What is Integrated Marketing Anyway?
According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Integrated Marketing ” … recognizes the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines [such as] advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact.” In other words, it is a fancy marketing term that takes into account all the different channels and aspects of communications that we should be considering as marketers.
What Integrated Marketing is NOT.
Integrated marketing is not simply allocating your marketing budget across multiple channels and sending the same message to your audience. Truly integrated marketing breaks through the clutter and delivers the right message, to the right person, in the right medium, at the right time. That is a big shift from the days when broadcast television, radio, and various forms of print communication were your only options. You can attribute much of the shift towards integrated marketing to the pervasiveness and ubiquitous nature of digital media. The “personalization” of the web through social media and mobile technologies has made it possible to have your brand messages consumed anytime, anywhere.
Four steps you can take towards making your marketing more integrated.
- Data. Data. Data. Begin collecting data on every aspect of your marketing and use it to hold yourself accountable, prove your worth to your boss, and improve your marketing tactics.
- Hold your agency more accountable. You should see a return on your marketing spend over time. Your agency should want to show you more than press clips. They should also ask about the projects objectives in the planning phase.
- Make ROI the golden rule. Not a nicety. With data in hand you are armed with the tools you need to tie your hard work back to leads and sales.
- Focus on communication and conversations. Put a plan in action to start shifting your budget from media advertising to multiple forms of communication. Add value (content), not clutter (ads) to your marketing. Engage in conversations with your audience.
Take these steps and I promise you will see an improvement in your marketing… and you just may be happier too!
Have an integrated marketing campaign you are proud of? Share it below!
On Twitter? Follow me at @BrianBierbaum. Follow Priority at@PriorityResults.
