Integrated Marketing Explained
What it is, and why it makes good business sense

by Kelley Briggs

There are many marketing techniques you can choose from to grow your business: Advertise a special offer; Direct mail to a specific market segment; Publicize an award or new piece of business. While each of theses traditional marketing activities hold value by themselves, how do you know if they are they working together or not? Results.

Integrated Marketing Defined

An integrated marketing approach combines the core components of advertising, marketing and public relations with sales activities, brand development and research data. These individual components alone could offer insight and achieve results, but when used together they reinforce each other to achieve a greater impact.

Firms that embrace this integrated approach understand HOW these various activities work together. So choosing this type of firm has significant advantages over a traditional marketing firm, PR firm or advertising agency.

Planning and Creative Continuity

An integrated marketing plan will leverage the same strategic planning, research and creative work to create a unified message. This ensures all marketing channels work consistently together, to support your business and marketing goals. A fragmented approach creates confusion, not only within your organization, but in the eyes of your customers as well.

Cost Savings

An integrated marketing approach can save money by making better use of your marketing budget. From print to web to broadcast, the cost savings result from using the same firm to develop AND implement your marketing plan. Multiple projects can be deployed to multiple platforms, from one cost-effective point of contact.

Support One another

Another big advantage of an integrated approach is that activities support each other, improving the efficiency of individual campaign elements against overall objectives. Think of it as if you were building a house – the stronger the foundation, the more solid the house, the longer it lives and is able to weather storms.

Single Resource

One of the key benefits of integrated marketing is that all the services that you need can be provided by a single resource, eliminating the need to manage multiple firms doing multiple parts of the your marketing campaign. Dealing with multiple firms to implement an marketing campaign can lead to problems such as differing creative approaches, duplicated costs and an unorganized strategy.

Make Your Data Dance

Finally, data is one of the most critical elements of an integrated campaign. An integrated marketing approach uses data to identify paths of current and future communications. It can also be helpful in creating and maintaining customer profiles, measuring program effectiveness, developing e-commerce capabilities, and tracking customer behavior. Without a database, even a powerful marketing program will fall short.

When building your business or addressing changes in your marketplace, consider a broad range of potential programs that use multiple marketing channels. If you are unsure what approach would be appropriate for your business challenge, consider an integrated approach to marketing and cover all your bases.

Hudson Fusion is an integrated marketing firm that takes a synergistic approach to its clients’ sales, marketing and business growth goals. They offer a full spectrum of marketing services including strategic planning, brand and corporate identity, website design, print collateral, search engine optimization, direct marketing and advertising. Hudson Fusion is located at 30 State Street in Ossining. For more information contact Cindy Penchina, Executive E-Services Director  at cindy@hudsonfusion.com or Kelley Briggs, Executive Creative Director  at Kelley@hudsonfusion.com or call 914.762.-0900.