In today’s world, marketing strategies rarely operate in isolation. Offline marketing tactics like TV ads and billboards frequently rely on the internet to deliver personalized content or conduct live chats with potential customers. And the list goes on.
The trend is towards more integrated marketing strategy, where every tactic is connected to the overall goal of delivering quality leads to sales teams.
Whether you’re operating in luxury goods or skincare, health or beauty, or any other industry, staying relevant means integrating technology into your marketing mix.
Herein lies the rub. Although there are many tools that connect online and offline marketing, they tend to operate in silos. An integrated approach means learning to use many different tools, such as HubSpot and Google Analytics, to get the full picture and make the right connections.
But it doesn’t have to be hard. We’ve compiled a list of the top integrations for online and offline marketers, so you can build sustainable, data-driven marketing strategy faster than ever.
Let’s take a look.
1. Email Marketing & CRM
The most basic form of integration is integrating your email marketing with your CRM. Depending on your company’s needs, you can choose from several CRM tools, such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.
Regardless, the most crucial step is to define how you will use the platform. In order to do this effectively, you need to understand the purpose of each tool. For example, HubSpot provides you with an email marketing template, which you can use to shoot and receive emails. However, you can also use the tool to track leads, nurture relationships, and identify high-quality leads.
The beauty of this integration is that you get the best of both worlds. You have the convenience of email marketing, which has low overhead and allows you to be flexible with content, and you have the structure and accountability of a CRM.
This is important because, in today’s world, leads often come from several different sources, such as salespeople, marketing people, and word-of-mouth. By integrating your email marketing with your CRM, you can have all of these leads funneled into one place so you can follow up and close the deal. This is also a good place to track and measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts over time.
2. Content Marketing & SEO
If you’re looking for ways to attract and retain customers, then content is a key component of your overall marketing strategy. What is content marketing you may ask?
Simply put, content marketing means creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, engage, and retain customers. To maximize the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy, it is essential to integrate it with your SEO. Doing so will increase the visibility of your content in organic search and guide the decision-making process of potential customers who are exploring your product or service.
Why is SEO important? Well aside from the fact that you might not appear at all in an organic search, your SEO will determine how your content gets ranked and how frequently it pops up on the first page of search results. Ideally, you would like all of your content to be ranked high in search engines so when potential customers come to Google to search for your product or service, they see your content on the first page.
Depending on your budget and the complexity of your product, you can either hire a team of experts to take care of your SEO, or you can use a tool to get started, such as Google’s free SEO tool, which can be accessed from your Google Analytics dashboard. Doing so will give you access to SEO suggestions, keyword analysis, and backlinks, all of which can help you determine the best course of action for your content marketing strategy.
3. Live Chat
Thanks to the rise of live chat, it is now possible to conduct real-time conversations with customer via messaging apps. This component of marketing strategy is called customer engagement or simply, customer interaction. Simply put, you can have real-time conversations with potential and current customers to better understand their needs and to provide them with a more satisfactory experience. The important thing to keep in mind about live chat is to conduct it frequently and consistently. Why? It helps build credibility with customers and shows that you’re dedicated to providing excellent customer care, which can translate into revenue.
To successfully integrate customer interaction into your strategy, you need to begin with a live chat widget on your website. Doing so will put you in direct contact with potential customers, and from there, you can launch into a more detailed conversation. You can also use live chat to collect feedback from users or to simply engage with them. It’s a great way to get more messages out to your audience, whether they are current or potential customers.
4. Mobile Marketing & mCommerce
The rise of mobile marketing and mCommerce, or mobile commerce, is changing the way we interact with our customers. Thanks to the explosion of mobile phones and tablets, more people are accessing the web via their mobile devices. To reach this audience, you must have a mobile-optimized website.
What is mCommerce? Simply put, mCommerce is the usage of mobile devices to purchase goods and services online. Why should you care about mobile marketing and mCommerce? Well aside from the fact that consumers are quickly shifting their attention to what is readily available on their mobile devices, the technology allows you to engage with customers when and where you want, which can translate into increased revenue. For example, let’s say you operate a food truck business. You could use mobile marketing and mCommerce to engage with people as they walk past your truck, to attract them into the store, and then follow up with a call to action, such as a sale or coupon code. When someone sees your mobile marketing and mCommerce, they are likely to be reminded of your business and what you offer, which can lead them to become a customer. Even if they don’t purchase anything from you, having a mobile-optimized website will increase your credibility and make it easier for them to find your business when they are in need of your services.
5. Social Media Marketing & CRO
For a while, online marketers restricted their efforts to marketing on a few big platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. In today’s world, however, everyone and their mother has a social media account, giving you the opportunity to reach a wide audience.
To effectively utilize social media for marketing, it is important to integrate your strategy with your CRO (customer relationship optimization). What is a CRO? Simply put, a CRO is the usage of multiple platforms, such as social media, to gain a deeper understanding of your customers and to engage with them on a more personal level. Using tools like Hootsuite, you can see every single social media account you have, which gives you the opportunity to engage with your audience on several platforms simultaneously. Why should you integrate your social media marketing with your CRO? Having a personal connection to customers via social media can help you establish credibility and make your customers feel as though they are communicating with a friend. In turn, this can translate into increased sales and better brand loyalty.
6. Real-Time Bidding & RTB
Last but not least, we have real-time bidding, or RTB for short. Essentially, RTB refers to the practice of buying and selling web traffic on an on-demand basis in real-time. The important thing to keep in mind about RTB is that it requires you to have a steady stream of traffic, which can be difficult to achieve if you don’t have a strong social media presence or a large website.
RTB can be used to directly target the audiences that visit your sites and social media accounts. Why should you care about RTB? Well aside from the fact that it can help you gain a steady stream of qualified traffic, the platform provides you with granular audience data, which you can use to better understand your customers and to find the right people with whom to engage.
If you’re looking for a free tool to get started with RTB, try out Google’s Keyword Planner. From there, you can set up a free account and begin to find the best keywords for your business.
As you can see, integrating online and offline marketing is quite easy. Simply follow these six steps to begin.