7 Critical Elements of a Successful Integrated Marketing Strategy

New marketing channels are appearing all the time, thanks to social media outlets and other digital platforms. At the same time, traditional outreach methods such as physical ads still have a big impact.

The growing number of choices gives marketers plenty of ways to reach their target audience. However, it also leaves the door wide open to one of the biggest problems in marketing today: fragmentation.

To make a lasting impact, marketing needs to communicate a consistent message to customers at every point of interaction. But with so many marketing channels, it’s easy to lose control.

To keep communications consistent and prevent fragmentation, here are seven key elements to keep in mind when developing your integrated marketing strategy:

1. Planning

To make sure all channels and communication methods are integrated, you have to start at the beginning.

Start by defining the campaign and its goals, said Frost & Sullivan’s Gary Robbins and Lauren Jaeger during a session at the 15^th Anniversary MARKETING WORLD 2014: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange in Boston. Figure out your company’s identity and the message you want to send, as well who you want to send it to.

2. Buying cycle

Integration isn’t just about making sure different marketing campaigns use similar language or have the same taglines or design schemes. It’s about the sending the same message to customers throughout their entire journey with your company. 

Make sure you consider the entire buying cycle when planning your integrated marketing strategy – including brand awareness, consideration, credibility, and final evaluation. While different types of content will be used depending on which phase the buyer is in, the core message needs to be consistent.

3. Your audience

Really successful integrated marketing happens when companies are able to look at themselves from the customer’s point of view and see if that view is consistent with the message the company is trying to convey. Doing that requires a full understand of your audience and its different segments.

Many companies have taken up the strategy of developing buyer personas for the different types of customers they’re trying to reach. Key factors to consider when defining those personas include title, industry, level of decision-making power, needs and concerns, and preferred communication channels.

4. People

Customers don’t just interact with your company via the marketing collateral that you deliver to them. They’re also likely to speak with a salesperson during the process, or with support staff at some point after they make a purchase.

The message delivered in those person-to-person interactions must also be consistent with marketing communications. To achieve that, marketers will have to work with other teams such as sales, customer support, and others that deal with customers.

5. Content

Content is king in today’s marketing landscape, as buyers have greater knowledge and access to more information than ever. Buyers have already done their research before they contact companies, so marketers need to make sure they’re putting out the kinds of content that resonate with the target audience.

The key – and one of the biggest challenges – is making sure all of those pieces of content deliver a consistent message. Robbins and Jaeger recommended a rubric for developing content that is “ALRITE”:

1. Audience: Who, specifically, does each marketing asset target?
2. Longevity: What is the shelf-life, or long-term value, of this asset?
3. Resources: How will the asset be produced and who will be delegated to execute?
4. Integration: How will this asset integrate with the rest of our marketing campaign?
5. Timing: When is the best time for this asset to be launched?
6. Evaluation: How will we measure the performance of this particular asset?

6. Technology

Technology plays a role in almost every aspect of marketing these days, from analyzing data and conducting to research to publishing content and tracking the success of campaigns. However, it’s important to use technology wisely, warned Dell’s Monique Bonner during her keynote speech at MARKETING WORLD 2014. 

With so much technology available, marketers sometimes act like kids who are excited to play with a bunch of new toys, she said. It’s important to start by defining the goals and then figuring out what technology will help the company get there, rather than the other way around.

7. Measurement

As any marketer knows, the work isn’t done once a campaign is rolled out. You need to track results so you can do better next time – and, ideally, make changes in real time based on the results.

Again, it comes back to the planning. Before implementing a strategy, the company needs to know what key performance indicators need to be looked at and how that data will be tracked. The goal should always be continuous improvement, with a focus on viewing the company from the customer’s point of view.

About the Author:

Sam Narisi is the Publications Editor for Frost & Sullivan’s Integrated Marketing Solutions Practice, which helps companies innovate and deliver original marketing programs for every stage of the buying process.  For more information and insight, visit Frost & Sullivan’s IMS Knowledge Center.  For details on Frost & Sullivan's Integrated Marketing Solutions Practice, contact us today.