With so much competition, it’s essential that you stand out from the crowd. One of the smartest moves you can make is to integrate your marketing efforts offline and online.
You’ll find that most businesses operate primarily online, but generating leads and converting them into paying customers requires a presence outside of the virtual world. In this article, we’ll discuss how to leverage marketing and marketing technology to gain a competitive advantage.
Why Integrated Marketing Is Important
You may have heard of the expression ‘multichannel marketing’ and assumed it to mean that you could segment and target consumers across different platforms. While that may be true, multichannel marketing goes beyond simply using different platforms to reach customers. To truly harness the power of multichannel marketing, you must integrate your efforts across social media, offline, and online. This is how modern businesses operate and it’s important to understand why.
The Three-PWO Approach To Integrated Marketing
Let’s take a moment to review the basic principles of marketing and how they relate to multichannel marketing. These three Ps—People, Process, and Platform—form the backbone of any marketing strategy, and ensuring that they are all integrated is key to your success. Keep these three principles in mind as you develop your multichannel marketing strategy.
People
Your brand identity, marketing messages, and product range are only as good as the people you partner with to promote it. It wouldn’t make sense to develop an impressive marketing platform if you’re unable to attract and retain the most qualified candidates for open positions. To put it simply, you can’t expect your marketing to bear fruit if you don’t have the right people to cultivate it. In today’s world, it is nearly impossible to succeed as an entrepreneur or business owner without having an open-door policy when it comes to attracting and retaining employees.
Your people team should consist of individuals who have expertise in marketing, sales, and customer service. The better your people, the better your results will be. You must also have a clear idea of your target audience and decide whether you’ll focus on men or women, families or singles, millennials or Gen-Z. Finally, it’s important to have people who can take the reins and understand the importance of driving sales, engaging with customers, and closing the deal. You can’t rely on one or two individuals to carry out these tasks; you will need a team of people who are driven by the same mission and who have the foresight to see the bigger picture.
Process
Process is simply the way you go about doing things. In a world full of uncertainty, it’s essential that you have a clear and concise process for bringing in new business and converting them into paying customers. Whether you’re handling orders, taking payments, or shipping products, your process should be as streamlined and efficient as possible. To create a robust process, you must examine everything from the smallest details, like the way you input prices, to the largest factors, like how you organize the warehouse and what quality controls you implement during the manufacturing phase.
If you’re not careful, the way you do things now will kill your business. The nature of business is constantly changing and evolving, but you must stay ahead of the curve by adjusting your processes to fit changing conditions and business needs. Do this and you will be able to anticipate and meet the demands of your growing company with little to no trouble.
Platform
The final pillar of any marketing campaign is the platform. Your marketing efforts won’t bear fruit if you don’t have an adequate platform to display and promote your work. While you can certainly use platforms like Google Ads or Facebook to draw attention to your business, it’s equally important to have an established social media presence where you can connect with potential customers.
Established social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have billions of users who are eager to engage with companies they love. YouTube creators and Instagrammers can also be valuable assets if you integrate social media marketing into your overall marketing strategy, since approximately 85% of consumers have watched videos of brands they love and 54% have bought a product or service after watching an influencer’s marketing videos (HubSpot Blog article).
Deciding which social networks to use and building a social media presence takes time, dedication, and a business manager who can work in tandem with your marketing and sales teams to create strategic campaigns. Once you have a sizable social media following, you can integrate these platforms into your email marketing and website marketing strategy to drive more traffic to your site and boost conversion.
To come back to the beginning, remember the three Ps—People, Process, and Platform—and ensure that your marketing efforts are tightly aligned with your overall business strategy. When implemented effectively, multichannel marketing can drive sales and help you gain a competitive edge.