I recently had the opportunity to work on an integrated marketing campaign. If you’re unfamiliar with it, an integrated marketing campaign is a marketing strategy that can include digital and print marketing materials created to promote an item, event, or service across several platforms.
The campaign I worked on consisted of both digital and printed materials. If you’re interested in using integrated marketing for your small business, below are a few helpful tips to get you started.
Budget – The first thing you need to determine is the amount or size of your budget. Labor and material costs may include printing charges, postage, copywriting, mailing lists, social media ads, print ad design, newsletter design, website redesign, website creation, or landing page addition. If you are considering commercial ads, those costs need to be researched and included as well.
Schedule – Marketing must be cohesive and consistent throughout all your print and digital materials because consistent design is critical for brand recognition.
Project designs can’t begin until the color palette, content, and copy are decided upon, so this time needs to be included. Also, if you’re creating video ads, a longer lead time may be necessary for story development and production.
Target Audience – If you are an existing business, you probably already know which consumer group comprises your target audience. Whether purchasing mailing lists, advertising time, print ad space, or creating ads for social media, your target audience should be as specific as possible. Some things to consider, in addition to gender, age, and income level, are hobbies, party affiliation, education level, ethnicity, marital status, and zip code.
A few more tips – Consider creating a digital test mailing first to gauge audience response, engagement, and effectiveness. Make sure to include yourself and your managers in all digital and print mailings.
Audience size and budget will dictate the number of print mailings. If sending more than one, I suggest creating a different but corresponding design for each mailing and timing the mailings at least 7 – 10 days apart.
Remember that bulk mail is cheaper than first-class mail; however, bulk mail is not forwarded or returned to you if undeliverable.
For small businesses, integrated marketing can be a great way to get the most out of your limited marketing budget. By carefully planning and executing an integrated marketing strategy, you can create a well-rounded marketing campaign to reach your target audience across multiple channels, including physical materials.
Below, I have included a few links for research and informational purposes only.
https://www.youtube.com/intl/en_us/ads/
https://business.instagram.com/advertising
https://business.pinterest.com/advertise/
https://www.experian.com/small-business/get-mailing-list
