Creating an Integrated Marketing Plan using Social Media

Creating an Integrated Marketing Plan using Social Media:

Implementing Your Integrated Marketing Plan

Do you ever feel like you keep repeating yourself? Well in the case of integrated marketing, that’s a good thing! You want to deliver the same message over and over in all different forms. This past summer my company launched a Homegrown program and wanted to generate awareness about it by pointing everyone to our website and subsequently our blog.

We kicked off our campaign with a blog series that was updated weekly and included pictures and interviews about Homegrown. In addition all of the print and digital advertising sent customers to the website where all the Homegrown items were hosted using a QR Code that directed smartphone users to the website.

How can you use this for your business??

Most importantly, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Look at what your competitors and peers are doing! Read blogs, attend seminars, read industry publications and talk to business colleagues…they’ve all got great ideas worth expanding on. It’s an inspiring world out there, don’t be afraid to package these new found epiphanies for your business.

Decide on what you’re trying to do…generating awareness or creating new sales. If you’re generally trying to create awareness, directing folks to your website/Facebook should be the primary goal. Instead, if you’re trying to create a sale, you should be tailoring a message about your product and why it’s worth purchasing. Maybe even having a sale or added value item to your product. Example: If you’re selling tomatoes maybe a link to a homemade salsa recipe.

Choose your message and be consistent. What exactly are your trying to say? Keep It Simple! Don’t try to be overly “creative” and say the same thing a bunch of different ways. Simply say it over and over again. This can even just be as simple as repeating your slogan.

Use both the old and the new media. Don’t just blow off the newspaper now that you’ve got some Facebook ads running. If you know your market, then you know how much they do or do not rely on traditional media (print, radio, tv). Is it really a good idea to go all digital? Spread your message across the board using everything that works and you’ll be able to hit your entire audience.

Learn to track your success. Look into your website analytics, Facebook insights, or sales reports. If you offered a promotional code with your product look to see how many times was this redeemed via sales report. If this promotion was offered online, how many clicks did the page get? If you didn’t offer a promotion, did traffic to your site and in your business increase? Compare it to last month.

How are you using a variety of media to present a fully integrated message? Are your Social and traditional media complimentary, or are using them to present different messages?