A Holistic Strategy Builds Trust and How that Makes a Positive Impact on Your Marketing Efforts
I get it, social media is like a jungle for brands. You are constantly battling for your target audience’s attention, new platforms and features come out all the time, and you probably feel like you are being pulled in multiple directions. It might have you longing for the good old days of emailing printable coupons…
But what makes digital marketing so great is that it is cheaper than traditional advertising, and you have plenty of opportunities to get seen by lots of eyeballs. But you’ve got to do it right or your efforts will be wasted.
But what is the best way to break through the noise and generate meaningful leads and sales? It’s all about integrated marketing.
What is Integrated Marketing and Why It Works
Integrated marketing is a holistic form of marketing. This marketing strategy is about creating a unique form of expression that makes it easy to identify your brand across all channels. It is the overarching strategy that blends all of your tactics together so that all of your campaigns complement one another. This is what creates a consistent image of you in the mind of your audience and gives them a journey to go on. In other words, by being consistent across all platforms, you become memorable.
You’ll need to have a well-structured and well-defined marketing plan. This includes managing your presence on different channels, and this presence will need to express that same image. What this does is tell a compelling story. It leaves no room for doubt and boosts your chances of getting noticed. But more importantly, it helps take a visitor and turns them into a loyal fan.
How to Unify Your Channels
The goal of unifying all your channels is to allow people to go from one point to the next without noticing a difference. This gives them a smooth and uninterrupted journey.
Think of your marketing strategy as a painting and each of your tactics (or campaigns) as a portion of that painting. On its own, a tactic is recognizable, such as a tree. But when you put all those tactics or elements together, you see the big picture and it all has meaning. That is when real communication happens.
The three types of communication that you use and need to unify are:
- Earned Organic (such as organic search that leads to a website or blog)
- Owned Media (organic content that you create–social media posts and content marketing)
- Paid Advertising
The channels that you communicate with that need to be unified include:
- Organic Search
- Social Media
- Content Marketing
- Paid Advertising
Let’s break those down a little more.
Organic Search: Obtaining New Leads
Organic searches can be a great way to get new leads, but the pages they land on need to clearly represent who you are and what you are offering. This means your content must be relevant and engaging. Be sure to use SEO (search engine optimization) techniques that help get your content showing up in relevant keyword searches. And since many social media platforms act like a search engine, you can do SEO for your organic social posts too.
Social Media: Building Trust Through Engagement
Social media encompasses many channels of communication, from Facebook to TikTok, and from LinkedIn to Instagram. But no matter the platform, the purpose of social media is to engage with your audience. Now, your brand may not be on all social media platforms and that is okay, not everyone needs to be on LinkedIn and TikTok. So you do need to pick the ones that are right for your brand and use those; however, that is still probably two to three platforms and each one requires a slightly different approach. Despite taking different approaches on different platforms, you still need to convey the same message and image. In order to do this, you need to create a “brand persona.” Branding encompasses not just how your logo looks, but the voice and language you use (think professional vs. more casual, as an example of voice). When your branding is consistent across all platforms, you will be instantly recognizable and you also build trust with your audience.
Content Marketing: Building Trust Through Value
Content marketing is when you create and share valuable content with your audience. By giving your audience something they value, you are not only positioning your brand as a thought leader, but you are helping drive consumers further down the sales pipeline. Once you have created valuable content, such as a blog post, be sure to use good SEO tactics to help it get noticed in organic searches. Then, also share that content through other channels, such as promoting it on your socials or in an email newsletter. The goal here is to push people from these channels to your website or blog for more. Remember that you need to keep consistent branding here as well to retain your audience’s trust.
Paid Advertising: Obtaining New Leads and Keeping Loyal Viewers
Paid advertising on digital channels can fully complement whatever other channels you are using. It can bump you up in Google search results with paid searches, display ads on other sites, and display ads in social media user feeds. Be sure that you use good segmentation and keywords to get the best ROI (return on investment). And remember, even though you may think of your paid ads as completely separate from your other channels, they aren’t. Your target audience will overlap across your channels, so you need to keep consistent branding, or your ads will look out of place (creating mistrust) or won’t get the attention you want.
A Holistic Marketing Partner
Do you need help breaking through and creating an integrated marketing approach? Attuned is different from other marketing firms because we take a holistic approach. We can help you unify your marketing tactics into an integrated strategy that works to help achieve your vision. Contact us today to learn more!