What is integrated marketing?

This is a strategic approach to your company’s promotional efforts that showcase a seamless experience for the consumer to interact with your brand. It will complete this comprehensive messaging by the use of multiple communication efforts such as advertising, direct marketing, social media, etc. all working together in unison.

Content Marketing

Within your complete integrated marketing communications plan should be the prominent element of content marketing, which can be simply put as it is education versus the push of promotional marketing. Consumers look for an entire experience versus being seen as just another transaction.

Your company’s content marketing strategy has to start with a story – one that can be redesigned and revised for different channels and platforms to create the consistent messaging that becomes your overall integrated marketing strategy.

Let’s take a look at different channels where content marketing can help elevate your story to your consumer base.

Video

Videos are a highly effective and frequently used tactic for content marketing. They offer a personal element that can’t be found in just words, as you can see expressions and hear emotion from what is being showcased. Because users are spending more time on their mobile devices, there is a large transition to social media video marketing that can be spread across multiple channels.

Video marketing used on social allows for your brand to be positioned in a way that allows for full user interaction.  They can view, re-watch, like, comment and share all within minutes. This not only increases your social media awareness, but will drive engagement and sales from having one or several small snippets of valuable brand-boosting tools.

There are many different ways that your video can be utilized for your marketing strategy, just not on social, but can be used on your main webpage and housed on a dedicated YouTube channel. Different formats of videos can be produced to satisfy your company’s current campaign’s content marketing strategy – find out the different ways to use video here.

Blogs

They are no longer just dedicated for the use of an online diary. Blogs are great ways to communicate and inform your customers without the push of promoting your product or services. If you take a look at some of your own favorite company’s, you will see they have a dedicated section for their blogs on industry updates, tips and tricks of the trade, and useful insider information.

Those topics are a great launching pad to adapt and fold in to for your content marketing strategy. How can you take an aspect of your campaign story and bridge it in to an informative piece that only enhances a user’s experience within your website and brand to potentially move them to a loyal customer and ambassador?

Podcasts

Podcasts are emerging as a new fan favorite content marketing tactic next to videos. Like videos, podcasts creates a space for the user to feel connected to their favorite brands and give a sense of humanity to a company.

Similar to video, there are different formats that can be useful to the different platform or channel you are placing them on and similar benefits that can be reaped from the use of podcasts. The main being customer relations & community building – this can be a main connector between your company and the consumers because when your brand opens up, your customers are given a sense of belonging and feel that they are essential to the success of your company.

Other benefits of podcasts can be found in our ‘Podcasts for Marketing’ blog post.

Social Media

This is a big element of content marketing. It touches the majority of the population (pending if they are on a ‘break’ from social media) and is easily available at all times through the use of your computer and mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, etc.). Social media can also be very overwhelming for those same reasons and the amount of platforms available to place content on.

Most of your social media will become trial and error to figure out what works best for your targeted audience and by what channel (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). Utilizing complete gathered data from each piece will help filter out what tactic for social media works best. This can encompass the use of an already mentioned channel, video, but, also can take the form of many other items to engage your community.

Other Digital Avenues

The items above are great and are in the forefront of what companies use to create and show their content, but there are more options.

Quizzes, polls, games, and other engagement activities that can bring the customer in for more than a few seconds will enhance brand awareness and the likelihood of that person converting to a purchase.

If the possibility of creating an app is useful and the next logical step to create access for your customers, then that is another arena where your content can be reimagined and laid out for your users to enjoy!

Print

Let’s not forget about this guy! Print is still a very viable avenue when thinking about how to interact and engage with your customers. Though it can be costly, it will need to be evaluated per your intended use. But, monthly newsletters or company magazines are great ways to keep your customers up to date on what is happening with the company, industry, and a piece of fun! Check out our ‘Print Marketing Rejuvenation’ blog post for more!

In-Person Events

A great way to engage customers is do it in-person. Store events, conferences, trade shows, brand ambassadors are all ways to communicate your story to an audience. Again, these can be costly due to registration, table needs, and training of ambassadors, but allow for personal interaction that the consumer craves.

Creating a marketing strategy can be a daunting task and with a consumer base that craves education and a well-rounded experience, your company will need to take a less aggressive selling technique. Partnering with Colleen Eakins Design will help you move forward in creating the experience your consumer needs.