Not in isolation. The benefits of building integrated marketing campaigns.

Let’s design a brochure, build a new website, get active on social media, produce a banner for our exhibition or even create a digital advertising campaign! An ever-growing list of individual marketing solutions lined up in the hope that they will deliver the overall marketing objectives, increase brand awareness and achieve greater return on investment. Sound familiar?

Don’t get me wrong, these methods and delivery channels each have their own important place in the mix, but the question is, will they deliver the return you anticipate if delivered as separate entities?

Integrated campaign planning is often seen as a time-consuming effort, but in the long run can make your organisations marketing activity work much harder for its investment if managed and planned right.

So, what is integrated marketing?

Integrated marketing is a cross-channel marketing strategy which involves creating consistent campaigns across different platforms to provide a cohesive experience to your customers.

According to the E-tailing Group’s 4th annual Consumer Insights Survey, 72% of consumers prefer an integrated marketing approach to reinforce their trust in the brand.

These types of campaigns are very powerful because they send out consistently branded messages that audiences can relate to and engage with no matter what the format is or the channels they are delivered through. They create a level of consistency and a constant reminder as to what your business and brand is about.

What are the benefits of integrated marketing?

1. It’s cost effective

Creating digital assets like content, images and graphics costs time and money. When you integrate your campaigns, you eliminate any need for duplication because you share these assets across channels, saving time and resources.

2. Builds trust with your audience

Many consumers are sceptical about purchasing from brands they don’t know or recognise. When you integrate your messages throughout and keep them consistent, you build trust with your audience.

3. Eliminates confusion

Lack of campaign-wide planning, including consideration across all marketing channels as a whole, can lead to disjointed use of key messages, audience confusion and diluting the impact of your investment. Organisations might send an email with a bit of a message here, take out an advert with a bit of a message there, and post something entirely different to their Facebook page. If you combine your marketing activity and ensure that is has a consistent message throughout each channel, your customers will be clear on who you are and what you have to offer.

4. Putting your brand top-of-mind

Visual identity and messaging are key player in building an integrated marketing campaign. Not only does it lead to better brand awareness and trust, as previously mentioned, but it puts your business top-of-mind when prospects are searching for what you have to offer.

5. Utilising your team’s skills

Integrating campaigns require your internal teams to work together to share skills, and resources. This provides different view-points and it’s great for building morale too – as they say ‘two heads are better than one!’

How to ensure a successful integrated marketing campaign.

Ensuring delivery of a successful integrated marketing campaign is fundamentally about the product, price, place and promotion however, there are a number of other ways in which will help you along the way:

– Ensure that your logos, typefaces, sizing and colours remain consistent throughout.

– Design a message which is clear and reflective of your organisation and the service/product you are trying to promote.

– Develop a marketing strategy that has clear positioning statements and objectives ensuring that your core values are at the centre of every piece of communication.

– Engage with your marketing and sales teams to get everyone to contribute during the planning stages of the campaign.

While integrating your marketing campaigns may at first seem like a huge investment in time and like a lot of upfront work, it doesn’t need to be all that daunting. You can take one campaign at a time and as you become familiar with the process and you engage your wider teams, you will experience the benefits yourself and notice that the extra effort can be well worth it. Measuring responses and feedback provides intelligence back into future campaigns is also a key part of the process.

We hope we have inspired you to take a more integrated approach to your marketing strategy. If you would like help with idea generation, planning and executing your marketing campaigns, get in touch with one of our marketing account managers who will be happy to help.