The American Association of Advertising Agencies was the first organization to define the term integrated marketing in 1989. They defined it as, “an approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign through a well-coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other”. A lot of time has passed since the AAAA first defined what the new marketing approach was, but not much has fundamentally changed in the idea since it was defined. Over the past decade internet marketing has really changed the world of marketing, and now business and companies from around the world are looking for the best way to advertise to their customers.
Despite the new kinds of marketing methods people use, it’s seems that integrated marketing is the best way to get customers excited and engaged about a product. It’s very possible that you’re company is using an integrated marketing approach without even being aware of it. If you launch a print ad campaign for a certain product along with an online campaign and a TV campaign, you’ve been using integrated marketing. If you want to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your next integrated marketing approach, be sure to focus on these following things.
Leverage
Many companies choose to use an integrated marketing approach because one method of advertising may have other positive qualities and attributes that another is lacking. And when companies decide to use the two different methods, one method’s positive attributes can make up for what the other is lacking. Leveraging the strengths of one method to offset the weakness of another can do a lot to improve the effectiveness of your campaign and may also even be able to reduce the costs.
The proper leveraging of marketing methods requires an in-depth understanding of each method, and an in-depth understanding can only come from research of the past marketing methods you’ve used. Take time to think about successful ad campaigns that you’ve had in the past, and once you figure out which methods worked best and which ones didn’t, you can know which methods you can use to leverage each unique strength and weakness.
The most creative and groundbreaking advertising campaign won’t help a company if it’s too expensive for them to finance. Sustainable and stable business requires profit, and conducting an integrated marketing campaign that’s too expensive won’t help your business in the long run. In today’s advertising world there are far too many people who mistake “influence” and “identity” with “investment”. Any ad campaign that doesn’t improve relationships with current customers, increase profits, or reduce operating costs is simple a waste of resources. If you have an ad campaign and can’t clearly define how it will cause any of the previous things to happen, you need to rethink your approach.
Cooperation
Your integrated marketing campaign is probably going to require some of your departments to work together to make it happen. Sending frequent email updates and simple communication isn’t enough to make an integrated marketing campaign work. Your sales department, customer service department, social media team, and regular marketers all need to be able to work together in order to make a large campaign work. Before you start developing an integrated marketing campaign, make sure that your employees are truly ready to handle it.
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James Cash is a marketing specialist and part time writer.
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