Getting Integrated – A Digital Marketing Strategy

Integrated digital marketing is simply utilising all of your online marketing elements together to create a cohesive, strategical approach. The truth of it is, when you put all of your marketing efforts together into one plan, the results often are greater.  

Integrated plans can be tricky to plan out cohesively but as these brands show, it can create a much further-reaching campaign, with each platform working together to create a bigger impact. Big brands know what works well, with marketing leaders being 1.5x more likely than mainstream marketers to have an integrated marketing and advertising technology approach (Google). 

What does an integrated digital strategy include? 

This will depend on your sector, however typically it would involve: 

• Emails 
• Content marketing 
• Social media & paid social 
• Web design & SEO development 
• PPC advertising 

Data, Data, Data 

Before planning any form of strategy, whether that be online or offline, it’s essential to look at your consumer data. What age are your consumers, what do they do in their spare time, which social networks do they frequent, do they prefer hard copy or email marketing? There’s lots of details that make up your consumer profile, and whilst you may think an online campaign is best, perhaps your target demographic actually prefers receiving personalised mail instead of email. Perhaps if it is online marketing that works for you, have you chosen the right platform, ie selecting Facebook when your target market are actually Pinterest users.   

Also, this a great opportunity to assess your current offering and what has worked/not worked in the past. Don’t be afraid of pinning popular content to reuse in your integrated digital marketing strategy.  

How to plan an integrated digital strategy 

Once you know who you want to target the planning starts. A study by Harvard Business School’s Gerald Zaltman showed that B2C buyers are led by emotion, with up to 95% making a choice based on an emotional response. Similarly, B2B buyers utilise their emotional response up to 50% of the time when making a purchase. With this in mind, it’s essential to adopt a message that will resonate with consumers and adapt that for the platforms you feel will work with your consumer the best. 

This doesn’t mean utilising every platform listed above, you may select social media and email campaigns, or create targeted content on your website which is supported by a PPC campaign. However you choose to run your campaign, ensure that the message matches up across the platforms, and each one is presented in the best way for that platform.  

Examples: 

Hubspot collated a list of the best integrated campaigns recommended by their marketing users. One of which was the Gilette ‘best a man can be’ campaign which utilised their website and YouTube.  

“In 2019, Gillette launched its campaign, ‘The Best Men Can Be’. The campaign included an inspiring video, a landing page that celebrates male advocates and leaders in the community, and a hashtag, #thebestmencanbe, to encourage user participation across social channels,” says HubSpot Marketing Manager, Caroline Forsey. The campaign, created in response to the #metoo movement, urged men to hold themselves to a higher standard.”  

The beauty of the Gilette campaign is that it opened up a discussion, which brings us back to the point about emotive marketing. Each marketing channel worked together to bring men into a conversation about the personas shown on social media channels.  

In 2020 Brew Dr. Kombucha launched an integrated campaign across their website and Instagram. 

“In May 2020, Brew Dr. Kombucha released its signature kombucha with limited-edition colorful, rainbow-wrapping for Pride Month,” Forsey recalls. “The wrapping has the lifeline number to The Trevor Project printed directly on it — the company partnered with The Trevor Project and supports the organization through proceeds of its limited-edition kombucha. Along with the limited-edition wrapping, the company created a dedicated landing page for #LoveWins, and supported Pride Month with the #LoveWins hashtag across its social channels.” 

Whilst many brands adopt popular or trending hashtags to promote their products, Brew Dr. Kombucha chose one social issue that was important to them and tailored a full campaign around it. By doing this they not only raised their own brand awareness but aligned themselves with a trusted charitable organisation and supported a movement.  

Unsure how to proceed? 

Creating a fully integrated marketing plan is hard, especially with a small team it can be difficult to see how every platform can fit together and maximise ROI. Integrated marketing is one of our specialties and we’re quite good at it too! Why not give us a call and we can discuss the best plan for your business.  

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