Nowadays, customers can be found in every corner of the globe, and their expectations are constantly rising. To meet these demands, businesses adjust their operations to suit the new ways in which customers want to receive information, gain access to products, and make purchases.

Innovations in technology have made it easier than ever for businesses to engage with customers remotely. The rise of online and social media marketing has given birth to a multibillion-dollar industry. According to Statista, a global market research company, revenues from online marketing and media grew from US$16.9 billion in 2012 to $26.2 billion in 2017.

With the evolution of online and social media marketing came the need to integrate online and offline marketing efforts, and companies were quick to respond. The best practices and methodologies to achieve this were established and spread by digital marketing experts.

This, in turn, fostered the rise of a multibillion-dollar market called integrated marketing. Essentially, integrated marketing blends online and offline marketing for a more effective approach. Companies that implement an integrated marketing strategy see significant gains in consumer engagement, conversion, and sales.

The Benefits Of A Multi-Channel Marketing Approach

In an increasingly digital world, customers are relying more heavily on social media to learn about new products and gain access to deals. According to HubSpot Blogs research, 66% of millennials use social media to research purchases, while 55% of Gen Z and 52% of Generation X use social media to do the same.

These groups also lean more heavily into their smartphone cameras to research products, rather than using websites or searches on computer tablets. Hence, marketers must consider mobile-first and social-first strategies when implementing an integrated marketing strategy.

Embrace the power of digital marketing and social media marketing to attract, engage, and delight customers wherever they are, whenever they’re looking for your products or services.

Marketing Channels You Should Be Using

To better understand the multichannel approach to marketing, it’s important to know the various platforms that customers use to access information about your products or services. These are often different from platform to platform, so it is essential that you optimize your approach across all of them. Doing so can increase your reach, minimize your customer acquisition costs, and most importantly, maximize your conversions.

Make Sure You’re Consistent In Your Approach

When developing an integrated marketing strategy, you must consider how to approach various platforms and social media channels. Sometimes, companies will focus heavily on one channel and neglect or discourage other platforms. This can lead to a missed opportunity or, worse, an inconsistent message.

To avoid this, you should always consider a multi-channel approach, where you consistently market across all platforms and don’t let one platform dominate the others. For example, if you’re on Facebook but don’t have a Twitter account, you should definitely consider creating one. Vice versa, if you have a Twitter account but no Facebook page, it might be time to set one up.

Create A Plan, But Don’t Be Overly Concerned About It

As a marketer, you must always consider the plan in advance when developing an integrated marketing strategy. But try not to get too concerned about it. You can always change your plan as you go along, and if anything changes, you can always adjust as needed. Moreover, nobody is an expert in every element of their businesses, and therefore, you must be more pragmatic than anything else.

Make Sure Your Plans Are Actionable

Actionable plans are crucial to any marketing strategy. Without them, you’re just spinning your wheels. Having a clear idea of what you’re supposed to do and how you’re going to do it is the key to implementing a successful marketing strategy. In the near future, you’ll be able to find a lot of success with a marketing plan, but until then, you should always be testing and adjusting as needed. You can use free tools like PlanGrid and marketing automation platforms to establish clear and measurable goals, and then track your progress toward achieving them.

Take Care Of The Basics

Marketing can be a complicated subject, especially once you start getting into the weeds with the particular platforms and methods used by various companies and organizations. However, you must always start with the basics:

• brand awareness
• attracting qualified leads
• increasing sales
• Customer Support
• Content Strategy
• and so on

Don’t Forget About The Basics

When you get into the details of marketing, it can get complicated. You can’t avoid this, but you must always come back to the basics: your customers, your brand, and your product. Everything else is secondary, but it’s essential that you know what you’re doing in regards to these three items to have a successful marketing strategy.

To put it simply, you can’t skip marketing to analytics, and you shouldn’t try to. You’ll never be able to determine how much a particular campaign contributed to your bottom line or how effective certain strategies were without doing the basic analysis first. When developing your marketing strategy, you must consider how to integrate online and offline efforts, establish clear goals, and determine what platforms and methods you’ll use to attain them.