The 4 building blocks of an integrated marketing strategy

The competition to reach and interest audiences is growing every day. Combined with the many communications channels now available to brands, it’s a constant challenge to find the right tactics that will get your brand in front of consumers and hold their attention.

To succeed, you need an integrated marketing strategy that brings all these channels together and makes use of the right ones, at the right time, to reach the right audience. Integration enables greater collaboration, increased efficiency, and more opportunity to innovate.

You’re likely already using a range of channels - but unless they’re all working together, you won’t get the best returns, or make the biggest splash. It’s like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.

Here are the four arcs that all good integrated marketing strategies are built on, and how you can get them working well together.

1.      Marketing communications

Your marketing communications strategy defines how you present yourself to the outside world. It’s who you are, what you have to say and who you are speaking to. It’s the foundation of all your other marketing material and ensures you deliver a clear, consistent message.

For the best results, your marcomms strategy should be powered by data. Audience behaviours and trends, first- or third-party customer data and transaction data are all good places to start. The use of data-driven insights about who you want to speak to means you can turn your brand messages into powerful stories. This allows you to build emotional connections with your audience or convey a strong message – whether you’re writing thought leadership content, shooting video or creating interactive content like quizzes and dynamic infographics.

Of course, communication isn’t just about the written word. You also need vibrant, unique creative that tells your brand story across every channel, from photography to web, print to digital. This should also be defined by data and your marketing comms strategy. 

Finally, a smart public relations strategy brings it all together by distributing your message to the right people – despite digitisation, news still leads the agenda, and creating more newsworthy moments to carving out a name for yourself and reaching decision-makers delivers results.

Martec, a wholesaler of ceiling fans, lighting and bathroom fans products, wanted to build on its existing market reputation by targeting retailers and increasing customer loyalty. Ovato devised a strategic roadmap of brand enhancements to bring Martec’s marketing collateral in-line with its goal of cementing the brand as a leader in its field and featuring in major retailers and industry resellers. This brand driven approach had the desired impact on Martec’s retail presence. This brand driven approach increased new customers by 16 per cent and gross sales by 7 per cent.

2.      Media  

Media is how you get your brand messaging out to customers. There are many media channels but two of the most significant - and interconnected - are print and digital.

Print media allows you to get in front of new and existing customers in huge numbers. It’s measurable and personal, tangible and engaging. From catalogues that build awareness of your product offers to custom, unique glossy magazines, or simple pamphlets to high-end corporate stationary – it’s an important way to communicate who you are, your product offering, and what your brand stands for in-market.

Digital media builds brand awareness and drives consideration. Social media, mobile wallet marketing, digital catalogues and other online channels reach highly targeted audiences, so you can engage them with personalised messaging and guide them through to conversion. Do you want to attract the attention of new online retail customers? Or need to convert enterprise tech buyers into leads? Digital channels are essential to execute integrated campaigns and discover data about how audiences interact with you.

Understanding how these channels interact, and how to leverage attention between them is key to ensuring your marketing is a revenue driver.

Are Media was preparing to launch a new monthly magazine based on the hit Australian TV series, Bluey. Ovato worked with Are Media to co-ordinate a successful integrated campaign. From print through to distribution – reaching targeted newsagents and key accounts on deadline – and a digital marketing campaign, the launch went off without a hitch.

3.      Distribution

Distribution is how you reach customers with your print messaging and marketing communications for maximum impact. It’s an essential part of the strategy to get to the right people, at the right time in a measurable way.

Our retail distribution extends brand reach into high-traffic local businesses like newsagents, supermarkets, and other retail outlets. While residential distribution connects your print material with millions of homes and millions more people around Australia. Digital distribution can also be layered in as well.

And when you integrate distribution with data, we can model the relationship between physical and mental availability in driving people to purchase. When you can do that, you can reach your most profitable customers when they are at their most receptive to hearing from you. 

For more than 15 years Ovato has been the distributor of the popular print catalogue of one of Australia’s leading retailers. With more Australian’s renting, our client identified a demographic that it wasn’t reaching. They then engaged Ovato to develop a data-driven strategy to reach and engage with this demographic. Using data from the ABS, Ovato developed and delivered a new catalogue that resulted in a 6.52 per cent increase in overall sales from areas targeted by the campaign.

4.      Data and analytics

Data drives successful marketing. Collecting data is simple, but using it to make better decisions is another (and identifying the right data to collect is another part of the battle). The right data analysis platforms are an essential part of your marketing toolkit, to turn the data you collect in into actionable insights that help you achieve your goals.

Once you have this information, you can get more precise with how you segment your marketing messaging to different, relevant audiences. Today it’s possible to move beyond traditional demographic targeting models by applying behavioural and transactional data across all your marketing methods, channels, and material. This helps ensure your message gets in front of the largest number of relevant people that your marketing spend can support.

A better understanding of your campaign results means they can be constantly improved on. You know what to change next time to make an even bigger impact and how to combine your marketing channels in the best possible way. With this additional insight, the multiplier effect of truly integrated marketing activity is possible.

Dan Murphy’s, one of Australia’s most recognisable brands, wanted to maximise the performance of its catalogue by reaching the shoppers most likely to purchase across its range. By leveraging leading data science capabilities and ecosystems, Ovato identified delivery areas that contained the most valuable audiences for the brand, based on purchase behaviour. This realigned 25% of the selected areas meaning the catalogue reached 11% more customers with the same marketing spend.

Greater than the sum of its parts

In a world with such highly diffused media, the only way to engage with audiences wherever they are is to be where they are, and to build trust and engage with them on their terms.

That requires a unified approach to your marketing channels. One that brings them to bear on a common goal or objective. By combining the best of media, distribution, communications, data and analytics, you can get the most out of each.

With one or more missing, you’re only getting half the results, and doing more work. Today you need to integrate to succeed.

Need help with integrating with your marketing? Struggling to integrate? Contact us today.