Understanding Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
September 20, 2017
Building perfect Integrated Marketing Campaigns and reaching key clients doesn’t happen overnight. From Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned businesses, creating a clear brand image and delivering a powerful message is essential to long-term growth and success. Like many businesses, you’ve probably tried several strategies to make the most of your advertising and marketing efforts.
From social media marketing (SMM) to sending out email blasts, chances are you’ve heard of (and tried) different methods to reach your clients. Whether you’ve had outstanding success or are looking to make a few improvements, pulling your promotional tools together into an Integrated Marketing Campaigns can help.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), it simply involves maintaining a consistent message across different communications channels. These channels can include your social media accounts, email campaigns, and other promotional materials you use to reach both existing and potential customers. Here we have put together an overview of a few essential components of what goes in to an IMC campaign. Let’s take a look!
Website
Like many businesses, you probably own and maintain a dedicated website where your customers can browse your products and services. You might even have areas where visitors can find great deals with promotions highlighting seasonal sales or discounts. You obviously want to get the message out about what you have to offer to your customers, but how you do it is just as important as the message itself.
When posting content to your website through blogs, descriptions, or even events, you need to make sure your “Voice” and “Tone” present a clear image for your brand. If content posted in your product/service description positions your brand as high-end or luxury and content posted in your blog conveys a value-based tone, your customers may sense a disconnect.
This disconnect can lead to a lack of clear identity for your brand and may make it difficult to effectively reach your target market. I would recommend sitting down with your copywriter and management team to discuss overall goals for your website and what rhetoric is appropriate for communicating with your target market and audience.
Social Media
Every day millions of Tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram pictures are shared across the internet. Like you, businesses try to reach potential customers where they least expect it and try to capture their attention. Where many businesses fall short is establishing a clear message and strategy.
A few weeks ago I shared tips and tricks for building an effective content strategy. In that blog I covered the need for businesses to develop a clear strategy for their social media accounts. An essential part for creating an effective content strategy is successfully managing your brand’s image across multiple channels.
Social media presents an ongoing challenge with strategists and copywriters alike. Many brands try to post a plethora of different content on social media that has varying degrees of relevance to their brand. Everything from industry updates, blogs, snapshots of company culture, and even memes are shared across different platforms.
To build a strong sense of identity for your brand and successfully create Integrated Marketing Campaigns for your social media accounts, you need to develop a clear communication strategy and implement an appropriate tone across all of your accounts. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and your other social media accounts should present a consistent message to your customers through a tone that’s appropriate for the platform.
Through this your customers should be able to identify the message that’s behind each of your posts and easily understand how it relates to other promotional channels. Done right, this will build credibility and establish a clear position for your brand.
Traditional / Digital Media
For years companies across different industries have relied on both traditional and digital media to get the word out about their brand. From PPC ads, email campaigns, to coupon flyers mailed to your house, businesses have gotten creative at grabbing your attention.
When implementing Integrated Marketing Campaigns, these channels need to work in tandem with your other promotional tools like social media accounts and your website. Whether its paid ads posted through Google AdWords or flyers distributed to customers walking into your business, the branding, message and tone needs to be consistent.
Creating a clear promotional message that’s supported through each one of your channels will allow you to deliver your message to customers anywhere, anytime. Whether they’re visiting your website or reading your company blog, clear communication is a pivotal component to the consumer decision making process. Clear communication builds trust. Trust builds the most successful brands. To stand out from the crowd and build the future of your business today, take the necessary steps to ensure you’re delivering a clear message to your customers.
Ready to take your brand to the next level? Think VIG!