Integrated Marketing: Easy as Your ABCs

There's a lot of talk regarding integrated marketing floating around. Maybe more specifically integraTING marketing. I feel like we are drifting further and further away from what integrated marketing is all about as we try to incorporate more and more technologies, sites, and methodologies into our marketing efforts. Really, this should not be. Integrated Marketing is as easy as your ABCs.

To conduct a successful Integrated Marketing campaign, just remember...

Always focus on the customer.
Blend traditional media, new media, departments, and people.
Consider how someone new to your company or brand would view any facet of your campaign.
Departments are obstacles. A campaign cannot be integrated until the people are.
Extend beyond the same aesthetic. What is your unique message?
Follow through on everything with everyone, most especially your customers.
Go where your customers and competition are. Meet them where they are comfortable.
Have a plan based on research and strategy.
Include everyone in the plan, from customers to sales to your C-Suite.
Jousting over who generated new business is the best way to kill a company.
Kick the "this or that" mentality. Almost always, "both" is the right answer.
Lead nurturing is the only path to make your marketing efforts matter.
Making leads is marketing's responsibility. Managing leads belongs to everyone.
Never assume that someone has heard of you or cares about what you do.
Overselling through any channel is the best way to kill your campaign.
People want to learn. Everything in your campaign should assist them.
Quit wondering who owns Social Media. Everybody does.
Random acts of kindness should be integrated with everything else.
Strategy should incorporate everyone. Also, silos are signs of disease.
Tactics should support each other, not work against each other or overpower each other.
Understand what your customers need, even if they don't. Then educate.
Very few companies are maximizing integration of Social Media with other channels. Pounce.
Whatever you do, be real, authentic, genuine, and human.
Xenophobia when faced with new technologies, trends, or opportunities no longer cuts the mustard.
You have to know your corporate soul before you can integrate your marketing successfully.
Zappos didn't find success accidentally. They are integrating customer service into their marketing.

See? Easy as your ABCs.


Image by Josh Klute. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Onatos