In today’s broad marketing world, it’s crucial that the campaigns you run in traditional formats are integrated with the campaigns you run in digital formats.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the biggest dilemmas in marketing right now is how to tie a new digital strategy into your existing traditional marketing approach without losing what is most effective and beneficial from each. Luckily, both types of marketing follow the same essential guidelines: they use visual or audio content to convey messages, they do best when defined by a narrow brand approach, and they are useful for pointing customers toward engagement and conversion.
If your company has never created an integrated marketing strategy before, taking a multi-step approach can help streamline the process. Start by discarding what isn’t working and integrating what you already have, then focus on appearance and branding before linking everything together to form a methodology that will help you catch and keep customers.
First Step: Consolidate Your Current Efforts
You will have a harder time unifying your digital and traditional marketing approaches if you do not first ensure that each prong is itself unified. With disparate paper collateral flying every which way and a haphazard collection of online presences, your integrated marketing strategy is unlikely to come together.
Instead, focus first on aligning all your social media channels to one another: same avatar, same color scheme, same overall voice, and similar profile descriptions. Then match those to your website and landing pages. Turn to your printed materials next, tossing anything that doesn’t fit your current mission and brand and redesigning materials that can easily be adjusted before your next print job.
Next Step: Don’t Ignore Your Appearance
Looks do matter and the majority of your customers receive much of your message visually. Before the digital age, brightly colored pamphlets, magazine ads with clever graphics, and eye-catching billboards were enough to gain attention. But those days are over.
Your integrated marketing strategy depends on an appealing look that is consistent across all channels, so choose one you are comfortable with that matches your brand message and stick with it. Use a similar image or the same image for the banners of all your social media sites. Use colored text consistently across online platforms and in all product packaging and specialty printed marketing materials. Choose images for your website, sales pages, and brochures that all have a similar feel and color tone family.
Pro Step: Link All Your Channels and Platforms
Your integrated marketing strategy is not truly integrated until every marketing channel you maintain links seamlessly to the next. Your emails should have social media sharing buttons, direct mail materials should contain engaging social media hashtags, your business cards should highlight a link to your website, and your flyers and posters should feature lead-generating QR codes.
Avail yourself of every opportunity to use marketing materials to point customers and prospects toward the next channel, so that no matter where they are, you can be there, too.
In the beginning stages, creating a marketing strategy that ties together both digital and traditional methods might make you feel like you’re juggling a few balls too many, but stick with it. Eventually, various channels begin to play off of and encourage one another, making your job easier rather than harder, which is worth the design and planning time you put in upfront.
With your new integrated marketing strategy in hand, get your digital marketing campaign to match new traditional marketing materials by having them professional printed by Arkansas Graphics, Inc. Contact us for a project estimate to get started.
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