Integrated marketing is the way forward for all customer-centric organizations. The customer journey is more connected than ever and the customer experience regains its deserved status. However, Performance Marketing refers to a form of Digital Marketing in which brands only pay marketing service providers after their business objectives have been met.

The traditional integrated marketing view mainly looked at the integration of channels, tactics and the reinforcement of campaigns.

It seems customer-centricity becomes more than the vague promise from the early days of CRM.

However, the main reason why integrated marketing deserves more attention should not be about your campaigns and marketing efforts themselves in the first place. It’s not about you, it’s about the customer experience, the focal point of all optimization efforts.

• What is Integrated Marketing?
• What is Integrated Marketing Communications?
• Integrated Marketing Agency
• Integrated Marketing Strategy
• Integrated Marketing Plan
• Integrated Marketing Solutions
• Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy
• Jobs for Integrated Marketing Communications
• Integrated Marketing Examples
• What is Integrated Marketing Campaign?
• Integrated Marketing Communications Process
• Integrated Marketing Communication Tools
• Integrated Marketing and Sales
• Factors Affecting Integrated Marketing Communication
• Integrated Marketing Benefits
• Integrated Marketing Best Practices

What is Integrated Marketing?

Integrated Marketing is an approach to creating a unified and seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand/enterprise; it attempts to meld all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and social media, through their respective mix of tactics, methods, channels, media, and activities, so that all work together as a unified force.

Read Also: Email Marketing – How to do it Right For Effective Sales Conversion

It is a process designed to ensure that all messaging and communications strategies are consistent across all channels and are centered on the customer.

What is Integrated Marketing Communications?

Integrated Marketing Communications is a simple concept. It ensures that all forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together.

At its most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communications, or IMC, as we’ll call it, means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony.

Promotion is one of the Ps in the marketing mix. Promotions has its own mix of communications tools.

All of these communications tools work better if they work together in harmony rather than in isolation. Their sum is greater than their parts – providing they speak consistently with one voice all the time, every time.

Integrated Marketing Agency

Essentially, integrated marketing agencies are companies that can satisfy all of their clients’ marketing needs under one roof.

Integrated marketing agencies have the capacity, resources and know-how to implement a range of different marketing strategies in one cohesive effort.

These companies boast large teams of professionals with different areas of expertise across a wide range of marketing and communications disciplines.

These different teams then work together to make sure their clients’ campaigns are as efficient, coherent, consistent, harmonious and, therefore, as effective as possible.

Most integrated agencies offer a combination of all, or some of, the following services: digital marketing, direct marketing, experiential marketing, PR, advertising, guerilla marketing, social media, sales promotion, B2B communications, mobile marketing, shopper marketing, sponsorship, CRM, graphic design, copywriting and brand strategy.

Integrated Marketing Strategy

Integrated marketing strategy integrates relevant marketing tools to deliver similar message to a larger audience. Remember, an integrated marketing strategy is successful only when it creates awareness of a particular brand among a large number of end-users.

Remember, a marketer needs to carefully blend and make the best possible use of all promotional tools so that the right message reaches the right customer at the right time and right place.

It is essential to ensure that an organization’s integrated marketing strategy communicates similar message to target audience for them to invest in their brand and also develop a sense of attachment and loyalty towards the same.

Integrated Marketing Plan

Arming yourself with an integrated marketing plan is essential for delivering a successful and impactful launch. Without a well-thought-out plan, important but easy-to-miss details can slip through the cracks and leave you scrambling as launch day approaches.

An integrated marketing plan for your new product or service should combine research, marketing and messaging strategies to ensure that every aspect of promoting your launch is executed in a cohesive manner.

Integrated Marketing Solutions

Regardless of what industry you’re in, integrated marketing solutions can transform your business. The trick, of course, is finding the right combination of solutions.

From PR to digital marketing, there are plenty of channels that can get your message across to specific audiences.

When it comes to creating a marketing strategy, it’s important to consider the impact different integrated marketing solutions can have. Here’s a look at some of the biggest benefits such solutions can bring about.

Greater Brand Visibility – Getting potential customers to notice your brand is usually one of the first steps in most marketing campaigns – and for good reason. You can’t begin to form a relationship with a potential customer until he or she takes note of your business.

Search marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are great ways to raise visibility among consumers. These integrated marketing solutions can highlight key messages and owned assets, making it easier for you to build rapport with consumers.

Increased Media Coverage – Time and again, data-driven PR has proven to be one of the best ways for brands to step into the spotlight. Reporters and editors are constantly on the hunt for new stories.

Providing them with timely news that’s backed by solid evidence is sure to boost the number of publications your brand appears in.

Thought Leadership Within Your Industry – Marketing tools like social media have made it easier than ever before to establish your brand as a thought leader.

From Twitter to Facebook, offering insight on relevant trends and topics via social media can quickly position your business in the middle of timely conversations.

Better yet, social media can also be used to connect with influencers on an individual basis. This instant access creates an opportunity for continued engagement in the future.

Clear and Consistent Messaging – At the heart of every multi-faceted marketing program is a cohesive strategy and clear messaging guidelines. After all, there’s no telling where a consumer may encounter your brand.

An agency that works with you to develop a plan of attack for each channel as well as a story that you can be proud of will cut down the amount of time it takes for potential customers to become familiar with your brand.

Improved Search Results – What does your target audience see when they search for your brand? If you’re not sure, it might be time to step up your search marketing efforts. Partnering with an agency that’s well-versed in SEO can help put your brand in front of more consumers than ever before.

From your company blog to recent media placements, investing in SEO is an effective way to push mentions of your brand to the top of the search rankings.

Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy

Marketing communications strategy is the strategy used by a company or individual to reach their target market through various types of communication. It includes your message (what is to be said), the medium (where it is to be said), and the target (to whom your message is reaching).

Any integrated marketing communications strategy (IMC) should have three guiding principles:

• Brand alignment: Whatever marketing channel you choose should have the same brand perception as yours. For example, if you sell luxury watches, build relationships with journalists from TIME magazine, not those writing in your local newspaper (unless you live in the Hamptons!).
• Customer alignment: Follow the oldest rule in marketing – ‘be where your customers already are’. Pick channels where your consumers are already active. If you’re targeting younger millennials, advertise on social media platforms like Instagram, not Facebook, and certainly not day-time TV!
• Budget alignment: Choose a marketing channel that fits your budget (obviously). If you don’t have a budget, getting a print ad in WSJ will be out of your reach. But perhaps you can get a free press mention on WSJ’s website by reaching out to the journalists.

Any large company’s marketing plan will have several campaigns on multiple channels simultaneously. The combination of all these channels – PPC, social media, advertising on TV, print, radio, etc. – is called the “marketing mix” of your marketing communications strategy.

Smaller businesses, however, usually stick to one or two marketing channels to reach their target customers. Else you risk diluting your budget and focus.

Jobs for Integrated Marketing Communications

A degree in integrated marketing communication can lead to numerous career paths throughout the public and private sectors, in areas such as market research, public relations, digital and social media, consulting, higher education, government and nonprofits, information technology, and more.

Individuals with a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications might pursue employment opportunities with marketing agencies, design firms, digital and social media agencies, private corporations, public relations agencies, market research companies, consulting firms, or any other organization or business that works in the marketing or communication space.

Effective marketing communication is critical for establishing relationships with potential and current consumers, creating efficient information exchange for product development, and maintaining brand reputation, as well as advertising and selling products and services.

Integrated marketing communication professionals are vital to the entire marketing process, helping synthesize and unify messaging for a company, its brand, services, and products to drive audience engagement.

While career options vary by industry, below are several career paths graduates of master’s programs in integrated marketing communications might pursue:

• Public Relations Director: Public relations directors oversee the public facing and internal communications for an organization, including developing and executing strategic initiatives to improve its reputation among consumers, the public, and stakeholders. They typically supervise a staff of public relations professionals, manage large communication projects, and consult with senior leadership on long-term public relations strategies that align with the organization’s value, mission, and goals.
• Marketing Director: From creating advertising concepts to developing multi-channel marketing campaigns, marketing directors translate a company’s brand and positioning statement into effective marketing practices. They use various tools, such as media analytics and customer relationship management software, to analyze consumer and audience behavior patterns and shape advertising initiatives that drive interest in the company’s services or products.
• Marketing Specialist: Typically working under the supervision of a marketing director, marketing specialists develop, execute, and track marketing campaigns for businesses or organizations. Whether conducting audience research, writing campaign copy, buying media, or crafting a look and feel to a display advertisement, these professionals handle the entire end-to-end spectrum of setting up effective marketing campaigns. Throughout their work, marketing specialists use data gathering and analytics technology in order to evaluate the impact of their marketing initiatives on consumer behavior and the perception of their company’s brand(s), so that they can adjust their strategies accordingly.
• Director of Consumer Affairs: Directors of consumer affairs handle a company’s relationship with both consumers and the general public, including overseeing customer service processes and representatives. They manage consumer education, deal directly with customer questions, and deal with client-based complaints regarding products or services.

Integrated Marketing Examples

The purpose of integrated marketing is to provide consumers with a seamless brand experience across all channels, including paid channels and organic ones.

Integrated marketing strategies, therefore, rely on brand identity being communicated with consistency, using channels and techniques that complement each other and form a unified, integrated whole.

Following are four examples of brands that have done outstanding work with integrated marketing.

1. Apple’s Immersive Website and Storefronts

Few companies in the world have the level of brand recognition of Apple, and the company has provided a consistently high level of brand integration no matter where consumers encounter it.

Have you noticed how every Apple storefront offers a look and feel that is almost identical to that of its website?

Few companies are able to do such a thorough job of integrating the physical location with the online presence, offering consumers an identifiable customer experience wherever it takes place.

2. Chicago’s Field Museum Brings Art into the Urban Core

Brands can be cultural as well as commercial, as the Field Museum showed with an integrated marketing strategy that brought art to people to increase special exhibit attendance.

Digital paid media and traditional advertising (such as on billboards) worked alongside social media posts announcing surprise “pop-up” art locations, and many videos were captured of people interacting with exhibits, creating a 360-degree marketing experience that left people wanting to visit the museum to further quench their cultural thirst.

3. Domino’s Helps People Order from Anywhere

The ubiquitous pizza chain named their ordering software “AnyWare” to highlight the ease of ordering wherever a customer may be.

The key to making it work was the Pizza Profile, established to save customer information and expedite ordering. With this data, people could order online, by text, via tweet, or even using a smartwatch.

Getting the word out about AnyWare involved an integrated marketing strategy encompassing press releases and television as well as digital and social advertising, with a goal of one-half of all orders being made digitally (which they reached handily).

4. Southwest Brings Transparency to Airline Tickets

People tend not to expect airline ticket prices to make sense, but Southwest doesn’t think it should be that way.

To that end, they created an integrated marketing strategy they called “Transfarency” to entertain and educate consumers about airline fees, and in some cases, how to avoid them.

This was a way for Southwest to set themselves apart by emphasizing their straightforward fee structure while showing customers multiple convenient ways to pay for things like flight changes and onboard snacks.

Their “we’re different” approach made it ideal for social media, where it generated significant buzz.

One thing all these successful integrated marketing strategies have in common is that they are fueled by customer data. Think about it.

If you are a museum, you are not going to go to the trouble of setting up ancient terracotta warriors on a downtown plaza without having the data telling you it is likely to attract selfie-takers and lots of foot traffic

What is Integrated Marketing Campaign?

An integrated marketing campaign combines multiple channels such as content, email, display advertising and social media in order to promote a consistent message to a specific audience.

The main goal of most integrated campaigns is to convert viewers into customers. Each industry is different and integrated campaigns may also include a sales strategy.

An integrated campaign can prove more successful than utilizing only a single advertising channel to a limited audience.

Integrated Marketing Manager Salary

The average annual pay for an Integrated Marketing Manager in the United States is $81,456 a year.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $131,000 and as low as $48,500, the majority of Integrated Marketing Manager salaries currently range between $71,500 (25th percentile) to $93,000 (75th percentile) across the United States.

The average pay range for an Integrated Marketing Manager varies little (about $21,500), which suggests that regardless of location, there are not many opportunities for increased pay or advancement, even with several years of experience.

Based on recent job postings on ZipRecruiter, the Integrated Marketing Manager job market in both Lagos, NG and the surrounding area is very active.

People working as an Integrated Marketing Manager in your area are making on average $81,456 per year or the same as the national average annual salary of $81,456. ranks number 1 out of 50 states nationwide for Integrated Marketing Manager salaries.

To estimate the most accurate annual salary range for Integrated Marketing Manager jobs, ZipRecruiter continuously scans its database of millions of active jobs published locally throughout America.

Why is Integrated Marketing Important?

By integrating tools such as advertising, direct mail, social media, telemarketing and sales promotion, you provide clarity, consistency and maximum communications impact, according to the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ definition.

Receive Better Results

In the traditional approach to marketing communications, businesses and their agencies plan separate campaigns for advertising, press relations, direct marketing and sales promotions.

Integrated campaigns use the same communication tools to reinforce each other and improve marketing effectiveness. In an integrated campaign, you can use advertising to raise awareness of a product and generate leads for the sales force.

By communicating the same information in press releases and feature articles, you reinforce the messages in the advertising. You can then use direct mail or email to follow up inquiries from the advertising or press campaigns and provide prospects with more information.

To help convert those prospects to customers, you can use telemarketing to sell directly or make appointments for the sales team. An active online presence on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter provide a further set of tools for reaching out to your customer base.

Creative Consistency Throughout Channels

In an integrated campaign, the different tools feature the same creative treatment. By repeating the headlines, key phrases and images in each communication, you ensure that prospects and customers receive consistent messages each time they see one of the elements of the campaign.

Creative consistency helps reinforce the basic campaign themes by increasing the number of times prospects see or hear the same message. By working consistently through several different channels, you can better build awareness of your business name, brands, offers, catch phrases or other messages you emphasize.

Overall Cost Savings

Creative consistency in your integrated campaigns can also save you money. By using the same images and adapting the same copy for different media, you reduce copy-writing, design and photography costs.

Expensive video production output can be used in multiple media like television, YouTube and Facebook. If you work with external communications suppliers, you may be able to reduce agency fees by working with a single firm that offers integrated communications services, rather than separate specialist agencies.

Aligning with Customer Preferences

An integrated campaign helps you provide customers with information in the format they prefer. Consumers and business customers can specify if they want to receive product information via email, direct mail, text message or telephone.

Clients that you do not reach directly can still benefit from your campaigns by viewing your print ads or hearing your radio and TV spots. Integration ensures that customers and potential customers receive the same information in all communications.

You can also meet the needs of customers who search the Internet for product information by integrating your website design and content with other communications.

Integrated Marketing Communications Process

1. Contextual or Situational Analysis

The first stage of the IMC planning process is to conduct a situational/ contextual analysis. This can involve a SWOT analysis, and an external and internal environmental analysis.

2. Target Markets

You need to decide who your target markets are, map them on a demographic and psychographic level. Then you need to decide what the benefits are to the consumer and why they would use the product.

3. Communication Objectives

The third step of the IMC planning process is to decide what the communication objectives are. These are objectives that your company wants to communicate to the public and their target audience. Some examples of these are;

• Develop brand awareness
• Change customer beliefs
• Enhance brand image
• Increase sales
• Reinforce purchase decisions

4. Budget

The types of budget that companies have can vary. These can be, a percentage of sales, competitive partially, percentage of profit, a budget depending on objectives and tasks and how much the company can afford.

5. Marketing Mix Strategy

The marketing mix is selected in line with the communication objectives and within lesion with the budget selected.

6. Evaluating the Programme

The final step of the IMC planning process is evaluating the programme. This can be done by certain social media metrics, by analyzing online traffic with the use of Google analytics, by sales and social media tools that allow you to track engagement with certain items.

Integrated Marketing Communication Tools

The eight major Integrated Marketing Communication tools are as follows:-

Advertising

Advertising refers to any paid form of non-personal promotion of products or services by an identified sponsor.

The various media used are print (newspapers and magazines), broadcast (radio and television), network (satellite, wireless and telephone), electronic (web page, audio and videotape) and display (billboards, signs and posters).

The primary advantage of advertising is that it reaches geographically dispersed consumers.

Consumers generally tend to believe that a heavily advertised brand must offer some ‘good value’ but at the same time, advertising proves to be an expensive form of promotion.

Sales promotion

It is a variety of short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service. It may include consumer promotions – focused towards the consumer – such as a distribution of free samples, coupons, offers on purchase of higher quantity, discounts and premiums or trade promotions

– focused on retailers – such as display and merchandising allowances, volume discounts, pay for performance incentives and incentives to salespeople.

Sales promotion helps to draw the attention of the consumers and offers an invitation to engage in a transaction by giving various types of incentives.

Personal Selling

Face-To-Face interaction with one or more buyers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions and taking orders. This proves to be the most effective tool in the later stages of the buying process.

The advantage is that the message can be customized to the needs of the buyer and is focused on building a long-term relationship with the buyer.

Public Relations

A variety of programs directed toward improving the relationship between the organisation and the public. Advertising is a one-way communication whereas public relations is a two-way communication which can monitor feedback and adjust its message for providing maximum benefit.

A common tool used here is publicity which capitalizes on the news value of the product or service so that the information can be disseminated to the news media.

Articles in the media prove to be more objective than advertisements and enjoy high credibility. Also, it has the ability to reach the hard-to-find consumers who avoid targeted communications.

Direct Marketing

Direct Marketing involves the use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, or internet to communicate directly with or solicit response or dialogue from specific customers or prospects.

Shoppers have started relying on credit cards and online purchasing more than ever which makes it essential for marketers to approach the consumers directly thus helping them in the purchase process.

Companies have a database of contact details of consumers through which they send catalogues and other marketing material making it easier for the consumer to purchase online. The relevance of direct marketing has increased in recent years.

Events and Experiences

These are company sponsored activities and programs designed to create brand-related interactions with customers. Sponsorships improve the visibility of the company.

Companies provide customers with an experience of using the product which ends up leading to a higher brand recall than competitors. These events prove to be engaging with the audience.

Social Media Marketing

The concept of social media marketing basically refers to the process of promoting business or websites through social media channels.

Companies manage to get massive attention on such channels and can interact with consumers as and when they are browsing the internet.

New and modern ways of communications are developing on these social media platforms and are proving to be the future of promotions. They have the ability to be highly interactive and up to date with the customers.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing involves communicating with the consumer via a mobile device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website.

Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer, mobile marketing really is a streamlined version of online marketing the use of which is increasing as time progresses. Examples are advertisements that we see on mobile applications.

Integrated Marketing and Sales

he process of generating awareness in a prospective customer and converting that person into an actual customer who buys your products involves both the marketing and sales teams within a company.

However, in many companies these two groups do not work together as an integrated team to quickly and smoothly move prospects through the decision-making process to buy your products.

Traditionally, the marketing department is responsible for generating leads and handing them over to the sales department.

Frequently very little information about a lead is made available to the sales team — either because very little data has been captured or there is no system for marketing to share that data with sales.

At the same time, the sales tracking system in many companies is not able to share information with the marketing department.

A company has an integrated marketing and sales program when the sales and marketing teams work together to take a prospective customer from initial awareness through to becoming a loyal customer.

For most companies this integrated approach has two components:

1. The marketing and sales teams convey the same corporate brand and product positioning messages throughout the awareness-to-decision process. This requires the company’s senior marketing and sales executives to work together and make sure everyone understands how to deliver the company’s messages.
2. Data about leads, prospects, and customers is managed with a unified database that is used by both the marketing and sales teams. For example, the marketing department normally collects contact information about a lead and identifies the source of the sales lead, then passes the lead to the sales team. In a basic integrated environment, the salesperson can see the contact and source information about the lead that marketing captured.

However, this basic approach to integrated sales and marketing can be expanded by capturing more information and making sure it’s available to both the sales and marketing teams.

For example, imagine the marketing organization having data about which Web pages each lead visits, which newsletter links they clicked, and the answers to questions on Web forms.

Then, make this marketing information available to the salesperson handling the lead — and make it available in real-time.

Integrated Marketing Manager Job Description

Job Description

• Develop and manage annual playbooks and calendars for the Marketing Organization, facilitating long-lead planning and prioritization exercises
• Activate on data, research, and insights to create marketing briefs and strategic plans
• Create quarterly strategies that outline key messages, programs, and goals for our Buyer facing marketing programs and communications, providing strategic insights and tactical recommendations that support decision-making
• Lead both short term and long term strategic marketing programs and campaigns that are innovative and goal oriented
• Create innovative and concise testing strategies across various channels and cohorts
• Manage campaign development, working closely with cross-functional teams to ensure projects stay on track
• Collaborate closely with partners from across the business, including Product and International, to ensure cross-functional dependencies and opportunities are properly scoped and activated upon
• Increase the impact of marketing efforts by consistently identifying how to unify, amplify, creatively integrate, and nuance messages, moments, and programs across multiple touch points of the customer journey with Etsy
• Sync with Brand on campaign deliverables and creative concepts
• Collaborate with Merchandising to align campaigns with category trends and purchasing patterns on and off Etsy
• Partner with Analytics and Research to gain insights on our Buyers
• Team up with our Global Communications team to ensure PR outlets are mimicking our in funnel marketing campaigns
• Deliver reporting and insights that accurately measure the performance of campaigns, identifying areas opportunities and growth
• Acutely understand our buyers and sellers through absorbing our existing quant/qual reports, as well as partnering with research and championing new studies

Factors Affecting Integrated Marketing Communication

Fragmentation of the mass market

This mass-marketing strategy focuses on what is general in the needs of consumers rather than on what is different.

The organization offer single Marketing Mix consists of one type of product with small or no variation, one pricing strategy, one promotion program aimed at every person and one distribution system aimed at the entire market.

Media Fragmentation

Market fragmentation has resulted in media fragmentation because the of alternative media channels available to the consumer and all messages seen as one single message to consumer.

Today’s consumers are being irritated with a bundle of of television channels, and a steady stream of new magazines that hit the newsstands every week.

Coupled with rising level of ad dodging and the future for some mass media might seem austere. Therefore advertising has to spread further, covering massive amount of channels to gain the same exposure.

Explosion of New Technologies

The Technology is evolving today with much speed and has a very disruptive impact on our daily life. Something that has been considered as status symbol today is a myth of past now.

Also this explosion allow customer to have greater control over the communication. Consumer can now select what to see, and what to hear more easily as in past.

Emergence of Global Markets

Due to advent of IT the whole world has collapse to a global village. The culture around the world is merging and a unified culture is emerging.

Although this has created some opportunities for organization, but is also posing some potential threat as they need now to be very cautious while designing there promotional programs and unless the promotional program are well coordinated and integrated it will not have any impact on the target market.

The global market has also led to increase in advertising mess due more channels and more group placing ad on mass media.

Shifts of Power from Manufacturers to Retailer

The power that historically rests with manufacturer has been shifted to retailer. The retailers due to this power now demands huge promotion fees and can offer better retail information from due to the usage of checkout scanner technology.

Shifting of Promotion Cost from Advertising to other Forms of Promotion

Due to the increase usage of Internet, growth of customer databases, customer lack of time, companies are moving toward concentrated and niche segmentation, as consumer has the convenience to order what he needs and wants from direct marketers.

This had led to change on the percentage of promotion spent on advertising. Traditionally this percentage used to be very high but now as the market conditions are changing it is eroding and taking the form of direct marketing, point of sales activities, online advertising etc.

Emergence of Lower Cost and More Target Communication Tools

As the traditionally used media tools is losing its impact, the exploration of lower-cost and more targeted communication tools continues. Marketer now have the option to use promotional tools like event marketing and direct mail etc that are more targeted and have less cost as compared to of mass media.

Development of Database and Relationship Marketing

One of the most important Direct Marketing is the Customer Databases. It is a controlled collection of absolute data about individual customers or prospects, together with geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data.

These databases help companies in influencing and building customer relationships and the organization can also tailor its message or market offering according to the personal needs of the target market.

Increase Usage of Internet

The usage of Internet around the world is increasing with the passage of time, and this had led to change how a company does its business and how the organization communicate and interact with its target market.

Companies around the world are using the Internet as a competitive tool to change how they transact the business. They can a company does business and how they communicate and interact with customers as they can reach prospects at just the right moment and can offers a low-cost, well-organized way to reach markets.

Agency Accountability

The terms and conditions of the relation that the company and agency used to have are changing, due to changes in the competitive setup of the industry. The organization now demands for greater accountability from the advertising agencies and changes in return and incentives of the agency.

Marketing Strategy Results Measurement

Organization now calls that the activities that the marketing department carries out should be measurements appropriately and expectations from marketing strategy.

Change in Shopping Approach

The reason behind why the consumer goes for shopping has been change. Traditionally people used to went for shopping in order to get the desired products and/or services from the market. But now the shopping approach has been changed, it is now taking form of freedom and entertainment.

Growth of Digital Media

Multi-track media society that is constantly developing and changing with the passage of time has led to advent of digital media. In digital media consumer have extraordinary control over the information and entertainment choice.

With new digital media in place, people have thousands of viewing options they can select from.

Integrated Marketing Benefits

Here are just a few, among many benefits, that come with taking up a more integrated marketing approach:

1. Improved Results

With the traditional marketing, you’ll find businesses setting up different campaigns for separate marketing streams. You’ll get press releases, advertising, direct marketing and sales promotions.

Each of these marketing teams will have their stomping ground, and never shall they meet while carrying out their duties.

However, an integrated approach ensures that all these units come together to form one big and beautiful marketing machine.

The information released by the press is backed up by blog posts and articles, external marketing agencies, sales teams etc. This way, your communication becomes clear enough to your target audience, obviously leading to improved sales.

2. Improved Brand Image

Not only will the message stay consistent in all the platforms, but your brand’s elements will line up seamlessly as well.

Always strive to ensure that your content, style guides, logos, voice, and headers work in tandem as this will ensure that you maximize your market impact and carve out your niche or industry.

3. Cost Effective

To run a successful business, you have to reduce unnecessary costs as much as possible, and this is precisely what integrated marketing campaigns bring to the table. In this case, you’ll be using the same images and copy for different media, which in return reduces design, copywriting, and photography costs.

For instance, video production for different marketing media such as television, YouTube, and other social media platforms can be very costly.

One way to avoid this problem is to use an external communication supplier. This will help you reduce agency fees, because you’ll work with a single firm that offers integrated marketing communication services.

4. Increased Morale

IMC is great when it comes to building trust in your business/brand and increasing revenue. But on top of that, it also helps your business internally because your marketing team will have to pull together to run an integrated campaign effectively.

When your team works together, they’ll become one well-oiled machine that is capable of taking up any campaign challenge. In turn, they will undoubtedly achieve great results, which can also act as an excellent morale booster for your employees.

5. Improved Efficiency

Consistently delivering your messages will not only ensure that you have a stronger impact on the market but also make you more productive and save money too.

You can create advertisement images once and then proceed to use them across several marketing channels. You can also decide to perfect a piece of content and use it on different media.

Alternatively, you can choose to work with a single marketing agency that specializes in providing an integrated marketing approach, rather than using a whole host of different agencies.

This way, you’ll save money on agency fees as well as time cost compared to when you’re dealing with multiple providers.

6. Diversity

Don’t fool yourself into believing all customers will see all of your advertising. In fact, experts claim that potential clients need to hear your message at least seven times before even considering your product.

That aside, a customer who sees your billboard by the roadside might never see your TV commercials, hear your radio ads, or even see your digital ads.

Lucky for you, integrated marketing communications will ensure your message remains the same, no matter the type of medium your ads are using. If your message stays the same, it means none of your potential customers or clients will miss out on what you’re offering.

Also, don’t forget that through this kind of diversity, you’re able to send messages to your customers via their preferred platforms.

For instance, different customers might prefer receiving their messages via email, text message, social media or via podcast. All in all, this type of marketing technique will reach out to a greater audience, thanks to its diversity.

Integrated Marketing Best Practices

Here are the important best practices that companies need to be mindful of as they move forward.

Bringing your teams together

Breaking down the silos between the different teams within your organization is the first step towards developing a successful integrated marketing campaign.

For many brands, inefficiencies currently rule the marketing process. These unnecessary slowdowns cost brands an estimated $958 million per year.

According to marketers themselves, approval delays is one of the major reasons why deadlines are missed, which also speaks to the lack of communication and inconsistent expectations throughout the marketing teams

Within the content development process, those responsible for strategy, writing, SEO, publication, promotion and measuring success need to be working together to create the optimal content and to get it in front of the right audience at the right time.

The different teams within your marketing department, including those who work with paid content, search, social and email, also need to be able to form common goals and work towards mutually beneficial end results.

For this erosion of the silos to happen, you need to focus on two main areas: education and technology. You need to educate your different teams about the strategies and goals of other groups.

Seminars, lunches that involve two or three departments and similar opportunities can encourage the exchange of ideas. Technology can also be an enormous asset.

Products that allow you to plan an editorial calendar and then track everyone else’s progress can help ensure that everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done. These tools can help improve communication and efficiency, as everyone will know what to expect.

Develop common strategies

For integrated marketing to be successful, you need to bring the different teams together for consistent, common strategies.

Read Also: How To Earn Money Online With Email List Marketing

People want to see the same message across the various platforms, regardless of whether they are speaking personally with a representative or interacting with your website.

An estimated 60 percent of millennials report that they expect a consistent experience whether they are in-store, online or on the phone with a particular brand. To create this type of integrated experience, you need to focus on the following areas:

• Know exactly who your brand is targeting for a particular campaign. This includes where they are interacting with the brand and how they like to shop.
• Know the channels that are the most likely to reach the targeted audience.
• Create uniform, integrated messaging that helps to encourage the predetermined behaviors across all the platforms. This means using similar language, visuals and designs to tie the campaign together.

Measure success

Once you have built and executed an integrated marketing campaign, you then need to make sure you understand how to appropriately measure your success.

If you used any special promotions, such as coupons or QR codes, then embed within them special tags that will let you know where the coupon was  retrieved, such as via email or through social media.

You also want to set your website to track media sources as people enter your sites. Tools, like those developed by BrightEdge, will let you see your content’s performance on desktops versus mobile devices as well.

You can also track rankings and the performance of the pages targeted during the campaigns. It is important to track each aspect of your integrated marketing campaign separately as well as together.

This means measuring email open rates, download rates of promoted content, engagement rates on targeted pages, watch rates of videos and any other type of platform you used in your campaign.

You then want to examine the campaign as a whole, looking at how well the efforts helped to drive conversions and revenue.

These two types of information will provide you with the most insight about your brand’s success and how you need to improve moving forward.  

Final Words

Integrated marketing is the future of marketing. Customers are not going to be interacting with brands through a single platform– they expect companies to engage with them across the digital ecosystem.

Understanding how to not only build this type of campaign, but how to optimize it and measure it, will be the key to getting in front of any industry.