
Today's marketers are faced with information overload: with dozens of different channels to choose from and new forms of digital marketing constantly emerging, it can be difficult to cut through the clutter and reach your audience directly.
Consumers also have an endless stream of brand advertisements that they view daily. This makes reaching out and engaging them more than just engagement.create a websiteand accounts on social networks and wait for users to find them. if you have the budgetPromote your websiteE-commerce or business, this becomes even more of a challenge.
This is where integrated marketing comes in. With integrated marketing communications (IMC), brands can deliver their message across multiple channels in an engaging, consistent and cost-effective manner. Let's take a closer look at what this means, how to develop your own integrated marketing strategy, and some examples of how other brands have successfully implemented it.
What is integrated marketing?
Integrated marketing is a strategic approach to delivering a unified message across all channels, ensuring customers have a seamless experience when interacting with your company. Instead of focusing on different products or different aspects of your brand on each platform, you present your brand in a similar way in your ads.Social media marketing, direct marketing and public relations. The goal is to create a united front to increase awareness and knowledge of the company and its products.
Imagine seeing a branded post about a new product on Instagram, then visiting your website to learn more about that product and make a purchase, but with a completely different message, tone and imagery. If you encounter this situation as a customer, you may be confused by the lack of cohesion. Integrated marketing coordinates yourmarketing conceptand try to get yougenerate more leadsAnd customers can more easily understand your brand's intended message.

Advantages of integrated marketing technology
Using an integrated marketing approach is effective in more ways than one, as unifying your brand message across all channels has significant advantages over running completely unique campaigns on each channel.
economical
when you are looking for a new onemarketing strategy, the first question you may have is whether it is effective and affordable. Integrated marketing can actually be more profitable because you're creating content that can be used on multiple platforms for multiple purposes. Not only that, but some integrated marketing campaigns also rely on user-generated content, which can also help reduce costs while increasing effectiveness and engagement.
build a relationship with the brand
The key purpose of integrated marketing is to build relationships with customers. This approach helps build awareness and trust by ensuring your messaging across all channels is credible. Regardless of where your brand is present, your audience will slowly begin to recognize it, and with consistency in their experience with your brand, they will come to trust your message.
create cohesion
As consumers, we like things that go well together. By running several unrelated campaigns simultaneously on your different channels, you are left with a disjointed brand image. Consumers are already exposed to endless amounts of information every day, so instead of launching five other different campaigns, show them one cross-sectional campaign to make sure you don't overwhelm them.
How to formulate a successful integrated marketing strategy
It is important to develop a strategy before implementing integrated marketing for your brand. There are certain things you need to plan ahead of time, such as knowing your audience and choosing which marketing channels to focus on. Here's how you can get started in five practical steps.
Determine your campaign goals
Know your target audience
Define your brand's unique selling proposition
Describe your approach to marketing communications
Configuration and analysis of metrics
01. Determine the goals of your campaign
Now you may have reason to look for new marketing strategies. Maybe you're launching a new product, rebranding, or trying to reach a new audience. Whatever the reason, you need to set goals in order to develop an effective integrated marketing strategy.
These reasons will indicate your goals. For example, if you have a new product, your goal might be to educate consumers and drive conversions. Knowing your desired end result will help you structure your integrated marketing communications more effectively and will help you make every decision during the campaign creation process.

02. Know your target audience
For a strategy based on communication and building relationships with the audience, it is imperative to first get to know it. A good start is to create a buyer persona that, along with your campaign goals, will point you in the right direction. To do this, you must first answer the following questions:
Who is in the target group? (To be specific, look at data like gender, age, location, interests, etc.)
What is important to my target audience?
What problem are they trying to solve?
(Video) What is Integrated Marketing?Which platforms do you use most often?
How do these people prefer to interact with the brand?
Depending on the goals of your integrated marketing campaign, you may want to customize your buyer persona to be unique to each channel or create separate channels entirely. This will allow you to further narrow your target audience.
03. Define your brand's unique selling proposition
Your unique selling position sets your business apart from the competition. When developing an integrated marketing strategy, understanding your brand's position in the marketplace will allow you to identify unique areas to focus your marketing efforts on.
Since you may not be the only brand in your industry using an integrated marketing strategy, focusing your marketing efforts on the areas where your brand shines the most, rather than your audience focusing more on the same areas, is key to ensuring your success. A good way.
04. Describe your approach to marketing communications
Your marketing communication method determines how and where you distribute your campaign. A common mistake is to choose which channels to focus on before tackling any other part of the plan. But choosing where to focus before knowing why or knowing your audience can be a waste of time and resources.
There are elements that enter your phaseMarketing plan:
Decide how you want to communicate.Are you planning to send email marketing messages, monitor content like blog posts and videos, or run a social media campaign? You can choose more than one, but make sure the communication platform makes sense for your audience and goals.
Choose the right shade.Regardless of the platform you choose to broadcast your campaign, choose a tone that resonates with your target audience. This applies not only to the words you will use in your ad, but also to the type of content you will include in your campaign. For example, you can promote a new product in a short video or an official e-book full of industry jargon, but they probably won't have the same effect.
Select your channel.Once you have a better understanding of what your message is and how you want it to be delivered, it's time to choose where to publish it. you might want to usemarket segmentationthrough multiple channels. Look at competitors in your industry to see where they are successfully engaging with customers and consider what has worked for you in previous campaigns.
05. Establishment and analysis of indicators
The goals you set at the beginning will help determine the metrics you'll track throughout the campaign. For example, you may see a brand mention on social media, an increase in conversions or website engagement.
When using multiple channels, you should analyze the results of each channel separately to understand exactly how your marketing campaigns are performing on different platforms. Metrics can also be different for each platform, so you may need to set up multiple KPIs to accurately measure the results of your integrated marketing communications.
This step should not only be done after your campaign is launched, but can also be tracked to test different messages and identify areas for improvement. Analyzing the results of your campaign not only helps you improve its performance, but also teaches you how to optimize similar campaigns in the future.

5 successful integrated marketing campaigns
Geico - Gekon
Geico used a common mispronunciation of its brand name and used an anthropomorphic macaclin in its advertisements. This is a great example of how to get creative with integrated marketing.
Geico did more than just use the same tone or aesthetic, they created a mascot to convey the brand's story and message while engaging people with humor. The activity paid off and resultedGeico sales boom from 2002 to 2007, making it the fastest growing auto insurance brand.
GoPro - Become a sports hero
To promote its durable Hero action camera, GoPro launched the "Be a Hero" campaign to turn its users into brand ambassadors. People submitted user-generated content, such as pictures of themselves using the camera for a variety of activities, from extreme sports to everyday activities such as swimming in the pool.
GoPro uses the "Be a Hero" message across multiple channels: TV commercials, billboards, social media and digital communications. The campaign resonated with many because it evokes the idea that anyone can be a hero with a GoPro camera, an idea that helped the brand reach a whole new audience.
Domino's - Events from AnyWare
To draw attention to how easy it is to order a pizza at Domino's, the company launched an "AnyWare" campaign that allows customers to order via text, tweet, and even smart devices like watches, TVs, and voice-activated AI devices like Alexa . . To do this, users need to set up an online pizza profile to order quickly.
Domino's used integrated marketing to launch a social media campaign, TV commercials and press releases,increase traffic to your websiteLearn more about express orders. The pizza giant set a goal for half of all orders to be done digitally, and with this campaign, it easily achieved that.
Pigeon - Royal sport of beauty
What began as a study of how women and society perceive female beauty has become a global movement that has helped redefine brands. Dove first ran an ad asking people to vote via SMS on whether the women in the ad were beautiful. This includes viral videos, TV commercials, print ads and similar social media marketing messages.
Dove has grown from a simple soap company into a brand synonymous with body positivity, making it a great example of how integrated marketing can be used to rebrand a brand. With this campaign, Dove not only successfully sparked conversation and repositioned its brand, but alsoSales increased from $2.5 billion to $4 billionIn 10 years since launch.
OldSpice - smells like a man
Another example of a rebranding company, Old Spice Originalthe man your man could smellThe ad gained so much momentum that the brand included it in the entire campaign. The 30-second TV ad was shared so much on social media that Old Spice decided to back it up by creating more similar ads and interactive videos on social media.
The company also rebranded its website, product packaging, voice and messaging to reflect this new campaign which resonated strongly with its audience. This has resulted in millions of online video views, increased engagement andSales doubled in less than a year after the campaign was launched..
FAQs
What is integrated marketing? Definitions, tips and examples? ›
Integrated marketing allows you to use the same content and assets in different formats. For example, you can post a video ad on multiple social media platforms. Instead of relying on separate ad agencies, PR firms, and sales departments, you can merge all your efforts into 1 marketing group.
What are examples of integrated marketing approach? ›- Apple's Immersive Website and Storefronts. ...
- Chicago's Field Museum Brings Art into the Urban Core. ...
- Domino's Helps People Order from Anywhere. ...
- Southwest Brings Transparency to Airline Tickets.
The five main components of the IMC include advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, direct marketing, and public relations (PR).
What are the 4 Ps of integrated marketing? ›What are the 4Ps of marketing? (Marketing mix explained) The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a “marketing mix,” or the combined tools and methodologies used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives.
What are the 4 C's of integrated marketing communications? ›- Coherence – different communications are logically connected?
- Consistency – multiple messages support and reinforce, and are not contradictory?
- Continuity – communications are connected and consistent through time?
- Complementary – synergistic, or the sum of the parts is greater than the whole?
Through multiple communication platforms and tools, Coca-Cola shared its message widely. The Coca-Cola campaign is one of the integrated marketing communications examples.
What is the integrative marketing strategy? ›Integrated marketing is the principle of creating consistent messages across your marketing communication channels. Companies with an integrated marketing strategy strive to show customers the same visual aesthetic, the same slogans, the same promotions, and the same overall tone across multiple channels.
What are the 6 C's of integrated marketing communication? ›Towards that goal, six relevant criteria can be identified: 1) Coverage; 2) Contribution; 3) Commonality; 4) Complementarity; 5) Robustness, and 6) Cost.
What are the main types of integrated marketing? ›What are the five forms of integrated marketing communications? There are five strategies you can use to promote your brand. They are advertising, internet marketing, direct marketing, sales and public relations. All of them can be used together to create an integrated marketing communications campaign.
What are the 6 Ms of integrated marketing? ›In order to execute an effective Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) strategy, marketers must take into account the 6 M's model; market, mission, message, media, money and measurement.
What are the benefits of IMC? ›
- Builds brand recognition and trust. ...
- Increases your market reach. ...
- Saves on costs. ...
- Yields higher revenue. ...
- Identify your target audience. ...
- Define your unique selling point. ...
- Define marketing communication methods. ...
- Establish a consistent brand element.
- Define the brand guidelines. ...
- Create user profiles. ...
- Map out a cross-platform content marketing plan. ...
- Create a website content inventory. ...
- Employ a content marketing platform. ...
- Deliver a consistent brand experience to users with disabilities.
Integrated marketing offers a smooth, customer-focused experience by incorporating all marketing communication elements, including public relations, social media, and advertising. It implies that your message should have a unified look, feel, and tone across your channels.
What is the most important part of IMC? ›Consistency of message is one of the most important elements of integrated marketing communication. The copy style and content should be consistent across all media.
What are the three elements in any integrated marketing? ›There are three elements in any integrated marketing communication strategy: the consumer being targeted, the channels through which the message is communicated, and evaluation of the results of the communication.
How effective is integrated marketing? ›Research has shown that integrated campaigns across more than four channels can outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by a staggering 300%. Here are a few reasons why: You receive better results. When you combine communication tools and messaging, marketing effectiveness bolsters.
What are the 7 P's of marketing? ›Since then, the theory has been expanded into the 7 P's of marketing. Which are: Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Packaging, and Process.
What is good integrated marketing communication? ›- Planning. ...
- Execution. ...
- Evaluation. ...
- Adjustment. ...
- To build brand awareness. ...
- To build customer loyalty. ...
- To increase sales. ...
- To target specific groups with specific messages.
- Coherence – different communications are logically connected.
- Consistency – multiple messages support and reinforce, and are not contradictory.
- Continuity – communications are connected and consistent through time.
- Set Goals + Objectives. Set a goal and have all your teams work towards achieving that goal. ...
- Define Your Audience. ...
- Choose Your Channels + Allocate Budget. ...
- Create Adaptive Assets. ...
- Communicate + Share.
What are the 6 fundamental marketing strategies? ›
The building blocks of an effective marketing strategy include the 6 P's of marketing: product, price, place, promotion, people, and presentation. The effective integration of the 6 P's of marketing can serve as the foundation for an effective growth strategy.
How many key principles are there in integrated marketing communications? ›In order to understand and effectively use integrated marketing, you must first learn the four core principles behind it.
What is the basic goal of IMC? ›The goal of integrated marketing communications is to ensure that customers receive the same message when they interact with a company's brand in various ways.
What is the key role of IMC as a business process? ›The primary role of IMC is to systematically evaluate the communication needs and wants of the buyer and, based on that information, design a communication strategy that will (a) provide answers to primary questions of the target audience, (b) facilitate the custom ability to make correct decisions, and (c) increase ...
What are the 7 steps required when developing an IMC plan? ›- 7 Steps To Create An Integrated Marketing Communication Plan. ...
- Understand And Know Your Target Audience. ...
- Set Up A Budget Plan. ...
- Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition. ...
- Define Your Marketing Communication Methods. ...
- Maintain A Consistent Brand Element. ...
- List Down Key Success Metrics. ...
- Execute, Test, Reiterate.
Another great example of an integrated marketing campaign is Coke's 'share a coke with' campaign, which used unified messaging across TV, Social, Outdoor and Display leading to a 7% uplift in Coke consumption by the target demographic, making it one of the most successful Coke campaigns in history.
What are 5 examples of traditional approaches in marketing? ›- Handouts. A handout is typically a printed document, like a flyer or brochure, that can promote a business, event or sale. ...
- Billboards. You can typically find billboards along highways or major roads. ...
- Direct mail. ...
- Print ads. ...
- Event marketing. ...
- Broadcasting. ...
- Cold calling.
The integrated components used by Coca Cola employed a mass media methodology which included television advertising, print media and banner ads. The approach utilized a marketing mix of advertising, direct marketing, as well as Web based interactive and social media marketing and sales promotion.
What is an example of integrated marketing campaign service? ›The Integrated Marketing Campaign—Service includes a campaign that is related to any service or intangible product. Examples may include pet services, golf lessons, health care services, salons, restaurants, amusement parks, etc.
What are the 3 types of market integration? ›- Horizontal integration. This occurs when a firm or agency gains control of other firms or agencies performing similar marketing functions at the same level in the marketing sequence. ...
- Vertical integration. ...
- Conglomeration.
Why is integrated marketing important? ›
Integrated marketing offers a smooth, customer-focused experience by incorporating all marketing communication elements, including public relations, social media, and advertising. It implies that your message should have a unified look, feel, and tone across your channels.
What are the characteristics of integrated marketing? ›- Coherence – different communications are logically connected.
- Consistency – multiple messages support and reinforce, and are not contradictory.
- Continuity – communications are connected and consistent through time.
The 7 Ps of Marketing
These seven are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning and people.
Basic examples of traditional marketing include things like newspaper ads and other print ads, but there are also billboards, mail advertisements, and TV and radio advertisements.
What are the 3 marketing approaches? ›There are three common approaches to marketing that many businesses find effective. These include organic, paid, and earned methods. You might find one better suited to your company's marketing strategy overall or one that meets specific goals. These methods can overlap and build on each other, which is recommended.
What are the strategic method of integrated marketing communications? ›Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the process of unifying a brand's messaging to make it consistent across all media that the brand uses to reach its target audience. It's a strategic approach that guides communication and tactics used across all marketing channels.
What is Starbucks IMC mix strategy? ›Starbucks marketing communication mix consists of communication channels to communicate the marketing message to the target customer segment. The most popular channels discussed below are print and media advertising, sales promotions, events and experiences, public relations and direct marketing.
Which company uses integrated marketing? ›- Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known brands in the world, and its success is due in part to its effective use of IMC. ...
- Nike. Nike is another company that has used IMC effectively. ...
- Ford. Ford is a company that has used IMC to great effect. ...
- Apple.
Also called product integration. The weaving of a brand into the existing story lines of film, TV, streaming, or influencer programming. James Bond races an Aston Martin, Orange is the New Black characters gobble Dunkin' Donuts, or Influencers clean up with Dyson vacuums.