What exactly is integrated marketing? Why is so important for your brand?
Integrated marketing is the process of creating a seamless brand experience for the consumer.
It combines all aspects of marketing, including on & offline activities, to ensure that a brand is answering its consumers’ needs in every step of their buyer’s journey.
It matters because the best brands use it, so well in fact, that as consumers we play into it without even realizing!
For example, I recently attended a Tech Summit where the CEO of a well-known shoe brand spoke about his company’s creation.
It was inspiring because he shared why they choose to use recyclable materials to make their shoes.
Then he discussed their interview process for vetting out who really understood their company’s core purpose to better the world.
As Simon Sinek would say, he shared the “Why” of their company, not the “How” or “What”.
After the conference, we received emails reminding us about the company.
A week or so later, my colleague was in New York City & came across one of their two stores in all of the nation.
Her feet were sore from walking so much, so she went in & bought a pair.
This company used PR tactics, email marketing, & offline marketing to provide a seamless buyer’s journey for my colleague.
The result? She is obsessed with her new, comfortable shoes & feels like she really knows (& trusts) the brand.
What’s more, she’s now a brand advocate for them – & we all know that the golden nugget of marketing is word-of-mouth marketing!
The Key to Quality Integrated Marketing
The key to mastering integrated marketing is staying hyper-aware of where you could be making the consumer-to-brand experience more seamless.
Every day we are walking advocates for our brand & have the choice to help promote, or detract from, our brand.
Which brings me to my next example…
About a year ago, I attended a marketing trade show. While my priority goal was to learn new marketing strategies to test out with my company, my second priority was lead generation.
I attended a session that touched on the importance of updating older content, rather than starting from scratch.
That really resonated with me because I was at a small, rapidly growing startup that constantly needed all the hacks & timesavers we could find.
During lunchtime at the event, I made a beeline to sit at the speaker’s table. We talked for a few minutes & ended up exchanging business cards.
I had begun the conversation by telling her the specific takeaways I loved from her presentation.
She was flattered & responded by asking me questions about my role & my company, thus leading to her making the comment, “we could use a product like that”.
By simply genuinely paying attention to her presentation & asking her questions, I had developed a lead.
But Wait, There’s More…
When I returned from the conference, I wrote a blog post summarizing the highlights of the show.
The post included a quote from the speaker, the name of her company, & a link to her company.
I reached out to her on Linkedin & let her know I quoted her in the post.
Overnight, the blog views skyrocketed!
When my company was seeing an average of thirty blog views per month, this one had garnered almost sixty in less than twenty-four hours.
She responded & thanked me for letting her know.
Turns out she had shared the post on her own Linkedin page, as well.
A few months later, someone from her company filled out one of our contact forms & officially became a warm lead.
While I don’t believe they ever officially closed as a sale, it’s still an incredible example of the power of integrated marketing.
By combining offline, PR, networking, social media, & content marketing tactics, we had converted her into a brand advocate who told a colleague about our company.
That being said, it took being aware of the opportunities presented to me throughout the course of my trip in order to execute on this.
Integrated marketing isn’t always planned out; that’s why you need to keep your marketing senses on high alert.
Have you harnessed the power of integrated marketing? Tell us how in the comments below!
Hilary Bird
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