched on all channels, and marketing experts can expect that someone will see them in different media. When they see the same messages so many times, they will try to know about the products. This is one step towards becoming a customer.
Consistency Improves Trust
Today’s customers don’t stop with checking about a product in one channel. They look at the product on various platforms. Many people check the websites and social media accounts of a company before making any decision. If they find different aspects of a product mentioned in other channels, companies will lose their trust. With integrated marketing, the message is the same, improving their confidence in the company and its products.
Doing More With Less
Integrated campaigns help companies to save money. Having the same messages in all campaigns helps to repurpose their assets. This means that they don’t have to create different content for each channel. All the company has to do is make minor changes to suit each channel. Repackaging the same content and promoting through different media helps to reach a much larger audience. Companies can get more leads at a reduced cost in this method.
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How To Create An Integrated Marketing Campaign?
While an integrated campaign is great for getting good brand recall, it must be created properly to get the desired results. There are many steps to this, and they must be followed precisely for achieving the best returns. MICA branding and marketing courses explain in detail how one must develop an integrated marketing campaign.
1. Set Campaign Goals
The first step in any marketing campaign is to set the goals. For some companies, it may be the introduction of a new product or service. Many companies also rebrand a product after some years due to changes in trends among customers. There are other goals like choosing a new positioning for the product. Whatever it may be, this must be fixed. The goals must be specific and reachable. They must also be measurable so that one can know the success of the campaign. There must also be a timeline for achieving these goals.
Another critical thing to note is that the goals must relate to important KPIs and their metrics. Increased traffic and engagement are crucial key performance indicators. Companies must also see that the campaigns have the necessary impact on customers and improve engagement. A company must also certainly focus on how much sales result from marketing activity. This is what will impact the bottom line of a company. Marketing teams must also decide on the metrics on which they will measure performance. These can be page views, time on a page, or click-throughs.
2. Choose Channels To Achieve Goals
Marketing courses teach that not all channels are suitable to achieve all goals. If a company wants to establish a new logo, there is no point in using radio as a channel. There must be a visual impact, and radio doesn’t provide this. If a company is expanding its operations to a new area, it must use more local media like radio, billboards, or local TV channels. What is most important is to know what you are trying to achieve through a campaign. Understanding the goals clearly can help choose the suitable medium.
There are various ways in which a company can convey its message. It can advertise in print and use pay-per-click ads. Direct marketing or selling is also a way to send across what organizations want to share. Email and social media are excellent channels to reach out to the target audience. Conducting events or printing the new message on product packaging are methods to improve brand recall in customers’ minds. Marketing teams must look at which channels are working and remove those not effective and add new ones.
3. Define Buyer Persona For Every Channel
All products have buyer personas associated with them. Defining these personas is very important to create targeted marketing campaigns. But not all channels are suitable for all types of customers. Radio or print ads may work better with older people, while YouTube videos will help capture the younger crowd’s attention. When creating a persona, companies must specify which channels are going to be used for each persona. There could be some overlapping, but this is an important step.
Brand management courses recommend two ways to do this. Companies can choose the channels and then associate them with suitable buyer personas. But there are some cases where the target audience is already fixed. In these instances, the most suitable channel can be attached to the buyer. This step helps to separate the messages according to buyers and channels. Such discrimination will help to make the communication more focused.
4. Appoint Channel Managers
When starting a multi-channel campaign, it is necessary to have a manager for each channel. Someone should be identified to take the responsibility of a specific channel. This helps in better management and ensuring the heightened focus of the campaign. If there is only a small team, then one person can handle more than one channel. But companies must ensure that these people are not overwhelmed by the amount of work they must do. This will dilute the efforts, and the results will not be as desired.
These managers will be responsible for everything about that channel. They will identify the target audience for the channel. The managers will be experts of that channel and know how to make the posts most effective. These persons will optimize their campaigns to get the best results. The promotions will be tailored according to the channel and the content. They will make sure that the message that reaches the customer will be the same in all media.
5. Create Marketing Assets
Now that the groundwork has been done for starting a campaign, it is time to work on the content for marketing. One would need to create designs, images, blogs, videos, and sound bites. One must prepare these, keeping in mind specific guidelines. The colors, themes, language, typography, taglines, and logo must be standard. All content must talk about the same pain points and goals. The idea is to maintain continuity across channels which is the idea behind integrated marketing strategies.
Another important aspect to be noted is adaptability. Marketing courses from IIM Lucknow insist that assets must be created so that they can be used in all channels. They must also look good in all media. Some logos look good online but don’t have much appeal when printed. Such designs should be avoided. Creating assets that can be repurposed makes the work much easier and also keeps the theme consistent. One must also ensure that the blogs are written in a manner that will be appealing to the different buyer personas one is targeting.
6. Collect The Leads
Not all campaigns are run for getting leads. Many companies conduct awareness campaigns just to make people know about their brands. But ultimately, all companies want sales, which can happen only if some of the target audience become leads. Before launching the campaign, there must be a clear idea about how to collect the leads. There are many ways to get prospective customers to become leads. Companies can use any of the call-to-action methods to get people to commit to the brand.
Many companies offer helpful content when customers input their details on the website. Collecting email addresses and telephone numbers is one way to do it. Others make special offers that can be availed by revealing their details. Another way to attract customers is by getting them to subscribe to the company’s newsletter. Once companies get the information, this must be followed by email communication to the leads. Sales teams must be brought in at this time for further follow-up.
7. Launch And Assess The Campaign
Once everything is ready, it is time to launch the campaign. But it is not the end of the process. A campaign will end only once it has given the desired results, and then there is nothing more to gain from it. Once the campaign is launched, it is time to measure the KPIs. Whether it is getting leads, creating brand awareness, or rebranding, measuring the associated KPIs and seeing how the campaign is performing is necessary. Many tools help measure the success of marketing campaigns.
MICA branding and marketing courses want companies to look at both failures and successes. Some campaigns will succeed in one channel but not give the desired results in other channels. Certain campaigns will only be effective with some customer groups. What is essential is to learn from the failures. You can use the lessons you learn in subsequent marketing programs. The assessment should be done as often as possible so that you can optimize the efforts wherever possible to improve the results.
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Understanding Smart Goals
It is common knowledge that if the goals are not set correctly, no campaign will succeed. One must know how to set the goals in a way that is both achievable and measurable. Such goals are called Smart Goals, and these help significantly in making a marketing campaign successful. Smart goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. One will have a clear objective instead of something vague. It will also be measurable, so you can know how successful the campaign was.
Examples Of Smart Goals
Increasing Blog Traffic
When the campaign is intended to increase traffic to a blog, marketing teams can do it by increasing the frequency of publication of blogs. But many companies keep the goal as just “an increase in publishing frequency.” Smart goal practices dictate that it must be specific with numbers. One must decide that the “frequency of publishing will rise from x numbers to x+n numbers.” There must also be a specific deadline set for this. This makes it easier to measure and find out the effectiveness.
Increase Social Media Following
Social media following is becoming increasingly important for companies. It is an excellent way to engage with prospective and existing customers. One of the ways to attract customers is by posting videos about products on Facebook. Increasing the views for these videos is vital for raising brand awareness. Companies must set a fixed percentage increase in views when setting Smart goals instead of just looking at some growth. They must also fix a deadline for achieving this higher rate of viewing.
Get More Traffic To Websites
When more people visit a company website, there are more chances of conversion. Various factors contribute to bringing people to the site. One of them is a high ranking on the search results page. Backlinks are an excellent way to achieve this as Google considers this an important aspect for ranking websites. Companies must look at their backlinks and fix the number of links they want to increase per week. Such a targeted action can help to bring more people to the site and subsequently increase sales.
The above are just a few examples of smart goals companies must set for themselves as part of the integrated marketing campaign. These goals are measurable and serve an excellent purpose.
Integrated marketing consists of various components. As there is a race towards gaining dominance in the online space, let us see the digital elements necessary for executing your integrated marketing campaign.
Website
A website is where people get to know about a company and its products. It is like a showroom. The only difference is that there is nobody to clear doubts that a customer might have. This means that the website must contain all the necessary information a prospective buyer will seek. One must anticipate the questions a person can have and provide the answers on the website.
One of the main reasons why people don’t go through a website fully is its design fault. When people are unable to navigate smoothly through all the pages, they leave it halfway. It is essential that the website is designed ideally to make the journey through it smooth. One must ensure to provide a visitor the best experience while they are on the site. The content, of course, must be of the highest quality.
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SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Marketing doesn’t happen if people don’t visit the site. Having a website is not enough for people to know about your company or its products. They must be aware of the site and visit it. This can happen only if those searching for products on the search engine can see the website link on the search results page. This is possible only if the search engine considers a website to be relevant to the search query.
SEO is a set of activities aimed at giving a website the qualities required for search engines to consider it as matching a search phrase or keywords. When doing SEO, all the faults with the site are removed. The SEO experts also create links to the site from other relevant pages that prospective customers will visit. When search engine optimization is done successfully, a website’s link will appear on the first page of search results.
Videos
Everyone knows that there is no better way to influence a person than with images. Videos are much more effective than images. This is the reason why companies are posting videos in popular video-sharing apps. These videos get millions of views, and the brand name gets spread far and wide. Videos can be shared on the company’s social media accounts. It can also be publicly shared on YouTube, where genuine users can view product attributes and understand more about them.
But it is not enough to post a video shot on a mobile phone. Companies must take pains to create an interesting and informative video about their products or services. It must be able to give all necessary details to customers. If it can clear a prospective customer’s doubts, there is no reason to go to a competitor. It is also essential to regularly upload videos to keep customer interest going.
Blogs
Blogging is an excellent way to keep existing and prospective customers interested in a company and its products. Those who want to buy a product are interested in knowing everything about it and the company that makes it. They will also be interested in knowing the latest trends and activities going on in that industry. If a company provides such information, the brand will certainly stay on their minds.
One can keep people returning to the website by regular blogging. Posting new content regularly on a website also helps to keep it on top of the search results page. New content is one of the parameters that Google uses to rank websites. Companies can also post blogs on other sites that are relevant to the product and industry. This will help to get more traffic to the website.
Social Media
The number of people on social media platforms is increasing exponentially day by day. Almost everyone has accounts on at least one social media platform. People also discuss various things on these platforms. Among them, there are many who talk about the items they purchased or intend to buy. This will lead to a discussion on those items. Companies can make use of such platforms to market their products. They can create accounts on these platforms and announce new products or share new information.
The advantage of using social media is that it gives organizations an opportunity to engage with customers where they are active. It allows prospective customers to get their doubts cleared whenever they want. These platforms are also places to get discussions going on about the products by those who have purchased and are happy with them. But companies must be careful about what information they share on different platforms as the profile of users will be different.
Nothing can please people more than receiving communication addressed specifically to them carrying messages that have been personalized to suit their needs. This is one of the excellent ways to get in touch with prospective customers and get them to decide on your products. It is one of the best remarketing tools that can help in converting leads quickly. Once people have taken the step of providing their email ids, it is time to start communicating with them.
Care should be taken to avoid sending these emails too often. That can irritate customers. Companies must also work hard at finding out the person’s specific requirements and send communication that will be interesting and informative. Companies can also go ahead and make special offers to prospective customers through emails to push them to make a purchase decision quickly.
Influencer Marketing
This is another method that is getting popular with many companies. People who are well-known in social media circles can be used to promote products. Gone are the days when celebrity marketing can influence people to buy something. People want to see someone closer to them use a product and talk about it. Influencers are not celebrities. They are regular folks who have been able to gather a lot of followers through interesting posts.
Original content developed by influencers can start a healthy discussion around a product. Their opinions are highly valued by those who follow them. When they authenticate a product, their followers are more likely to trust their views and buy the same items. It is necessary for companies to find influencers whose followers are their target audience.
Apart from digital marketing, the traditional methods of marketing must also be part of a company’s integrated marketing strategy. There are so many conventional methods that still work well for many products.
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Contests And Prizes
Everyone likes to get a gift from companies. If it is something from a firm that the person is considering buying, then it can surely turn the decision in that company’s favor. Companies are still offering giveaways to their prospective and existing clients. They can range from very low priced to highly valuable items. This will depend on the product value and how important the customer is. Many companies keep existing customers happy with gifts in the hope that they will recommend the product to others.
Giving a prize through contests is a good way to get details from the target audience. Companies give gifts to people for answering a few easy questions and providing their personal details. The important part here is the huge database that the company will gain from this exercise. This can be used for remarketing. Getting personal details also helps in creating a more targeted marketing campaign.
Conducting Events
Many companies manufacture products that are specifically meant for a particular industry. Pharmaceutical companies target only the healthcare industry. Engineering companies may be manufacturing items for specific industries like the automobile industry. Such companies can gain a lot by getting the attention of people in the industry. Getting them to one place and informing them about the company’s products is an excellent marketing method. Events are the best way to do this.
Companies can use industry and subject experts to talk about topics of interest for people in that field. This will attract many to visit such events. The opportunity can be used for promoting products and also giving away material containing technical specifications and details. Giveaways can also be presented to the attendees to get a better impact and improve brand recall. Companies can also get contact details for further marketing activities.
Traditional Advertising
Though there is a decline in traditional methods of advertising, it still has a good reach among a wide range of people. Billboards and bus stop ads can still have an impact. These ads are seen by a huge number of people and can have an effect on brand recall. Such ads can change a purchase decision at the last moment. When seeing these ads after learning about the products can instill more confidence in the items.
One can still see that newspapers carry a huge amount of ads. These are especially good for local brands. Though millennials and subsequent generations may not be avid readers of newspapers, a good number of the older generations still scan them every day. As a continuation of digital ads, these print ads can be effective.
Implementing a plan in an organization comes with a lot of challenges. There are many people to convince and get cooperation from. If it is a new strategy, then one must be able to show how it can be implemented successfully. Integrated marketing strategy is no different from any other activity. It comes with a peculiar set of challenges.
Challenges In Implementing An Integrated Marketing Campaign
Support And Resources
Not everyone knows about integrated marketing and what it can do for the company. Someone who has done marketing courses will know the importance of this method of marketing and how much it can increase sales and revenues. But the marketing team alone cannot implement such a program in a company. It needs resources. There must be more teams and more funds. More people are required to handle each channel. Funds will be required to create and improve content. Adding new channels cost money too.
Without the support of the top management, it is not possible to implement any strategy. For this, the marketing team must prepare a good presentation to convince the bosses that spending so much money will fetch enough returns to justify the expense. You must also convince them how the effects of such a marketing activity will stay for a long time and improve the reputation of the firm.
Creativity That Can Be Ported
We find quite often that many expensive ads don’t have the same effects in different media. They also don’t have the same effect on different customer segments. Integrated marketing demands that you convey the same message through all media and to all customer segments. This is where creativity is essential. While most companies are worried about the technology and other details of porting an ad to other media, many don’t worry about creativity.
Brand management courses teach that it is the idea behind ads that get through to people. How it is conveyed and what media is used are all secondary. The main challenge with integrated marketing is to formulate an idea that will work in all channels and across customer segments. An original good idea will automatically go viral in all media without much effort. But to get that idea is the challenge that marketing people have to overcome.
Finding The Target Audience For Each Channel
Many products are sold to people across all age groups. There are items that both men and women use. These must be marketed too. The problem comes because all the customer segments watch different channels. While the elderly will still prefer to get their news from morning papers, the young and tech-savvy prefer their mobile phones for the purpose. Women in many households are still fans of the good old radio, even though they may listen to the more modern FM stations.
It is necessary for marketing teams to identify the correct target audience for each segment and convey the message accordingly. Even the same channel, like emails, must be customized to suit different customer groups. Understanding your customers and their profiles is very important for integrated marketing to be successful. If the identification is not made correctly, the whole activity will be a waste of money.
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Overseeing Different Channels
When there are so many channels to handle, you will need people to oversee the activities. They must be experts in those channels and must be able to ensure proper implementation of the strategy. Companies with a small marketing team will certainly struggle to handle all channels. They may well limit themselves to a few channels till they find the campaign successful and can risk investing more money on adding people. Marketing courses from IIM Lucknow help to specialize in different marketing channels.
It is not enough to supervise the launch of the campaign. There must be constant tracking to see how effective they are and whether there is a need to optimize them. Channels like social media platforms will require constant attention as people will like answers to their queries immediately. One may need to handle several profiles and social media accounts simultaneously, and this is not an easy job.
Tracking Customer Reaction Across Channels
Once the campaign has been launched, you must know how it is received by the target audience. One must be able to get reactions and judge whether the campaign has been able to hit the nail. The feedback from different channels must be collected in different ways. Visitors to a website may not leave any feedback. But it is necessary to know if they have consumed the information on the site.
MICA branding and marketing courses can teach about different tools to measure the impact of marketing campaigns. This is the biggest advantage of digital marketing. One can know how much time visitors spend on a web page. It is possible to know the effect of ads and organic content on social media platforms. It is possible to know how many people viewed your videos. But still, the job is not easy, but it is essential to measure the effectiveness of the campaign.
Wrapping Up
The implementation of an integrated marketing strategy is full of challenges. But companies must adopt such strategies as customer behaviors change and technology advances further.
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