Marketers are always some of the first adopters to capitalize on new communication channels to promote organizations. Businesses benefit from constantly seeking new and improved ways to reach their target audiences. If you look at the history of communication and technology, you will also see the history and evolution of marketing.
Marketing has grown to include many types of communication.
- The printing press led to print advertising.
- Postal mail inspired direct mail.
- The invention of the telephone made way for telemarketing.
- Radio and television became new channels for advertising.
- Email turned out to be a cost-effective way to promote business.
- Blogs and websites turned into a great source for sponsored posts and online ads.
- Mobile phones and text enabled marketers to reach people on-the-go.
- Social media was a new frontier for marketers to connect with a new audience in a personal manner.
As technology and communication channels continue to evolve, marketing will always evolve with those changes.
An Integrated Approach
With so many communication channels available, it’s easy for businesses to start sending inconsistent, mixed messages across a variety of mediums. Integrated marketing, therefore, is critical to an organization’s success.
With an integrated marketing communication plan, a business is able to have a consistent brand message and corporate identity across all of its traditional and non-traditional marketing channels. Successful integrated marketers consciously use each medium to reinforce the other. For example, you may see a company website promotion on a magazine advertisement, and you can find a TV ad or news coverage on social media. Everything is consistent and interconnected.
A Potential Threat to Integrated Marketing
Because there are so many channels to use in promoting a business, many marketers have chosen to become specialists in a specific form of marketing. Furthermore, it’s becoming increasingly common for entire agencies to specialize in one marketing function. From specialized public relations agencies to video production agencies to social media agencies, there are a number of functional marketers from which businesses can choose. However, this trend poses a danger to an integrated marketing approach.
Whether it’s a specialized agency or someone in charge of one type of marketing in an organization, functional marketers often develop tunnel vision, focusing only on how their specialty can help a business. Integrated marketers, on the other hand, wear many hats and think more strategically and holistically. They consider all opportunities and determine which solutions will give the best results for a client’s overall goals and budget.
So whether you’re looking to hire a marketing professional or use an outside agency, make sure they have broad marketing knowledge and your best interests at heart.
If you’re looking to utilize integrated marketing communications for your organization, the experts at GREENCREST can help. Contact us today.