Developing an integrated marketing strategy is key to ensuring that you don’t waste time and money on marketing that isn’t contributing to the success of your business as a whole. Today, marketers have a huge range of choice available to them when they’re considering how to promote and where to advertise products and services.
If you are searching for promotional products in Australia then chances are you might need a little bit of help tying your promotional product use into your marketing strategy! That’s ok, we’re here to help you with that. We’d like to outline the ten commandments of developing an integrated marketing strategy in the hopes that it gets you on the right path.
1. Thou shalt understand thy target audience
If you don’t know who you’re talking to it’s going to be very hard to speak to them… It’s important that you clearly identify who your audience is (both by demographics and psychographics – their interest, attitudes and behaviours) and that you work out the best way to speak to these people. You need to know where to reach your audience as well as how to reach them.
2. Thou shalt pick thy channels
Not everyone needs to be on Facebook, the same way that not every business needs to be on the side of a bus or on a billboard. You only need to refer to point one and work out where your customers hang out and then speak to them there. Be ruthless and spend a lot of time figuring this one out, because it’s far better to focus your attention on one channel and spend all of your time there.
3. Thou shalt be consistent
Don’t confuse your audience by having a couple of different logos, or a range of styles of photography. People want to know that when they encounter your business that they’re going to be getting the same experience. It’s not boring, it’s just consistent – and this breeds trust. Your style needs to be the same across all of your mediums in order to be effective. This means your website needs to look like your brochures which need to look like your Facebook ads.
4. Thou shalt create content that can be repurposed
It can take more than five impressions to recognise a brand. So make sure that you communicate clearly the compelling and consistent message across a range of channels, and that you keep it the same. That way people will be sure it’s you.
5. Thou shalt integrate
Make sure that every element of your campaign has a purpose. You need to have an ultimate goal – whether you’re driving people to your website for purchases, reservations or subscriptions; or whether you’re after more social engagement.
6. Thou shalt synchronise
You need to ensure that your teams are working together, and that if you have multiple team members that you have people working to standardised expectations.
7. Thou shalt track
Don’t forget to figure out where things are coming from. The most important aspect of your campaign is figuring out where you got your leads from and then understanding how you get conversions.
8. Thou shalt split test
A great way to get the results you want is to split test your messaging. That way you’ll know what works and what doesn’t and you can tweak for best results.
9. Thou shalt be creative
When you’re working out an integrated campaign you need to make sure you’re being creative and getting things done the right way for results. Have fun with it!
10. Thou shalt not steal content
A key part of your marketing campaign needs to be the originality of your content. It will make for a far more effective and easy journey if you create original and effective content that works for your brand.