Integrated marketing is a method of combining all aspects of your marketing strategy to achieve your overall goals. It involves a focused collaboration between every aspect of your marketing campaign, such as:
- Advertising
- Blog, video, podcast, and visual content
- Social media
- Design and web development
When you integrate these aspects of your strategy so they work together, you create an atmosphere of clarity, open communication, and consistency for both your team and for your audience. Integration helps you provide a seamless experience for the user, which goes a long way in building your reputation as a business worthy of engagement.
Benefits of Integrated Marketing
Boost your Performance
Gartner found that brands and businesses who integrate their marketing strategies outperform those who don’t by an impressive 300 per cent. Below we have outlined some of the reasons why integrated marketing is such a powerful tool to boost your strategy.
Stand Out From The Crowd
Integrated marketing helps you stand out among your competitors. Your audience is inundated with ads and eager brands daily. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Integrated marketing helps you create a strong brand voice and message, so it will be easier for your audience to remember you. When they find themselves in need, they’ll think of you, their problem-solver.
Save Money
By focusing your efforts on a clear and consistent message, your marketing investments are more likely to reflect your business goals. This is a cost-effective approach to your campaign because it prevents you from wasting money on investments that will not bring you any return on investment (ROI).
How To Get Started With Integrated Marketing
Brainstorm
Schedule shared time cross-department via meetings or online. The quality of communication, when high, promotes Integration of the whole. When low, it creates separateness and potential conflict. Be clear with your message to help your audience understand.
Brainstorm ideas between your team about how to orchestrate the strategy. You don’t have to create an entire strategy alone. Leverage the high-quality input that each member of each department can bring to the table. Great marketing requires innovation. There’s team bonding in the empathy that glows from sharing stories and goals.
The shared goal drives us towards a concrete campaign. Integration of the whole is what really sets your business apart from your competitors. With the work you’ve put into collaboration, you’ll let your prospects see that they can trust your evidence-based confidence.
Stand Strong
There is strength in unity. Though you may have multiple strategy goals, your efforts to achieve them should align on unified ground. When all aspects of your campaign blend seamlessly, your audience gets to know you better. They may then come to an early realisation that they want what you have to offer and will choose you to get it – a result of the strength of your efforts.
Eat a Snickers
Consider Snicker’s 2010 campaign ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry.’ The campaign reflected a solid strategy that compelled its audience. It was clear about their solution for making you feel like yourself again. A well-orchestrated, deeply integrated marketing strategy created this successful campaign.
TV ads, billboards, and social media visuals helped instill in their audience that Snickers is the chocolate bar that stops your hunger. Their design and message shined through across ads, print as cohesive, and made their campaign a success. They had a clear message and aligned their design, television ads, and social media output accordingly.
Identify Inconsistency
One of the most important steps to take in creating and applying an integrated approach to your marketing strategy is identifying and addressing any lapses or gaps in communication across your departments. Sending everyone to work when they all have a different vision or understanding of the end goal is sure to fragment your campaign. Make sure everyone is working on the same page.
How Do I Know If My Strategy Is Not Integrated?
Research has found that only 1% of marketers believe they deliver consistency, personalisation, and relevance across their channels (CMO Council)
If you think that your strategy is not as integrated as it could be, consider the following signs. If any of these ring true, it is worth re-assessing your strategy.
- Role confusion – no accountability
- Business goals and marketing investments not aligned
- No central storage for content and work responsibilities
- Fragmented customer journey
- No clear framework for marketing integration
- No use of collaborative technology
All of the above stand in the way of campaign integration. It is important to regularly check for broken lines of communication and mixed messages across your departments. Prevention of mixed messages is a lot easier and more productive than correction.
Conclusion
Instead of expecting individual marketing efforts to get you consistent results, integrated marketing makes the most effective use of all your channels and departments to give you the best chance of campaign success. When you integrate sales and advertising, promotion, the user experience, social media, and every other aspect of your business, you demonstrate clarity, confidence, and high-quality communication.
