Top 5 Tips for Integrated Marketing Success

According to a recent study, the average person living in a UK city is exposed to over 5,000 marketing messages per day (*Futures Company Market Research).  Consumers are busy people leading busy lives so your marketing campaigns need to work extra hard to cut through this information overload.

86% of marketing decision-makers believe that combining different communication channels under one strategy to reach their audience is crucial to their success and to deliver ROI. This means that you need to reach consumers at multiple touchpoints across their day to develop a valuable connection with them.

Brands are realising that taking an omnichannel approach to their marketing campaigns result in a stronger overall performance. This is because they are taking an integrated approach; combining different mediums in a timed and structured manner to support each other and create seamless dialogue with their target audience to help reinforce their message.

No matter what size of business or the extent of your budget, be clear on what you want your campaign to achieve and use each channel to its strengths; video can engage with deeper content, paid search generates clicks and stimulates conversion, and direct mail is trusted - prompting a valuable response.

Deploying an integrated campaign allows a brand to test channel performance and identify how channels work together to create the strongest results. These learnings can be applied to shape future campaigns to deliver more for your marketing investment.

Image Credit: Olu Eletu

Integrated marketing campaigns work for any sector. From retail, to finance, to charities – well-crafted marketing campaigns using the most relevant channels with targeted messages work.

Let’s take a look at the charity sector.

The Salvation Army found that their historical print-based marketing wasn’t delivering its usual positive results. In 2008 they added TV and digital by increasing TV coverage from 64% to 90% and incorporating digital to communicate with people who were more likely to donate online. This was combined with doubled mail volumes and personalised adverts across all channels; building on the multi-media approach.

Over 5 years they grew their donors by 262% and saw immediate response both online and offline. Julius Wolff-Ingham, Head of Marketing and Fundraising, said: “Over the last five years, we have diversified and expanded our appeals and acquisition programme as new media open up…the ways in which people respond have changed too, but mail is still our anchor medium to put The Salvation Army visibly on the doormat of many millions of homes each year.”

Read on to find out our top 5 tips for integrated marketing success.

1. Know your audience

• Get under the skin of your target audience and pick the channels suitable which will gain the most impact. Think about their typical day and which media they are most likely to consume. A City professional may be exposed to daily press titles and digital poster sites on their weekday commute but will also spend time absorbing a personalised, high-quality direct mail piece at home.

2. Define what success looks like

• Do you want to acquire new customers by raising awareness of your expanding range of products or services, or do you want your existing customers to grow their basket spend or is your main aim to upsell new services to lapsed customers? Do you want more clicks to your website, more visits to your store or calls to your Headquarters? Whatever your campaign objective, make sure your chosen channels can deliver the campaign message and stand-out creative.

3. Content, content, content

• Your content must be developed with your customer in-mind and keep the brand messages and creative consistent for maximum impact and memorability.
• Design the content to be easily adaptable for the different channels you will be using - not only will this create a consistent brand look and feel but will most likely help keep your design costs in check.

4. Be savvy with your budget

• Devise your campaign within your budget and ensure that all areas of marketing have sufficient plans in place to utilise their opportunities. Know your budget for this particular campaign and forecast your creative, production and media costs for all channels as well as storing budget in case a channel needs extra help e.g. pushing your digital advertising out to more recipients to boost your click-through rate.

5. Track your campaign success

• Ensure you’re tracking each channel so that you know how successful they were – what worked? What didn’t? Which channels engaged prospects and existing customers? You’ll be able to refine your campaigns using these insights and develop strategies to convert more prospects and keep your most valuable customers.

It’s seems that creating a seamless customer journey with them at the centre of your media planning is vital for success.  By clarifying what works and what doesn't, you can then begin to create the integrated experience your customer deserves.

Finally, remember…

• Aim – know what you want to get from your campaign
• Audience – know who you want to influence with your campaign
• Activate – use the best channels to bring your campaign to life
• Attribute – measure results to understand how your integrated marketing approach has delivered