Posts Tagged ‘Cross-functionality’
July is all about launching your social media and traditional marketing efforts.
Much like a rocket launch, there are many things that have to occur before you blast off your integrated traditional and social media efforts. Everything should be properly prepared, fully synchronized, and perfectly executed; otherwise you can be stuck with a visible mess!
5 Savvy Tips for Pre-Launch Activities:
1. Set aside some time – Don’t launch in a rush because mistakes and missed opportunities are more likely to happen. Designate time prior to your launch to get all of your ducks in a row!
2. Review opportunities – Things change. So make sure you are familiar with all existing opportunities for exposure and launching of integration. And don’t forget to look at upcoming opportunities! You’d hate to miss out by not paying attention.
3. Lay out a plan - Put your pen to paper – or at least your fingers to your keyboard. You are more likely to stick to your plan if you write it out!
4. Gather the team – Integration and a proper launch are more likely to happen if you have the support and input of your team. They see things you don’t, so use those great minds to launch it right!
5. Prep – Preparation is important. Rarely can you launch an integrated effort without getting a few pre-launch projects done.
Launching an integrated marketing and social media marketing effort can save you a ton of time and resources, but you need to do it right to make it effective. The above tips are just a few of the ways to prepare for a fabulous launch! Have more tips? Leave a comment!
Do you need some help with your integration efforts? Contact The Collective Savvy – we’re happy to help! info@thecollectivesavvy.com.
One of the places many marketers fall down on the job is missing the chance to leverage current opportunities in preparation for future connections. We advocate that smart seasonal promotions should actually build your sales all year long. Integration of your marketing efforts – and collection of contact information – is essential to make this happen!
3 Savvy Ways to Collect Contact Information
1. Run a contest – Have people drop their business card into a unique bowl in the store for a chance to win or run an online contest through your website. Whatever you do, make sure that each of your marketing outlets (especially social media!) promotes this contest. The more interest, the more registrants. The more registrants, the more contact information you collect. The more you collect, the more opportunity you have to promote yourself moving forward for future promotions!
2. Ask for story or photo submittals – Pick a seasonal topic or a theme and then invite people to submit! Have them complete a form and then reward them with a coupon or special promotion related to your seasonal campaign. You do just a little work for potentially big results!
3. Ask people to opt in – Have a newsletter? Tell people. Run a Facebook page? Ask them to “like” it. Host a Twitter account? Invite them to follow. Make sure they know the opportunity is there by letting them know it’s there.
Once the seasonal campaign is over, follow up!
1. Thank people – Thank them for coming in, participating, etc. Do this quickly after the season is over, as customers often have short memories.
2. Referrals - If your system is sophisticated enough, make suggestions for future purchases based on past activity. If you don’t have an automated way to do that, use the past campaign as a springboard!
3. Reach out - Connect regularly to the folks who opted to receive your information. Easy rules of thumb:
- Twitter – At least once a day
- Facebook – At least 3 times a week
- Email newsletters – varies, from weekly to quarterly
- Blog posts – 1 time a month, at a minimum
Not sure where to get started? Drop us an email at info@thecollectivesavvy.com.
Seasonal marketing, as we’ve discussed, requires a lot of preparation. But one point that often gets skipped is virtual preparation – Spring Cleaning if you will – no matter what time of year! Sprucing up your virtual sites can go a long way in making your company seem polished, organized, and ready to go for the seasonal market time of choice.
3 Savvy Virtual Seasonal Marketing Techniques to Consider
1. Spruce up Your Seasonal Marketing Materials Online - Do you use the same ad year after year? Are you sure it still resonates (if it ever did) with your clients? Do your graphic images match your seasonal campaign? Think about the message you are sending vs. the one you would like to appear and prepare to launch it in time with your seasonal campaign.
2. Specify Seasonal Keywords - When was the last time you fine-tuned your website to focus on certain keywords or phrases – especially holiday or seasonal related ones? Now is the time! Think about the words or phrases folks are likely to search and then add them to your mix. Ta-dah! You just helped yourself move up the SEO food chain.
3. Spotlight Your Seasonal Promotion – Is your seasonal promotion front and center on your webpage, virtual media sites, or online shopping cart? Many folks forget to make their seasonal promotion prominent, which defeats the purpose of your seasonal marketing efforts. So let it shine! Give it the attention it so deserves.
Seasonal marketing can be a great chance to boost sales. Prepare now for profit later! Need help? Let us know! info@thecollectivesavvy.com.
Yay! This month’s theme is one of my favorites: Marketing Integration! Even before I had heard the term “marketing integration” coined, I was preaching to co-workers on this topic. Afterall, everything you post sends a message, every message builds your brand, and if you want everyone to view your brand a particular way… well, it’s obvious that integration is key!
So this week I am going to talk about marketing integration overall, with the next few posts for this month really getting into the nitty-gritty of integrating your social media + marketing activities. But first, I’m nailing down the technical description of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).
IMC is ” a process for managing the customer relationships that drive brand value” (IMC Using Advertising & Promotion to Build Brands)
Now, what does that REALLY mean?
According to Merriam Webster, integration is “to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole.”
It basically means instituting a strategy of internal and external marketing integration so that everyone understands the processes, methods, and goals for achieving brand success (how that is defined differs from company to company!). Without internal understanding, you certainly won’t have external understanding, and without that you’ll get nowhere.
5 Savvy Things to Know About Marketing Integration:
1. Integration is more than just visible blending. Match your website to your newsletter, your Twitter to your Facebook, your advertising to your sponsorship materials, etc. While all of that is extremely important, true integration is both broader and deeper than visible similarities.
2. Integration entails cross-functionality. This means that more than just your marketing team is involved. After all, if your branding is to carry throughout all elements of a business, it’s easier to achieve when you have representatives from customer service, sales, etc., all contributing to the team effort!
3. Integration means touching all of your stakeholders. After you have worked on your internal components, move to the external-vendors, customers, etc. Integration doesn’t stop just with the person who buys your product!
4. Integration can involve strong data mining. If you have ever needed to build a list for marketing outreach, you have probably done some data mining. And as you may have figured out, data mining can be critical in reaching the right folks with the right message to drive sales and awareness. So make sure you make time to data mine!
5. Integration means more than just posting matching messages. It means posting the right message(s) in the right place(s) at the right time(s). Think about the power of that! If you have to touch folks 7 times to drive action, strategic timing and location are essential to make it happen!
So that, my friends, is integrated marketing in a (very small) nutshell.
Want more sites to look at on this topic? Enjoy below!
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