Over the past two weeks you have figured out your 2 prerequisites to a solid integrated marketing plan.
As a reminder, these prerequisites are:
1) A clear definition of the services you offer with defined benefits.
2) A clear understanding of the customer's needs and wants.
Since we are assuming (safely?) that you already have a business plan with SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-based) objectives and strategies, we can focus on the tools and actions tools needed to meet those objectives.
First some definitions:
· Target: a prospect, customer, recruit, vendor, or competitor to whom you want to deliver a specific message. (Why recruits, vendors and competitors? Read the next article)
· Touch: each time a target is exposed to your brand though one of your marketing tools.
· Tools: The specific marketing activity or product used to communicate with and touch a target.
Integrated marketing is comprised of three categories of touches: Print, Electronic, and In-Person. Each category has multiple tools that can be used. The chart on the left illustrates how these tools can be used to surround our target. While the tools listed in the chart are by no means an exhaustive set, they represent the most common and affordable tools available.
Any given target needs to be touched with multiple tools from different categories. This keeps the communication fresh and interesting. For example, simply barraging a target with direct mail is less effective than using a combination of direct mail, an ezine, and then a follow up phone call.
How many tools are you using now? Do you use them consistently or inconsistently? A robust integrated marketing plan uses a variety of tools in a consistent manner. It may take time to develop these tools and incorporate them into your daily marketing routine, and that is normal. It is always more profitable to do a few tasks very well than many tasks poorly. Your customer and employees will see and feel the difference.
Next time, samples of multi-touch campaigns.
