What Is Integrated Marketing Communication in 2020 [Full Guide]

by

25 February 2020

Marketing

Integrated marketing communication

It is just a simple concept of making all kinds of communication and messages linked together. This is just to ensure that there is no lack of information. This lack of information can have a negative result on the work. Do you know what is integrated marketing communication?

At the basic level of IMC i.e., Integrated Marketing Communication, all the promoting tools are linked together for smooth communication. You surely must have heard of the marketing mix. Yes, that 4Ps of the marketing mix. This promotion is one of that marketing mixes

To make all the tools work smoothly, all the tools must work together in harmony. This can be advanced when regular communication is integrated into several levels, such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External, and Data integration.

Let’s go through various components of IMC:

1. The Foundation:

In this, a detailed analysis of the product and the target market is required. For the marketers it is essential to understand the nature of the brand, what are its USP (unique selling proposition) and the requirements of the end-user. It is important to have a close eye on your competitor’s behaviors. Every need of the customers is of the utmost importance.

2. The corporate culture:

There must need to be relevant in the product and the producing company. Every organization has its own vision, so while planning marketers need that to keep in mind.

For example, there is an organization whose vision is to train teenagers in the field of their interest. If they start training the middle-aged man they are deviating from the vision.

3. Brand focus:

Every organization is known by the brand they are producing or facilitating. So, it’s important to have plans which are always focused on the brand. Making their brand the center of attention.

4. Consumer experiences:

You must not forget about the consumer and how they feel about the product. Nowadays customers are more attracted to the product which looks good, has good packing, and of course, the product itself needs to be one of the best.

5. Communication tools:

It is a way via which the brand communicates with the customers. The ways can be direct selling, advertising, social media, advertisements, etc.

6. Integration tools:

Selling the product is one part of communication but also getting feedback from the customer is also part communication.

Plans for Integrated marketing communication

Integrated marketing

It integrates all aspects of the marketing mix to promote the products and services to the customers at the right place and at the right time. It is a proven fact that if you use different IMC tools at the same time it can improve the customer experience of the product.

If done correctly. IMC can improve the visibility of the brand. Whenever a customer goes to the market for shopping, they will be reminded of your brand. The impact of integrated marketing communication increases if the end-user sees the brand simultaneously multiple numbers of times.

A marketer should be well versed in time management. Because doing many things like budgeting, allocating the right resources at the right for the promotion of the product is of utmost importance.

Gathering information about your company and its product and the audience who buy this product is very important for planning.

While planning some points are needed to keep in mind:

  • A detailed summary needs to be made on the brand is going to reach its targeted audience.
  • Everything about the organization needs to be crystal clear.
  • Good knowledge of the product is required.
  • Choosing the right market is very important, and hoe you are going to promote it into the market needs to be mentioned clearly.
  • Competitors’ analysis is very important. And how the competitors are active in the target market.
  • Knowing your brand weakness as well as your strong points can be a good start to promote your brands.

Implementing integrated marketing communication

Integrated marketing communication is a way of promoting the brand through various methods like advertising, social media awareness, direct selling, public relation, etc. It focuses on using all the available ideas together to get the most desired result. Instead of using one integrated tool at a time, it brings all the possible tool under one umbrella and uses any viable option which is used in an effective way.

The success of integrating marketing communication relies totally on understanding the customers, their needs and expectations. Just remember one thing the customer will be loyal towards you only when you outperform their expectations. And to do so you need to be well versed in the marketing mix and need to apply that knowledge in the fields.

Just promoting your product once or twice does not make you gainer. You need to keep doing that. So that whenever they think of buying a product, your brand needs to be the first to come in their mind. This can be done only after promoting the same product several times a day to the same audience. This makes their subconscious mind active and your product makes space in their second mind.

Let’s take Colgate for example, no matter where you are, whenever you think about a toothpaste product the first name that comes into mind is “Colgate”. Why? Because it was their integrated marketing communication skills that have made you think this way. This what an integrated marketing communication does if done correctly.

What are the components of successful integrated marketing communication?

It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.

This can be done only by using the components effectively:

Customer focus

No matter how good your product is, no matter how good is your service is, until and unless you make a customer happy all is worthless.

Do you believe in God?

No, then start believing in the god named “Customers”. If you are a marketer then you need to have faith in this god. Only this god has the power to make your brand, organization what you hope for.

So, if you think ignoring their needs and doing and coming up with the best plan will work for you then you need to go back a little bit and have a fresh start.

Everything about the customer is very important. Their appraisal, as well as their, complains both hold the same value. But for me complain matters the most. That shows where we are lacking and where we need to improve ourselves.

Make sure whatever you are planning customer needs to be at the center of that.

Co operation

Cooperation among the marketing team is important, but it is essential that every member of the organization work as a whole, to promote the product.

Other members who are outside of the department are needed to be allowed to give their thoughts on the matter. This can help in unboxing new ideas, which can really accelerate the promotion.

Database communication

The sharing of information is one of the important aspects of good planning. This helps in formulating the best course of action. Every employee needed to be filled in on every relevant detail that they need to do their job.

Leverage

Analyze every channel on which the promotion is done. Calculate their cost estimation. See that if the ROI on that cost is relevant or not. This helps your brand’s promoting efficiency.

Profitability

At the end of the day, we have to gain revenue. So, making a plan, formulating the strategies are only helpful when they can bring in profits.

So, we have to market in such a way that it really brings in the audience to invest in our brand and stay loyal to the brand. This will help to bring in higher revenue.

Importance of integrated marketing communication

Nobody can deny the fact that integrated marketing communication is an important aspect of the promotion of the brand.

Let’s go much deeper:

It acts as a messenger between the brand and the audience

It recognizes the need of the customers, it gets the data of the competitors, locate an important place for marketing the brand and send this back to the organization for the analysis.

Brand awareness at a low cost

It is a long-term process where you gain audience trust, and convince them to invest in your brand. Integrated marketing communication is the best way to promote your values.

Think like this, if brand A is already communicating with you properly, and delivering its USP on a regular basis. Why would you go for the brand B. you will subconsciously choose brand A

Integrating marketing communication over traditional ways

IMC is taking over traditional ways because it not only focuses on getting new customers but also tries to retain the older on as well. Gaining a new customer does not mean that you forget about the older customer who has already avail of your services. Gaining new customers is very good but losing the older one is not accepted. Because once the trust is broken, it cannot be restored. The customer will never trust you again. So, doing both is of utmost importance.

It reduces the time required for the planning

If not for this IMC, strategizing the plan would take lots of time. It is due to the IMC that the time is reduced to none.

IMC tools

It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.

Let us go through the tools which are used in IMC:

Advertising

It is the best way of promoting the brand. It can reach a huge amount of audience in the shortest time frame. Advertisements on the television, newspaper, radio can reach many audiences in a small frame of time. This also increases the authenticity of the brand. Now it is the marketer’s job to make sure that the right messages are sent to the audience.

Self-promotion

The promotion which the brands do with the promotional code, discounts, attractive offers, etc. brands itself can pay for advertisements to the newspaper, distribute leaflets for the promotions.

Direct selling

There are various tools like mailing, text messages, brochures, which the brands use to promote themselves.

Personal selling

Personal selling here is referred to the selling of the products from their showrooms, via their agents and making sales call.

Public relation activities

Well, have you seen brands presenting themselves in the community meetup, in fairs, in public events? If yes, then you can understand what public relations mean.

It’s all about communication with the public by going in between them. This makes them feel closure to you. This creates a friendship bond with potential customers. Even if they had never thought of investing in your brand, but due to your public appearance. They may think at least once of buying your services.

Managing IMC

It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.

Just making the strategies and implementing those can be said that only half work is done. The rest half is managing and maintain those plans.

There are different modes of communication, so it needs to be managed effectively so that all work in the same synchronization to deliver the same message to all the audience. This can be done with the help of proper managing plans.

The first step is to identify the right audience

Finding the right audience is the best way to make your promotion fruitful. You need to understand who is your audience. what can be done to find the relevant audience for providing services, and who are willing to invest in you. After you find out the answer to these questions, only then you can move on with the second phase of the IMC.

The second step is to think of what to communicate

The kind of message you send to the customer is very crucial for gaining their trust. You need to have a proper crystal-clear message for audiences. This makes your brand much more authentic.

The third step is to plan your message in a way that convinces them

Having clear messages will not do, you need to present them in such a way that the audience likes it and get the meaning of it.

Make sure that your messages are all properly formatted.

The fourth step is to identify the various channel via which you can communicate with them

Choosing the best course of action is very helpful in making a promotional platform. It needs to be efficient that it reaches the right person at the right time.

The fifth step is to allocate the right source at the right time

Investment is needed to be done properly so that ROI gains a profit rather than a loss. So investment needs to be done after analyzing ever aspects of the promotional platforms.

Lastly, it’s important to measure the reach of Integrated marketing communication

You need to monitor constantly that the promotion is reaching the people or not, doing a blind job is just like walking on the edge of the mountain blindfolded.

Conclusion

As a whole, integrated marketing communication lays down a bridge between the organization and the audience. Without the IMC informational gap is created which can lead to malfunctioning of the whole organization.

There are many strategies that can be implemented to overcome any possible crisis faced by the organization.

Each and every detail on integrated marketing communication is given in this article.

Image source

Read Also:

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

B2B Digital

Understanding The Role Of SEO In B2B Digital Marketing: Optimising Your Website For Success

Imagine you're attending a business conference, networking with potential clients and industry experts. You strike up a conversation with a key decision-maker and they express interest in your product or service. Naturally, you exchange business cards and part ways. Now, imagine that when they get back to their office; they type your company name into a search engine, hoping to learn more about your offerings. Will your website be among the top search results? The answer lies in the power of search engine optimization (SEO) and how the B2B digital marketing agency you hired is taking advantage of it.So, what’s the crucial role of SEO in driving organic traffic, generating leads, and boosting conversions for B2B companies?Understanding the Basics of B2B SEOTo set the stage, let's start with the fundamentals of B2B SEO. Unlike B2C marketing, B2B SEO aims to capture the attention of businesses rather than individual consumers. It involves optimizing your website, content, and online presence to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) when relevant keywords are searched.Driving Organic Traffic and Generating LeadsEffective SEO techniques can help increase your website's visibility, driving organic traffic from potential B2B clients. By optimizing your site's structure, using relevant keywords, and creating high-quality content, you can attract qualified leads actively searching for the products or services you offer. Remember, higher rankings in SERPs lead to increased visibility and, ultimately, more opportunities for conversions.Building Authority and TrustIn the competitive B2B landscape, establishing authority and trust is paramount. SEO plays a crucial role in building credibility for your brand. When your website appears prominently in search results, it signals to potential clients that your company is reputable and trustworthy. Backlinks from authoritative websites, social proof, and positive customer reviews all contribute to bolstering your brand's image in the eyes of potential B2B buyers.Optimising Content for B2B AudiencesContent marketing is a powerful tool in B2B digital marketing, and SEO goes hand in hand with it. By conducting thorough keyword research and incorporating relevant keywords into your content, you can align your offerings with the search intent of your target audience. Valuable and informative content that addresses their pain points will not only help your website rank higher but also establish your company as a thought leader in your industry.Staying Ahead of the Curve with Ongoing SEO EffortsThe best B2B digital marketing agency knows that SEO calls for ongoing maintenance and adaptation. Regularly monitoring and analyzing your website's performance, keeping up with industry trends and adjusting your SEO strategy accordingly is crucial for sustained success. As search engine algorithms evolve, so must your optimization techniques to stay ahead of the competition.Final WordIn today's digital era, B2B companies can’t afford to overlook the role of SEO in their marketing strategy. From driving organic traffic and generating leads to building authority and trust, optimizing your website for search engines has a direct impact on your business' success. By leveraging SEO techniques effectively and staying up to date with the latest trends, you can position your company as a leader in your industry and achieve remarkable growth. So, embrace the power of SEO and watch your B2B digital marketing efforts flourish.Remember that the online landscape is constantly evolving, and adapting your SEO strategy accordingly is the key to unlocking new opportunities and truly staying ahead of the competition. Start optimizing your website today and embark on a journey toward B2B marketing success.Read Also:How To Make Your Online Business More Humble By Managing Your ReputationWhy Is An SEO Services Company Better Than Others?Online Marketing : Selling Your Product And Services

READ MOREDetails
B2B

Business To Business [B2B] Content Guide

In the realm of B2B showcasing, making convincing substance is basic to drawing in your crowd and driving business success.However, in the face of so many competing channels and messages, can you really ensure that your content stands out and connects with your target audience?Here are three essential tips that you have to know when it comes to developing a winning B2B content strategy.Know Your AudienceUnderstanding your audience is the first step in creating effective B2B content. This means knowing their pain points, goals, and challenges in addition to their demographic and firmographic information. What keeps them up around evening time? What are their primary concerns? What might your item or administration do to tackle their concerns?Buyer personas research is one method for collecting this data. This entails conducting interviews with your ideal customers, evaluating the analytics on your website and social media, and researching insights and trends in the industry. You can tailor your content and messaging to meet the specific requirements and interests of your target audience by developing a comprehensive profile of them.Place Your Buyer at the Center of Your MessagingIt is essential to place your audience at the center of your message once you know who they are. This means addressing their issues, goals, and challenges in detail and presenting your product or service as the answer they require. Instead of talking about the features of your company or product, talk about the benefits and outcomes your buyer will get from working with you.Create a messaging framework that emphasizes the most important ideas and points you want to convey in order to effectively accomplish this. This ought to incorporate your offer, exceptional selling focuses, and key advantages. Make sure that every piece of content you create adheres to this framework and speaks directly to the requirements and interests of your customers.Anchor Your Content Strategy in Thought LeadershipLastly, your content strategy needs to be anchored in thought leadership if you want to stand out in a crowded market. This means creating content that portrays your business as an industry expert and trusted advisor. Thought leadership content gives significant bits of knowledge, patterns, and viewpoints on industry points for your crowd.The first step in creating thought leadership content is to identify the most important topics and themes that your audience cares about. The next step is to create content that either enhances the current conversation or offers a novel point of view. Blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, webinars, and videos are all examples of this. By giving significant substance, you'll assemble trust and validity with your crowd, making them bound to think about your item or administration when the opportunity arrives.Getting Started with B2B ContentAll in all, an idea administration approach, a purchaser-driven informing structure, and an exhaustive perception of your main interest group are important for creating effective B2B content. You can create content that connects with your audience, inspires commitment, and ultimately supports your business results if you follow these guidelines.Read Also:Streamlining Video Content For Global Audiences With Professional Subtitling Services10 Ways To Create Amazing Social Media Content For Your Insurance AgencyTrends That Shaped The Content Marketing Industry In 2022

READ MOREDetails
business money

How to use IT to Save Your Business Money

In a world that’s focused on making your business fly, ‘return on investment’ (ROI) is a term that’s usually talked about when you’re planning SEO, PPC or social marketing strategies.In fact, IT can offer a huge ROI for your business – simply by streamlining processes that could otherwise see your team or contractors spending unnecessary time struggling with sub-par systems and devices.We’ll walk you through 6 of the best ways to save money, with nothing but IT as your tool… How to use IT to Save Your Business Money: Explore open-source software : It’s easy to forget that Microsoft, Google, Adobe and the other huge software and service providers aren’t the only companies out there who create worthwhile resources.If you’re used to working for a company, you might take it for granted that the typical applications you’ll use (think; word processing, spreadsheets, customer relationship management, accounting – and much more) are just there for you within a few clicks – but actually, those pieces of software cost a significant amount of money.The truth is, the household names are the ones we know about because they’ve got the budget to market their products far and wide – but in fact, there’s a host of great open-source applications out there that are completely free to use – you’ve just got to know where to look.Open-source is more than just a money-saving tip though, in fact, there’s a world of developers who believe open-source is the only way you can truly reflect user’s needs in the long term – and many of those developers commit themselves to maintain and adjusting the free software to suit businesses just like yours.This TechRadar list offers some great open-source applications that’ll definitely help your business save money when compared to full price alternatives. Let employees work on their own devices : ‘Bring your own device’ (BYOD) such a simple idea – yet so many businesses resist it.When you let your employees use their own devices to do company business, you’re saving huge amounts of money – and actually increasing productivity at the same time.Countless studies have shown that employees are more comfortable and more productive when they use their own devices for work tasks – and the maths really adds up: If using a device you’re familiar with only saves 10 minutes each day – that adds up to an incredible 45 hours over the course of a full working year – essentially offering you a free week’s worth of work if you’re happy for employees to use their own machines.Of course, there are security considerations to be made – and BYOD is likely to be impractical if you’re handling a lot of sensitive client information, but if you’d like to take away a huge chunk of capital expenditure from your budget, these could be problems you’d be happy to work around. Outsource support : When it comes to money-saving, good tech systems can give and take in similar measures – but one of the largest costs to consider when you’re installing IT relates to the people who are going to support it.If you’re a small company, even if you only have a very small number of employees, you’re probably going to need someone to support your IT systems – and if you don’t have that person in place, you run the very real risk of not being able to trade if your IT network goes down.So, what does the maths look like? Well, you’ve got a $40,000 basic wage for someone who comes with the skills set needed to keep a network up and running by themselves – then you’ve got to factor holiday cover, sickness, maternity/paternity leave, training and what happens if that person decides they’d like to work somewhere else.All in all, carrying IT staff can be problematic – and extremely expensive – which is why managed network providers (MSPs) are becoming more and more popular with small to medium-sized businesses.With an MSP, you’ve got the potential of 24/7 access, 365 days a year – plus no need to worry about keeping an individual up to speed with the latest accreditations and training programs. You simply pick up the phone and access the support – which, most of the time, can be applied to your systems remotely.If you’d like your tech to save you thousands – you could do a lot worse than finding a good MSP and treating them like they’re one of your valued team. Buy resources ‘as a service’ : If you’re bringing your IT support onboard as an outsourced service – why not do the same with your applications, platforms, and infrastructure?In the last 10 years, larger tech companies have realized that there’s an increasing number of small businesses becoming established year on year – and those companies simply do not have the money that’s needed to buy expensive software licenses, development platforms and costly networking infrastructure straight out of the gate.The solution? Offering all of the above on a subscription basis – pay for only what you use, whenever you need it? A result is an increasing number of people opting to move to solutions like Microsoft Office 365 and Google’s G-Suite – both examples of ‘Software as a Service’ (Saas). That said, it’s not just cloud-accessed software that’s available in this manner, Microsoft now provides email exchange servers on a similar subscription basis too – with the robust security you’d expect from one of the biggest tech companies on Earth.All these things are made possible by the cloud – the concept of storage and services that are hosted centrally, with your internet connection bridging the gap between your business and the resource. Of course, you’re going to need a connection that is stable and fast enough to allow uninterrupted access – but that’s more than realistic for most internet service providers.Interestingly – the monetary benefits of SaaS are actually likely to be two-fold, as there’s an increasing body of evidence that suggests people actually work more effectively together when they’re collaborating online, even when compared to sitting next to one another in an office space. If you want to increase productivity and reduce costs with the help of IT tech, you could do a lot worse than to explore which of your required resources could be procured ‘as a Service’.Read Also :How Does Modern Technology Propel The Success Of Your Business? 5 Affordable E-Commerce Shopping Carts For Small Business What Are The Benefits Associated With Crowdfunding For Businesses?

READ MOREDetails