According to the American Marketing Association, integrated marketing is “a strategic planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.” Sounds great, but what does that really have to do with your small business marketing plan?
If your current marketing plan is all about direct mail and nothing else, then you may be missing out on a large segment of consumers waiting to hear your message. Not that there is anything wrong with direct mail, but don’t you want your consumers to hear your message anywhere and everywhere? Integrated marketing does just that by using multiple forms of communication to target consumers and bring you more business. MarketingMeasure of Dallas-Ft. Worth can help you coordinate and integrate various marketing tools into a solid campaign in order to maximize the impact on your customers.
Building positive relationships with customers and understanding what drives purchasing decisions is really what marketing is all about. The Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (JIMC) states that integrated marketing is “customer-centric”, which means having an acute understanding of a customer’s wants and needs. Reaching a potential customer on a personal level and then building a relationship with that person is key to running a successful small business. For that you need more than just one egg in your marketing basket.
As featured in the Dallas Advertising League’s monthly luncheon in January, integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a concept that should be the placed at the forefront of any successful marketing plan.
More than just another advertising technique, integrated marketing incorporates multiple online and offline communication tools into one complete powerful promotion using channels such as: online blogs, social media – MySpace, Face Book, Twitter, mobile marketing, print advertising, video, search engine optimization and more.
All the elements of the 4P’s of marketing, price, place, product, and promotion, are used in developing an integrated marketing program.Crafting persuasive messages is also a large part of the marketing process. Not only do you want your customers to hear you, but you also want them to remember what you have to say.
Message consistency also plays a large part in the success of an integrated marketing campaign. If your marketing message is consistent across the board, then you gain credibility and customers tend to place more trust in your small business. Even though putting together an integrated marketing campaign sounds like a lot of effort the benefits are worth the time spent.
Let MarketingMeasure show you how integrated marketing communications can revolutionize your small business by reaching customers from all over the metroplex. There are many marketing services to choose from and MarketingMeasure can even help you make informed decisions about how to communicate with your customers. For more information about integrated marketing, contact the marketing management team at MarketingMeasure by phone at 214-213-7445 or online at www.marketingmeasure.com. Shift your consumers from “awareness” to “action” today!
