The push towards brands “being everywhere” has been building for years.
When implemented correctly, integrated marketing across multiple channels can be incredibly effective. It builds authority and brand awareness. Users feel like they’re seeing you everywhere.
When implemented poorly, integrated marketing can be a huge waste of time and ad spend, especially during the holiday shopping season. In some cases you can even do catastrophic damage to your brand.
Integrated Marketing – Gone Bad
Being visible on multiple channels isn’t going to do much for your business if your creative is inconsistent.
If you’re running ads on multiple channels, but using a variety of different ad messaging and design elements, you’re not going to get the results or perceived status of being ubiquitous that you’re seeking. In extreme cases, users may even think you’re two or even three completely different companies!
Your native ads, display ads and social ads need to touch on the same themes and styles for consistency in your campaigns.
Integrated Marketing – Done Right!
Consider the either incredibly (or horribly) named Babymaker Electric Stealth Road Bike. One visit to their website is enough to unleash a storm of retargeting ads across multiple channels.
All of them consistent, and all of them on-brand.
Not only are these ads visually consistent across multiple channels, but they go way beyond simply offering a discount.
I’ve been served a variety of ads now that touch on an effective set of themes that address objections and reassure buyers, including:
- Social proof (“Indiegogo’s Most Funded Campaign!”)
- Customization: The variety of styles and colors available
- How much hills suck, and how you can ride longer with an electrical assist.
- How electric bikes are perfect for older riders who can’t ride traditional bikes anymore due to Arthritis/Hip Replacement
- Scarcity (Your last chance to join thousands of others)
While we don’t work with FLX Bike directly (and don’t have specific insight into what they are or aren’t doing) we can tell you that in our experience, there are three key components to really making integrated campaigns like this work:
- Careful Planning. In today’s busy and ever-changing paid media landscape, simply writing a couple ads and hoping for the best isn’t going to get you where you want to go. Smart marketers will factor in social and political timing, and holidays and other distractions as part of a launch. Whether for launch or ongoing, you’ll also want to plan specific messaging based on the various states of buyer awareness of your audience, and motivators and objections based on your personas. For more information on buyer awareness and planning effective Holiday campaigns, make sure to check out our free Guide To Holiday Promotions.
- A Clear, Detailed Scope. Make sure to surface not just what you want to see with the individual creatives, but also exactly what the goals of the campaigns are, what your testing plan looks like, and which channels you plan on utilizing. Setting clear expectations and staying in close communication solves a lot of potential problems.
- Supporting Documentation. A Style Guide (or Brand Standards Manual) that clearly details the style, tone, fonts and logos ensures that everyone is rowing in the same direction. A Media Library containing approved copy, product images, logos, and other visual assets is always incredibly helpful in ensuring consistency as well.
The Power Of Working With An Integrated Agency
No matter how carefully you detail the rules of your visual and vocal communication…
Working with multiple agencies and in-house teams can still create problems – not just with consistency, but also with communication.
AIMCLEAR has worked with dozens of brands that have engaged multiple agencies at the same time, for services ranging from SEO and web development to paid search, paid social, organic social, and conversion rate optimization.
In these engagements, the involvement of multiple vendors almost always requires extra hours spent on communication. It also increases the likelihood of inconsistent experiences across channels – which is kryptonite to integrated marketing.
Quite simply: Too many cooks in the kitchen can create problems.
This is one of AIMCLEAR‘s clear advantages: As an Integrated Agency, we have SEO, Web Development, CRO, Data Analysis, Paid Media, and Design and Copy all under one roof.
Our full-service clients reap the benefits of us having all these moving pieces working together, organically!
To learn more about AIMCLEAR‘s Integrated approach, click here.
