Why Businesses Need Integrated Digital Marketing
Why Integrated Digital Marketing? Digital technology is fast becoming the organizing principle in our daily lives. As both consumers and producers, we use the Internet, social media, and mobile devices at work and play. In this new “techonomy,� we consumers are demanding more out of brands than ever before. We expect personalization and seamless online user experiences. We look for content that informs, entertains, or otherwise adds value to our lives. Finally, we are on our own timetable: we want what we want when we want it. Sick and tired of being talked down to by advertisers and marketers, we have the power, and we expect to be catered to. To stay competitive in such a daunting environment, businesses need a new approach to consumer engagement and conversion: they need an integrated digital marketing strategy.
Why Businesses Need Integrated Digital Marketing by Chris Horton Content Creator / Digital Strategist
A bit of an Anglophile, Chris studied history and philosophy at Oxford University before going on to earn a master’s degree in Mediaeval History from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Since rejoining the real world 15 years ago, Chris has held a number of management-level positions in sales and marketing. At SyneCore, Chris divides his time between digital strategy and content creation; at play, he divides his time between little-read and long-forgotten history books.
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Integrated Contents The Components of Integrated Digital Marketing ...................................4 Digital Presence Management ...........................................................................5 Content Marketing ..............................................................................................10 Targeted Discovery .............................................................................................14 Online Engagement ............................................................................................18 Social, Local, Mobile ..........................................................................................22 Performance Management ...............................................................................26
Integrated Digital Marketing in Action ....................................................29 Establish ................................................................................................................30 Convey ...................................................................................................................31 Attract ....................................................................................................................32 Promote ................................................................................................................33 Connect ................................................................................................................34 Refine ....................................................................................................................35
The Future of Marketing .............................................................................36 SyneCore: Integrated Digital Marketing Agency ...................................37 Works Cited ...................................................................................................38 Read. Click. Share.
The Components of Integrated Digital Marketing
Digital Presence Management Acting as a company’s digital “home base,� on the Internet, a well-built site can be beautiful and practical, offering simple navigation and quality content optimized for web, social, and mobile channels. The best sites provide a convenient, simple, and relevant user experience, easing the path to the sale.
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Brand Messaging The most effective brand messaging has three characteristics: 1. It aligns with a company’s goals and values 2. It speaks the right message to the right people at the right time 3. It creates value by helping prospects fulfill a want or a need
Website Design To be effective, your brand’s website must accomplish four things: offer a Unified message over Internet, social, and mobile with a Simple design and navigation Engaging prospects with Relevant content that informs, entertains, or otherwise adds value.
Social Media Social media is the new promotion, creating a virtuous cycle: sharing web-based content on social media expands a brand’s social reach; greater social reach in turn drives more traffic to a company’s web-based content, multiplying its reach, and so on.
Mobile Web Increasingly, consumers are accessing the Internet via mobile devices. Brands must now provide contextually relevant web and social messaging to satisfy the real-time demands of the mobile user.
“Time Spent on mobile devices is growing at 14 times the rate 1 of desktop�
Content Marketing In the digital age, online content plays a dominant role in brand messaging. Effective online content should reflect a company’s business goals and speak to the wants and needs of its target audience. With the widespread adoption of the Internet, social, and mobile, consumer demand for online content is increasing geometrically. Online content marketing consists of written, auditory, and visual media such as blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, social posts, webcasts, webinars, podcasts, videos, emails and more.
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Written Brands use a variety of written content - including business blogs, eBooks, whitepapers, tip sheets, and case studies - to attract prospects to company websites and social media channels.
Auditory The proliferation of smartphones, iPods, and other devices means users can listen to content anywhere, anytime. As consumers look for more options while on the go, 2013 will see an exponential increase in auditory content offerings such as Podcasts, audio-casts, and audio blogs.
Visual 2012 saw the explosion of online video as a content marketing medium: YouTube alone recorded over 20 billion views in October of 2012. However, video is only part of the story; social visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram are also enjoying meteoric growth. Whether it’s a photo collage or a viral video, visual marketing gives brands a chance to tell their story in a more personal way.
Targeted Discovery The rise of mobile devices and the shift of search engines like Google in favor of fresh and original content have forced digital marketers to rethink search. Mobile users are turning to specific-use mobile apps rather than search engines for need discovery. Many prefer social apps like Yelp and Foursquare, with their user-generated reviews and promoted local offerings, over traditional search engines.
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Organic Search Google’s continued algorithm changes are making search a truly organic experience. As such, brands are first creating fresh and original content that resolves the wants and needs of their target audience before optimizing keywords and phrases users are likely to be “organically� searching for.
Paid Search PPC is slowly giving way to more sophisticated offerings like ad retargeting. Retargeted ads provide online users tailored advertisements based on previous browsing history. Available on both search engines and social platforms, ad retargeting can be highly effective: recent data from Facebook’s ad retargeting product, Exchange, found that retargeted ads earn businesses 16X what they spend.2
Social, Mobile, & Video Ads Social, mobile, and video ads are more effective than traditional advertising for three reasons: Efficiency: Providing a broader reach at a lower cost, brands can micro-target each segment of their audience cost-effectively. Interactivity: Click-able ads encourage immediate and measurable action. Proximity: With consumers carrying their mobile devices around the clock, brands can use sophisticated ad targeting techniques to offer the right deal at the right time.
Online Engagement While content conveys the message, online engagement solidifies the relationship. Online engagement tools such as social media and email marketing allow brands to interact with prospects and customers honestly and transparently, driving home their core value proposition with deeds as well as words.
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Social Media Social media is one of the greatest community building tools in history. Content shared on social media amplifies a company’s online presence; transparent social exchanges project its authenticity, fostering longstanding connections with new prospects and existing customers.
Public Relations Integrated digital marketing plays a critical PR function, as brands use content, social, and mobile to communicate directly with their audience. A well-crafted digital marketing strategy builds consumer trust and intimacy by updating, informing, and resolving, often in real time.
eMail Marketing Many businesses are now using highly sophisticated eMail marketing campaigns to nurture new leads and stay in touch with existing customers. Through a series coordinated emails, brands are able to send out highly personalized content tailored to each audience segment and stage of the buying cycle.
“Investment in eMail marketing 3 will hit 2 billion by 2014�
Social Local Mobile (SoLoMo) Today’s sophisticated consumers are using mobile devices to access social media and business web/ecommerce sites. They’re roaming the streets clutching smartphones and tablets looking for things to do or to buy. To compete in this SoLoMo environment, businesses need an integrated approach. Brands need to get social, think local, and spend mobile.
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Social Apps & Offers The future of social is mobile. Smartphone users prefer visual, concise, and contextually relevant content. Social apps that provide user-generated reviews and location-based offers greatly influence mobile consumers.
Geo-Local Marketing Companies with a brick-and-mortar presence need to ensure they are easily accessible when prospects are nearby. Whether it’s SMS Text Marketing, Geo-Fencing, or local deals, proximity creates top of mind awareness and drives conversion.
Mobile Apps As mobile device usage increases, users are becoming more dependent on mobile search and discovery. Mobile apps provide a simple and convenient user experience, easing the path to the sale. Along with geo-local search, retail and specific-use apps are expected to proliferate in coming years
Performance Management In the age of big data, marketers can track, review, and refine virtually every aspect of an integrated digital campaign. The ability to quickly compare marketing initiatives with real-world results allows brands to refine their message to better cater to prospects and customers.
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Data Analytics Advancements in marketing technology give companies the ability to track the progress of each digital marketing initiative. Integrated marketing automation software platforms like that offered by Hubspot help companies track key performance indicators in real time, offering digital marketers a chance to nimbly tweak campaign elements to respond to consumer demand.
Strategy Review & Refinement Sophisticated data analytics are worthless unless acted upon. By reviewing internal campaign metrics and eliciting feedback from sales teams, brands can improve upon existing strategies and formulate new ones. Integrated digital marketing is disruptive and dynamic, constantly shattering the status quo.
Integrated Digital Marketing in Action
ESTABLISH The primary objective of integrated digital marketing is to build a foundational online presence across web, social, and mobile that properly reflects a company’s business goals and values. This begins with a powerful brand message that is clearly communicated over a well-built company website, shared on relevant social channels, and optimized for mobile devices.
CONVEY Integrated digital marketers understand the importance of delivering contextually relevant content to new prospects and existing customers through web, social, and mobile channels. Various content media are used to inform and entertain each segment of a brand’s audience, kindling reader interest, attracting targeted prospects, generating relevant leads, increasing direct sales, and fostering brand loyalty.
ATTRACT Companies use paid and organic SEO to help facilitate targeted discovery. Shifting the focus to user intent, integrated digital marketers are always trying to attract those actively looking for solutions their brands provide. This is done by creating quality content first and optimizing it for contextual relevance (on search engines, social media channels, mobile devices) second.
PROMOTE Integrated digital marketers use social media to expand a company’s reach and engage its audience. They deploy eMail marketing campaigns to nurture new prospects down the sales funnel and to stay connected with existing customers. They recognize the power of social and eMail to form meaningful connections and strengthen brand loyalty.
CONNECT Context leads to connection and drives conversion. Today’s consumers expect to find easy solutions where and when they need them. By integrating web, social, and mobile marketing into one seamless digital presence, brands are able to offer their audience real value. To get there, companies must tear down marketing silos, eliminate fragmented messaging, and fully integrate their marketing efforts. By doing so, businesses can provide simple, convenient, and relevant user experiences that foster connection and increase conversion.
REFINE Integrated digital marketers rely heavily on data analytics to track campaign performance over website, social, and mobile channels. To ensure each initiative is achieving the desired effect, they may track metrics such as website bounce rate, keyword performance, ad campaign ROI, eMail response, landing page conversions, visitor-to-lead and lead-to-customer ratios, and customer retention rate. Using big data to compare marketing initiatives with real-world results, integrated digital marketers strive for perfection.
The Future of Marketing is Digital and Integrated In
our
post,
post-modern
techonomy,
consumers
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personalization and seamless online user experiences. They are looking for content that informs, entertains, or otherwise adds value to their daily lives. To stay competitive in this brave new world, you must form meaningful connections with the people who matter most: those who find value in your brand. Your business can do this by producing large quantities of original content that is exceptional, personalized, and relevant. It should be optimized for any platform or device on which it could potentially be viewed or consumed via social sharing. Engaging with your audience in real time over multiple channels, you must then rely on user feedback and data analytics to adjust your message to fit the ever-changing demands of each segment of your target audience. To stay relevant in today’s fast-paced techonomy, you should consider integrated digital marketing. Read. Click. Share.
We Help Brands Form Connections That Matter At SyneCore, we believe the seamless integration of digital marketing channels fosters deeper and more meaningful connections with the people who matter most: those who find value in your brand. SyneCore incorporates proven inbound marketing methods into our Integrated Digital Marketing process, which is customized to the meet the needs of each client.
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Works Cited 1
eMarketer, “Trends for 2013: Making Mobile-First a Priority”
2
TechCrunch, “Initial Trials Show Facebook Exchange Retargeted Ads Deliver Massive Return On Investment, Up To 16X”
3
Hubspot, “Your biggest marketing opportunity is to create effective EMAIL MARKETING”
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