Integrated marketing may be a hot new buzzword in the communications world, but it is also a reminder that understanding your audiences, and why they care about your organization is the basis of good marketing communications. Integrated marketing means that you define your audiences, develop your messages, and use a wide range of tools at your disposal—advertising, media coverage, social networking, etc.– to engage those audiences and build their interest in your messages. It is called ‘integrated’ because it integrates several different kinds of tools and techniques to reach the audience.
Once you get beyond the jargon, integrated marketing, or multichannel marketing, as it is sometimes called, is plain old common sense. The folks you want to engage don’t live in a one-channel world. We know that we are all surrounded by many different media every day. Sure, they may enjoy keeping up with friends and with causes on Facebook, but they also read flyers left in their mailboxes. And they may get most of their news online, but it comes from traditional outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, not just from blogs.
Integrated marketing also makes sense for organizations from a time-management perspective. If your organization is like most I’ve worked with, you invest hours, days and weeks creating exceptional content. Your materials tell compelling stories, offer practical advice and make emotional connections with your audiences. Once you’ve made that investment, shouldn’t you use that content in all of places your audiences go for information? People are far more likely to remember your organization if they see it in more than one place. If you wrote a great annual report, use that content on your website or blog. Post it on Facebook so that your ‘friends’ can discuss it with you; this strengthens their connection to you and your organization. Seizing these opportunities improves the return on investment for all that great content development.
Do you want to develop an integrated marketing plan for your organization? Here are five tips to get started.
Understand your audiences. Who do you want to reach? What do you want them to do? Why should they care?
Know where your audiences look for new information and what resources they trust. Are they active online? Do they go to church and listen to sermons regularly? Do they watch TV news? Do they subscribe to particular blogs? Do they read direct mail?
Develop core messages. Start by answering these questions: What is your organization? Why does it matter? What can your constituents do to help?
Now plan your communications budget so that you can use several channels to reach your audience. Keep your messages consistent but adapt the tone and style for each channel.
Track your impact. This will be essential to evaluating your communications program and deciding what messages and channels to use next year.
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