Increased communication, operational efficiency, and improved results. Three reasons why the use of integrated marketing should be favoured over segregated marketing campaigns.
What is integrated marketing?
Integrated marketing can best be defined as a strategic approach to delivering a consistent message across all possible media channels used by any single company.
What is the sales funnel?
Most of you will more than likely already know what the sales funnel is but here’s a brief reminder for you…
The sales funnel is used to map out every step that a customer must take before purchasing a product or service. This process is commonly divided into six stages, each representing a different point in the customers’ purchasing process: awareness, discovery, evaluation, intent, purchase and loyalty.
How is integrated marketing relevant to the sales funnel?
Integrated marketing can help move customers through the funnel from one stage to another. This is most prevalent within the discovery, evaluation, and intent stages. Not only does it help move customers through the sales funnel, it also filters out any individuals who will never possess the interest in purchasing the desired product or service.
The second stage of the sales funnel, Discovery, is where customer’s pique their interest in a product or service. After making the decision of what it Is that they want individuals will begin searching for it. Integrated marketing can first be seen as customers begin researching products and services in order to determine the best suited option for them.
This helps the customer to progress into the next stage of the sales funnel, Evaluation. Which can best be described as the pitch stage. Through businesses publishing press releases in industry related publications, they can influence the decision-making process of a customer.
Imagine a Dragons’ Den scenario, businesses have the opportunity to entice each individual member of their prospective audience at the same time through the same messaging. By using an integrated marketing strategy, a business can focus less time on different marketing campaigns and develop a more efficient single campaign to be used across multiple different platforms at the same time.
Following on from a successful pitch, the customer will then move through to the next stage in the sales funnel, Intent. The intent stage is rather self-explanatory, once the customer has the been delivered the pitch and made up their mind, they will be ready to purchase.
Why is this important?
For any company whether you’re an SME or a multinational corporation (MNC), integrated marketing should be a vital part to your campaigns to influence existing and potential customer. Not only does it help retain long-term relationships with existing customers but it also helps to move new customers through the sales funnel step-by-step. By optimising the use of integrated marketing you can save valuable time and money that would have otherwise been wasted setting up many different marketing campaign.
Through the repetition of the same message on many different platforms it will stimulate an action from the customer such as purchasing a product. Research into this idea was first seen in 1885 by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus who found that repeating certain patterns over time helped individuals to retain information.
Next time you’re considering what approach is best for attracting new customers and helping guide them through the sales funnel, will integrated marketing be your first thought?
We can support you through the journey, view our services, or contact us today to discuss a bespoke, integrated communications plan.
