All CMOs should be aware of the best ways to implement an integrated marketing campaign.
All paths lead to a successful integrated marketing campaign.
An integrated marketing strategy is important to allow consumers the opportunity to interact with brands. Mixing all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, PR, direct marketing, and social media is essential for CMOs to understand. A great integrated marketing strategy is essential to propel the success of any campaign. There are several strategies that can be used to ensure an integrated marketing campaign is successful.
Steps to Develop an Integrated Marketing Strategy
There are six major steps to take to develop a successful integrated marketing strategy.
The first step is to make sure you know your audience. There is really no such thing as a general audience. Every audience must be very specific and should be treated as such.
The next step is to create a SWOT outlining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the brand faces or could potentially face.
The third step is to determine the objectives the campaign should accomplish.
Step four is important because a budget should be determined and knowing the budget will decide how far the campaign could go.
Step five is necessary to develop strategies on how to accomplish the goals made in step three and tactics or specific actions on how to execute these strategies.
The final step involves planning a way to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy.
Components of an Integrated Marketing Strategy
There are several components that make an integrated marketing strategy work. Focusing on the customer is the most important part of any good strategy within marketing. Another important component of a successful strategy is ensuring the cooperation of all the departments involved. All departments must be on the same page or else the strategy and campaign itself will be sporadic and out of sync. Verifying all the databases within the company communication platform is essential to ensuring that key information is shared across all platforms. This information is needed to ensure the business grows and is profitable.
Leverage is also an important component of integrated marketing strategies. Not every channel is strong, but leveraging the strengths of already strong channels to offset channels that are weaker is a great way to improve effectiveness and reduce costs. Ensuring a return on investment is the last major component of a successful campaign. Since only profitable businesses are sustainable, it is necessary to ensure each channel and department is delivering results.
Email Marketing Strategy
An email marketing campaign can be extremely successful, and there are a few tactics you can use to ensure this. First, it is necessary to personalize messages going out to consumers. People respond better if a message is directed to them rather than to a general audience or wide population. Customers want to feel special and personalized messages help them feel that way.
Segmenting subscribers is a great way to ensure messages are personalized and more targeted to specific audiences. Sending emails that are friendly to customers’ cellphones is a huge necessity for a good email campaign. More than half of consumers open their emails on their mobile devices. If an email is not mobile-friendly more than half of consumers will not even attempt at viewing it.
It is never a bad idea to test a campaign before it is put out there for consumers to see. Testing provides data that allows campaigns to improve before they are sent out to the public. Automating email campaigns is a great way to ensure consumers see your marketing campaign at the right time and in the right way. The more an email is sent out, the more it will be opened.
An integrated marketing campaign can be successful if time and energy are put into it. Email marketing can be beneficial if proper strategies and tactics are taken and used. It is critical for all CMOs to understand the best ways to implement an integrated marketing campaign and create a unified and seamless consumer experience.
