Digital Trends
According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies Integrated marketing communications is an approach to planning communications that gives your small business the potential to get better results from your campaigns and reduce marketing costs. By integrating tools such as advertising, direct mail, social media, telemarketing and sales promotion, you provide clarity, consistency and maximum communications impact.
In the Traditional approach to marketing communications, businesses and their agencies plan separate campaigns for advertising, press relations, direct marketing and sales promotions. Integrated campaigns use the same tools to reinforce each other and improve marketing effectiveness. In an integrated campaign, you can use advertising to raise awareness of a product and generate leads for the sales force.
More Ways of Contact
Previously, marketers have a choice between print, radio and television for communication with consumers. While these tools are still used today, there are also new methods by which a brand can contact its consumers. For example, someone can hear about the high quality of your products from one of his friends. The next time he goes online, he sees an advertisement about your products. Two months later, he wants to buy from you and so a new customer is coming to your store. By delivering a consistent message through these multiple points of contact, you can effectively deliver the right perception of your brand to current and potential customers. These points of contact include customer service, direct message, word-of-mouth and internet marketing.
Specialized Media Channels
Nowadays, consumers have become more segmented than before. This is evident by the numerous media channels that exist to cater to extremely specific segements. For example, there are television channels for ages between 10-16 years old. There are magazines for young female entrepreneurs and there are even websites that are specialized for any concept. Through these specialized channels, brands can deliver their messages to be much more effective than traditional media outlets.
Marketing has come to focus on data
Marketers are now able to use a massive amount of data about their target audience, allowing them to design the right campaigns and focus on particular segment and target the right audience.
Competition has increased and customers are more valuable
With the digital age and the internet making it much easier for entrepreneurs to start doing businesses, the competition has become stiff and so these existing customers are more valuable than ever before. To retain these customers, you should ensure that you share the same values, and integrated marketing communications is the best way to promote these values to them.
