How to Build an Integrated Marketing Strategy
As you may recall, an integrated marketing strategy is, “the process of aligning and coordinating all of your marketing channels and assets into a cohesive strategy to deliver a consistent and relevant experience to consumers.” If you’ve read our blog post all about what an integrated marketing strategy is, you may not only remember this snippet, but also have a much better understanding of what it is than you did before.
Now, however, it’s time to put one into practice, which may take a little more effort. Don’t fret, though. We’re going to talk you through how to build one, and all of the steps necessary for implementing this beneficial marketing plan for your business. Here is a list of questions to consider when crafting your strategy:
What is Your Strategy’s Goal?
Going into any strategy without a clear plan is a recipe for chaos. By setting clear intentions and a specific goal from the jump, you’re paving the way for a clear end goal. Much like a scientific experiment, you must generate a hypothesis of sorts, the “why” of your marketing campaign.
What do you hope to achieve from this — new leads? More engagement? Whatever it may be, it will help determine the next steps of this process.
Which Marketing Channels?
When building your strategy, it’s vital to set goals for each channel you’ll be using. It’s likely that by this point, you may already have an idea of which route you want to take for the marketing campaign.
For instance, a combination of social media, email, and search engine marketing. If your business relies on local customers, you could incorporate events and direct mail marketing. Either way, you have to decide which will be the most effective channels to accomplish your goal and strategize accordingly.
What are Your Customer Personas?
When running a business, you’re probably pretty familiar with your customer base. Whether your marketing strategy is designed to increase your current clientele or branch out into a new demographic, you should hone your customer personas for effective communication. This gives a clearer path for your marketing campaign since it’s tailored to the unique attributes of your target audience.
Who is Running the Campaign?
No matter your marketing department’s size, it’s helpful to determine who will be handling which aspects of the marketing strategy. Like assembling your own super team, you want to ensure that each person has great know-how in an area before assigning it to them.
By crafting your team of experts from each area, all of the bases will be covered and it won’t fall on just one person’s shoulders. Especially if they aren’t as well-versed in some marketing skills as others.
Where are Your Marketing Assets?
With any campaign, it’s crucial to consider the assets you’ll be needing. Who will be creating them? Who will be in charge of overseeing them? Hopefully, this is something you covered in the step above, and now you can get going on putting together the right marketing materials for this strategy.
Make sure they’re cohesive with all of the channels you’ll be using, and they can be adapted for different content formats (e.g. blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts).
How Do You Plan to Collect Leads?
Even if your initial goal was not to collect leads, it may be an inevitable outcome of your campaign. It’s important to plan accordingly for this, and ensure your messaging reflects this in your marketing efforts.
Provide a clear “call-to-action” (CTA) on your landing page that directs them to your intended goal, like submit a form or schedule a demo. Whatever your objective, make sure to test your process thoroughly to prevent leads from falling through the cracks.
What is the Outcome?
Measuring your marketing strategy’s outcome is an important final step. To refer back to the science experiment comparison, this is the “conclusion” step after the whole process has been followed from the initial hypothesis.
Not only will this help you determine the success of your marketing plan, but it will also give you an idea of where to alter future strategies. Was there an area that needs more attention? Did one platform perform miles above the others? These are all quantitative results that will allow a clearer direction for your next steps.
Now that you have the building blocks for an integrated marketing strategy, are you feeling more confident about crafting your own? If you need assistance, we’re here to help. Schedule a consultation with Mavericks Marketing today to propel your brand with disruptive marketing!
