How can you ensure your campaigns are integrated across all customer journey stages?

One key aspect of this stage is understanding the target consumer. Who is he (or she), what needs are they seeking to satisfy, and how do they go about satisfying those needs? Beginning with 'who' and 'why' before delving into 'what' and 'where' is essential to avoid wasting [scarce] resources on inefficient strategies.

Knowing how your customer flows through the customer journey is a big step in better understanding where the marketing touchpoints should be along that path. Crafting the right content at the beginning of the journey is not enough. As marketers, we need to have content ready for middle and bottom of funnel to help them select your business and drive them to purchase. Also, let's not forget to utilize our new customers for other opportunities for sales as you surely offer more products as services than the one they are currently buying.

It's important to properly define which KPIs are relevant to your objectives and your specific target audience. This is inextricably linked with accurately identifying the touchpoints and channels that your target consumers interact with in their journey towards meeting their unique needs. If you are "successfully" tracking the wrong channels, your message still won't reach the intended audience.

The beauty of integrated marketing communication is that you can connect with your audience through multiple, varied touchpoints. The challenge however is that you [usually] have a limited budget, so you can't really be everywhere. On a restricted budget, it's crucial to identify the channels and touchpoints that are truly relevant to your target consumer, so you avoid spreading yourself thin and ending up ineffective.

Every campaign is part of an ongoing conversation with your consumer. It should align with your brand identity while also incorporating insights from past campaigns. This is why documenting insights from previous campaigns is essential. Besides "voting with their wallet," this is another way your consumer responds in this ongoing conversation.

Undestanding customer journey is key to optimize the resources and to direct all the marketing activities to meet the customer at several stages. So moving from functional benefits to mental benifits throughout the funnel will help the marketer to develop the best strategy to take the customer from one stage to another.

The campaign process can be broadly categorized into three stages: defining, planning, and implementation. Steps 1-3 fall under defining, step 4 under planning, and steps 5 & 6 under implementation. This categorization works because the above steps sometimes need to happen concurrently. For instance, a clear understanding of relevant touchpoints is crucial to properly defining goals and KPIs. Also, acting on consumer feedback is a key part of the implementation phase. It's however important not to skip any of these steps, as each plays a vital role in ensuring the success of the campaign.