What is Integrated Marketing?
Amanda Daniels-Allen
CUSTOMER JOURNEY SPECIALIST + SACRED MONEY ARCHETYPE COACH : Helping Spiritual Entrepreneurs & Conscious Business Owners create Magentic Marketing Eco-Systems™ that Attract + Retain the right people
Integrated Marketing is what Koogar has delivered to our clients for over 10 years and we haven’t really told you what it is and how we use it to help businesses like you. Now is as good a time as any…
We mention it a lot more now when we do our 60 seconds, explain to people what we do, how we can help them and is now a major part of our message which is why I have now finally got round to writing this blog. I thought I would explain to you what Integrated Marketing actually is and how we use it.
Marketing itself has hundreds of activities, techniques and methods behind it which can become overwhelming, complicated and daunting to say the least. Everyone who I come into contact with, marketing does it differently. There are some similarities, processes and steps that should be taken but generally there isn’t a hard and fast rule which is why it leaves a lot of business owners and marketing managers constantly questioning themselves to ensure that they are getting it right, using it as effectively as possible and making sure they keep on track and ahead of their competitors.
If marketing was easy, you would have already bought a package from a shop with a guarantee that it would work perfectly. So you can be left alone build your business empire, take over the world, buy the house of your dreams and live a life of luxury with no worries of any more marketing on the horizon…
Back to reality…
In the real world most, Business Owners and Marketing Managers struggle with marketing. Worrying if they are doing it right, what is the next new “shiny” thing and should they be using it, how is everyone else doing it, am I using it in the most effective way, I’m too old to be doing this (I’ll get someone younger to help me) and so on….
This brings about a lot of doubt.
Doubt of the tools you use (or try to use), software that doesn’t work they way you thought it would, marketers you’ve worked with in the past and promised the earth and delivered NOTHING and yourself which lets face it isn’t a good place to be.
It also brings lots of questions that you cannot find answers to, you’ve tried googling, signing up to someones webinar or newsletters, watching youtube clips and bought a package from a “Guru” when you have tried everything and it STILL doesn’t work…
What do we know?
What we do know, is that people need to see you message between 7 – 15 times BEFORE they are ready to buy and most people give up after 2-3 times of calling or sending emails. These activities are called touch points. Since Social Media came about we now need to add an additional 15 touch points due to the amount of information we see every day on our phones, Facebook, emails, telephone calls, apps etc… So, if a person in your audience needs to see your message up to 37 times before they are ready to buy, WHICH touch points do they need to see?
This is where the individual marketing activities come in. I’m not going to list them all here (as there are hundreds of them) but here is a screen shot of an info-graphic we have created to show you all the different marketing methods that are available to you and how they should be connected.
Long gone are the days where we only have to use one marketing activity to get in front of people. We need to use a combination of touch points to ensure the customer we want (the perfect customer or avatar) is receiving our information or message in the way THEY want it!
What is your understanding of Marketing?
On Mondays I deliver a Facebook Live called #MarketingMonday to help people like you to get to grips with marketing, answer questions, share observations and on 19th February 2018, I recorded this video to ask you what your understanding of marketing is.
https://youtu.be/l29iGWSSLPY - Watch this video
Length of Video: 18 minutes and 47 seconds
I gave two different definitions of marketing in this video… and then I gave my own.
Marketing isn’t what gets you business, marketing gets you awareness. It’s what you do with that awareness that then get you the business!
So, what is Integrated Marketing?
This definition is taken from Wikepidia > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communications
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the use of marketing strategies to optimise the communication of a consistent message of the company’s brands to stakeholders. Coupling methods together improves communication as it harnesses the benefits of each channel, which when combined together builds a clearer and vaster impact than if used individually. IMC requires marketers to identify the boundaries around the promotional mix elements and to consider the effectiveness of the campaign’s message.
In short; Making it work at a strategic level (by Kitchen, P., & Burgmann, I. (2015))
Click for a list of Integrated Marketing definitions from the DMA (Data and Marketing Association).
Integrated Marketing for Koogar, is about combining a variety of traditional and digital marketing activities and methods together to create a customer journey and experience of your brand to get your audience to the end result… which is to eventually buy something from you. Connecting the dots so to speak!
We don’t want to rush that relationship, we need to nurture them. HOWEVER there are some Business Owners and Marketing Managers who don’t want to nurture a relationship but HARD sell straight away!
Integrated Marketing allows you to connect the dots between the different activities you are doing. Carrying your message, your brand, your expertise traditionally and digitally to the right people and showing them consistency, congruencey and authenticity. When your audience is ready for what you do and have been through their own buying process they will choose you over anyone else.
Marketing isn’t a quick fix, it’s a long game… You just need to learn how to play it!
Not all journeys are the same which is why blueprints of other peoples marketing or ways THEY get business doesn’t work. That is a blueprint for their business. Koogar will help you create a blueprint for your own business the key is to be patient but keep going!
Lets work together to create YOUR marketing blueprint.
Book a FREE (30 Minute) Integrated Marketing Consultation
For Business Owners and Marketing Managers who want MORE from their marketing; digital and traditional with no strings attached.
The consultation will help us to find out about your business, your aims and people you want to target. We will then use this information to help you move forward with your current marketing strategy.