Integrated Marketing: 4 Steps to Improving Your Strategy
As marketers, the team at LNP Media Group is always looking for ways to reach the right audience, one that will benefit from and welcome our advertisers’ messages. We think about who your customers are and what their habits might be. It’s likely that your audience is absorbing information through a variety of media channels. If you’re wondering what the best way to reach today’s interconnected audience is, the answer is integrated marketing.
To effectively reach your consumers, it’s important to integrate your ad messages through various media channels. The key to a successful campaign is choosing the right variety of channels, creating a strong core message, and tailoring that message appropriately to each platform. If you’re not sure where to start, here are four steps to help you launch a successful integrated marketing campaign for your business.
Step 1: Identify Who Your Customers Really Are
Examining your current customer base will provide you valuable insight on the best approach for your integrated marketing campaign. You’ll want to identify the demographics that you’re trying to reach, then develop a message that speaks to them on channels they’re likely to observe. Here are some questions that you can answer about your own business to develop a customer profile:
- Do my customers tend to be within a particular age range?
- Where do my customers live?
- Do my customers share similar interests? If so, what are they?
- Do my customers tend to have similar beliefs? If so, what are they?
- How are my current customers learning about my business?
- Do customers seem more interested in a particular product or service that I offer?
Step 2: Identify Your Marketing Goal
Your marketing goals play a large role in determining how, when and where you execute your marketing campaign. Use a clear, distinct goal to avoid diluting your message with multiple promotions or ideas. Here are a few examples to get you thinking about what’s most important:
- Create brand awareness
• Promote an event
• Target new customers
• Improve reputation
• Launch new products or services
• Increase sales
Step 3: Decide on a Budget
For most of us, the cost of marketing is top of mind as we consider the best strategy for our business. There are options for every business:
- According to the Small Business Administration, business owners should allocate 7 to 8 percent of gross sales on marketing, however, this is not realistic for every business.
- Find a comfortable amount you can spend annually, then break that amount down monthly to see where your budget will land.
- The goal is for marketing to be profitable; you will want to track your ROI (return on investment) so you can adjust accordingly during your campaign.
Step 4: Outline Your Integrated Marketing Plan
Now it’s time to take all the information that you’ve gathered and use that information to design the perfect integrated marketing campaign for your business:
- Outline each marketing channel that you’ll be using to promote your message, making sure to choose channels being utilized by your target demographic.
- Decide exactly what you want to promote to your audience and create a strong message that speaks to them, adjusting that message based on the channel where it’s being presented.
- Establish a timeline for your campaign—with all the moving parts, charts can be helpful for organizing each component of your plan.
Begin Your Next Integrated Marketing Campaign
If you’re ready to get started on your next marketing campaign, LNP Media Group can help. Our media experts are here to provide guidance from the ground up. If you’ve already created your idea campaign, we can help you get your message out through those various channels. As a full-service media company, we can design, place and report on your campaign to help you get the most out of your marketing. Contact us today to speak with one of our experts about your business marketing ideas.