There is no shortage of digital marketing tools you can use to build your brand—but which ones are most effective? And how do you use them well? These are the questions that integrated digital marketing concerns itself with. Essentially, integrated marketing is about not putting all your eggs in one basket; rather than spend all your marketing dollars on SEO, an integrated marketing approach might pull together SEO, content marketing, PPC, and more.
The key to integrated marketing is harmony. You want each arm of your marketing endeavor to be working toward the same goal. In other words, your content marketing should complement your SEO, and your SEO should in turn work in tandem with your PPC. Everything should be oriented toward the same goal.
Pulling these disparate digital marketing threads together may seem daunting. For business owners looking to get started with an integrated approach, these general tips and strategies may be useful.
Getting Started with Integrated Digital Marketing
Start by Identifying Your Target Audience
Your integrated marketing approach needs to speak to a particular user demographic—to the people you’re trying to reach, to convert into customers. Before you do anything else, identify that audience. Consider crafting buyer personas to spell out their interests, values, and pain points. Make sure that, throughout your marketing endeavors, you know exactly who you are talking to.
Choose the Right Marketing Channels
An integrated approach does not require you to use every single marketing channel that’s out there; your budget may leave room for just two social networks, for example, so be prudent about picking which two you’ll use. This is where a data-driven approach becomes invaluable; if you have metrics from past marketing campaigns, you can use them to determine which channels get the best results with your target audience.
Know Your Message
What are you trying to accomplish through your integrated marketing strategy? How will you define success? And what message are you going to tell in order to achieve that goal? These are the questions you need to address as you put together marketing content. Ensure that your messaging is consistent across each channel.
Be Cohesive
It’s not just your message that needs to be consistent across all platforms, but also your visual style, the kind of verbiage you use, and more. Think ahead about color schemes, font choices, logos, graphic design decision, and the kinds of buzzwords and phrases you use to promote your brand.
Make Content Creation a Priority
Content feeds all your other marketing endeavors. It provides you with SEO value, with social media fodder, and more. Creating original content—whether landing pages or blogs—should be a central activity in your integrated marketing strategy.
Track Everything
It’s often said that marketing without data is akin to flying blind. Don’t fly blind through your integrated marketing endeavors, but rather set up tracking and analytics for everything. You can really never have too much information.
Review and Revise as Needed
Using the data you collect, determine what’s working and what’s not. Test new ideas, and see how they work. Make tweaks and adjustments as needed, always relying on that information you’ve gathered along the way.
Take a Big Leap Forward with Integrated Marketing
You’re not going to be able to launch an integrated marketing campaign over night, but you can start making your plans and laying your foundation. These tips should help. Start thinking about your goals, your audience, and how you can move your brand forward, using all the digital marketing tools at your disposal.
Amanda E. Clark founded Grammar Chic in 2008. She is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and holds degrees in Journalism, Political Science, and English. She launched Grammar Chic after freelancing for several years while simultaneously leading marketing and advertising initiatives for several Fortune 500 companies.