To harness the full potential of Integrated Marketing, we need a cohesive marketing team that travels on the same wavelength, but more importantly, shares ideas and promotion methodologies.
This is crucial, so that our marketing and communication strategy works properly. Most importantly, it helps us achieve our goals.
Therefore, it is important for our entire team to have a clear, and more importantly, shared idea of the strategy to be adopted.
Otherwise, we run the risk of delivering the wrong message, to the wrong person, at the wrong time. And this is the exact opposite of our philosophy,Inbound Marketing.
Integrated marketing definition
Integrated marketing is a strategic approach that combines different marketing channels and tools to create integrated, consistent, and uniform communication to target audiences.
This strategy is based on two basic principles:
- Customer centricity: every decision is made after a careful analysis of the target audience, starting with the definition of the buyer persona.
- Channel integration: different communication channels are coordinated to work in synergy toward a common goal.
Integrated digital marketing what is it?
Integrated marketing is a strategic approach that combines and coordinates different marketing tactics synergistically to achieve business goals more effectively.
Rather than using individual marketing strategies in isolation, integrated marketing focuses on interconnection and consistency across different channels and media to create a unified and consistent marketing experience for the consumer.
When we talk about Integrated Marketing, we mean the cohesive activity of our different communication channels.
So we talk about email, social media, website, digital marketing, search engine placement, advertising, influencers, and anything else we use to promote our products and services.
This approach is very high-performing, and connects well with the philosophy ofInbound Marketing.
In fact, remember that the purpose of Inbound is to build strong and lasting relationships.
And through integrated marketing, we have the opportunity to offer valuable content to our stakeholders with a consistent and effective message.
Precisely because of all our communication channels, which work in unison.
Of course, integrated marketing goes beyond the Web Marketing. In fact, as we said, we need to integrate all our communication channels.
Including packaging, printed advertisements, public relations, etc.
Integrated Marketing: Key Features
Integrated marketing is distinguished by:
- Message consistency: convey a unique and consistent message across all available communication channels, both online and offline.
- Multichannel approach: use different tools such as social media, email marketing, SEO, SEM, traditional advertising and others in a coordinated way.
- Synchronized timing: marketing actions are implemented simultaneously on multiple channels in the same time period.
- Focus on customer experience: aims to create a cohesive and consistent brand experience across all customer touch points.
Integrated marketing: 3 reasons to adopt it
1. Increase awareness (awareness) of the brand or product
By using an integrated approach, a company can ensure that its marketing message is consistent across all channels used, whether online advertising, traditional advertising, social media, email marketing, events, etc.
This helps to strengthen the brand and create a distinctive corporate identity.
2. Increase consideration (consideration) from the public
By integrating different marketing tactics, a company can maximize the overall impact of its marketing initiatives.
For example, the combined use of online and offline advertising can reach a wider and more diverse audience, thereby increasing brand visibility and customer engagement.
3. Promote conversion (conversion), prompting the desired action, usually purchase
Measuring the effectiveness of individual marketing initiatives can be useful, but integrating different marketing activities allows for a more comprehensive analysis of performance metrics.
This can lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior and more effective marketing strategies.
Examples of integrated marketing include:
- An advertising campaign that uses a combination of television ads, online advertising, social media, events, and influencer marketing, all designed to promote the same message or product in a consistent and complementary manner.
- A company that uses its website, blog, social media and newsletter to distribute relevant and interesting content to its target audience, synergistically integrating the different communication channels to engage customers and generate interest in its products or services.
- A product launch that involves a combination of advertising, public relations, experiential marketing and social media to generate buzz and interest around the new product, providing the consumer with a comprehensive and engaging marketing experience.
Integrated marketing enhances interactions
There are many benefits to adopting an integrated marketing strategy:
- More effective and consistent communication across multiple channels
- Increased reach and engagement of target audiences
- Improving customer loyalty
- Optimization of resources and return on investment (ROI)
- Strengthening competitive positioning.
Every interaction is important and helps us improve our Business.
Every channel we use generates interactions. And these play a key role in the growth of our Business.
Each user who comes into contact with our Brand, on any channel, will help us improve our presence. Both online and in the mental availability of the user himself.
In fact, our interlocutors, by getting in touch with us through the channel most congenial to them, will have a better understanding of our products and services.
The mode of use, quality of materials, delivery methods, etc.
Everything becomes much clearer if our message is sent at the right time, to the right person. And using the right channel.
Obviously, and as always I would add, in order to study our strategy and make it perform as well as possible, we need to dwell on some fundamental points. For example:
- Let us ask ourselves who is our buyer person. What is our ideal customer, our target audience? To whom do we want to send our message?
- Let’s focus. If we try to sell everything to everyone, we risk selling nothing to anyone.
With the focus on our target audience, we will definitely attract the user’s attention, because our message is designed especially for them. - Let’s set a goal. The worst enemy of Integrated Marketing, is disconnected marketing. As we said at the beginning of this article, the marketing team needs to be cohesive and share a clear and precise idea of strategy.
And to do that, we need to establish from the outset what our goal is. Otherwise we risk getting the exact opposite of what we want. - We don’t take anything for granted. Users’ habits change, from day to day.
Today they are more active on Facebook, tomorrow Instagram, the day after tomorrow they only read e-mails and go off social, etc. Integrated marketing offers the possibility to send our message on multiple digital marketing channels, in different ways and forms, but always with the same objective.
So it is important not to take any one channel for granted, precisely because our ideal customer might get in touch with us using several of them.
The message is a double-edged sword
It can help us increase customers and potential customers, or lose them
Obviously what we want to communicate is most important. So our tone of voice, the mode of reception, the channel to be used, etc. are accordingly.
It is important that what we want to communicate is best perceived by the user. Most importantly, let’s always make sure that the intrinsic message of our communication is understood.
We are constantly thinking about our buyer persona of reference. Let’s put ourselves in his or her shoes and ask ourselves, “What will the user who reads my message understand?”
Our communication may initially appear brilliant, funny, and out of the box. But only by carefully analyzing every detail will we understand whether it will be a success, or a complete flop.
In fact, such mistakes are not uncommon. Even by large companies. And of course, by lightly implementing our message, we will achieve the exact opposite of what we desire. With disastrous results.
Integrated marketing examples
Let’s jump back to 2017. Even today, many people remember Pandora’s misstep because of its Christmas advertisement.
Here, this is the classic example of a wrong message. But we are not talking about grammatical errors, or distorted expressions.
What is wrong is precisely the users’ perception of corporate communication.
As we can see from the image, the promotional message reads, “An iron, pajamas, an apron, a Pandora bracelet. What do you think would make her happy?“
These billboards, posted along the Milan subway lines, have been making the rounds on the web, generating controversy and criticism from all over Italy.
With one sentence, the Danish company was classified as sexist, backward, and disrespectful of women. And in doing so, Pandora’s own buyer personas, women, felt insulted.
Disaster.
To no avail were the company’s justifications, where it stated that the message “had been misunderstood.” In fact, even this justification only soured the criticism.
Double disaster.
Of course, there are messages that elicit a negative reaction right away, from the reader.
In other cases, however, the “wrong message” has a more subtle meaning, and the users’ reaction is not immediate. But that is not to say that a delayed reaction is not destructive!
For example, this is the case with Taco Bell, where the choice of a particular mascot initially amused users. Only to disgust them in the end.
In fact, the choice of a dog, while cute and with a funny expression, is a double-edged sword. Especially when associated with human food! In fact, it makes it appear that the quality of our product is “dog-like.”
Among the most popular comments on this advertising campaign, we find, “But if the dog likes it, who knows what they put in these tacos!“
Disaster.
Integrated marketing agency: why choose Factory Communication
Do you have a doubt about a campaign you are implementing? Is the message you’ve come up with not convincing you?
To help you with this, we at Factory Communication have structured the “Second Opinion” service.
We are external to your company; we are not pressured or influenced.
We analyze your marketing campaigns, your website, your strategy and tell you, with absolute transparency, the strengths and weaknesses.
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