Integrating Your Marketing Efforts: Garnering Better Outcomes and ROI

Much is written, discussed, and promoted about the importance of designing and implementing effective integrating marketing plans. While many businesses tout it, they are also challenged with “how” to make strategies truly work together for the best impact. Couple this challenge with the reality that organizations struggle with the inevitable internal silos, disparate budgets, as well as unrelated departmental goals, and brand level integrated marketing becomes especially difficult.  

So, how does an integrated marketing strategy impact reach and resources? It makes every effort work harder and longer for the brand. At Chartwell, we recommend the C.O.P.E. approach: Create Once, Place Everywhere. Seems easy and intuitive to push content across multiple platforms, but crafting, customizing, and sharing content through several tactics and audiences is nuanced.

Every organization—be it a chamber, a hospital, a school, or a bank—has a story worth telling. Whether it’s about new services, products, testimonials, or noteworthy outcomes, crafting narratives that resonate with your audience’s interests and needs is essential for connecting with more like-minded individuals. However, without an integrated plan, the approach to sharing a story is single minded. When framing the story, an integrated plan considers all the angles in which it can be promoted from the beginning.

One way to organize this approach is to design an integrated communications plan that presents both the strategic goal and tactical execution.  At Chartwell, our integrated plans detail key brand themes, relevant topics and priorities on a monthly basis, enabling us to be both proactive and forward-thinking in our strategic allocation of resources. It ensures primary messages are consistently prioritized with more seasonal information. Then, those messages are tactically coordinated and effectively positioned across various channels to reach a client’s audiences.

Here are a few examples of how this approach works. For any organization, the brand message priority could be to reinforce a unique area of specialty or excellence. A healthcare strategy to reinforce that message could be a story about a patient whose outcome was significantly improved thanks to a physician’s special training. In economic development, the focus might be on the distinctive services offered to businesses seeking growth. For a financial institution, the story could highlight unique products that help customers clients realize their dream of home ownership. And for schools, it could be an inspiring alumni story showcasing the achievements in a specific industry or career track.

Once you know the brand value to reinforce and the story to tell, consider the translation of that story across owned, earned, paid, and shared channels, addressing the unique needs and audiences of each. An integrated plan addresses telling that story in appropriate ways to place it in multiple channels to increase reach and frequency.

Follow the C.O.P.E. method and “create” the story by investing the time and resources to gather the insight, information, and perspectives to shape your story. Then, translate that information into deliverables. This may include:

• Developing and posting a blog on the website
• Creating a press release and pitching a feature to earn media coverage
• Developing a series of social media posts
• Creating a case study to be shared with others in similar situations
• Developing marketing collateral using the story as a testimonial or feature
• Producing long- and short-form videos to create a multimedia experience
• Placing traditional or digital ad buys that further showcase your story

Every marketing effort your organization undertakes should be translated to work effectively across channels and platforms. Shake the internal silos or areas of expertise, and allow your teams to help connect ideas, initiatives, and content to earn more attention for your story – and your brand value message. Integrating your marketing efforts leads to a multiplier effect, creating a 2+2=5 scenario for your reach.

 If you need further assistance, contact Chartwell Agency – we’re happy to help develop an integrated marketing strategy for you and assist with thoughtful implementation, if needed.