On August 19, 2020, we hosted our tenth Neuger CO.LAB session, this time with the topic of integrated marketing and reaching an audience through several platforms. We had about 20 participants who were all very eager to share their insights on how to pair strategies through various channels of communication (social media, websites, email marketing, etc.)
Session 10 Hosts
- Eric Molho, Vice President & Senior Communications Counselor
- Madeline Rauma, Content Strategist
Key Discussion Points
- It can be easy to get tied up in strategizing your approach to messaging on various communications platforms. It’s important to simplify the process and, although it sounds basic, it is crucial to think through what you’re trying to accomplish (sales, fundraising, leads, branding, etc.).
- Identify a clear call to action that you can build your marketing strategies around, and it is perfectly fine to have multiple calls to action.
- Define each objective and don’t tackle multiple steps of the strategy all at once.
- It is crucial to do detailed research on your audience and what modes of communication they respond to at the highest rate.
Have time-bound and measurable goals with easily identifiable results (click rates, engagements, shares, conversions/sales, etc.). Numbers do not lie. - Repurpose content. You don’t have to create specific content for each communications outlet. Repurposing saves time and effort, and reinforces your overall message.
- When repurposing content, you don’t want everything to be copy and pasted across all platforms. Having variety in how the message is delivered will keep audiences more engaged. You can add teasers to your content and stories in emails and social posts instead of having the entirety included. This drives more traffic to your web presence.
Discussion Questions
Q: How do you time out your content to maximize your messaging and reach? How do content calendars help?
Understand your audience’s tactics and be cognizant of what your audience responds to at the highest rates. Don’t flood the user experience with the same content every time you post because the user will become disinterested quickly. A calendar really helps you get ahead with marketing. It can reduce stress when you can map out exactly when you want to hit audiences with specific content that may coincide with the time of the year.
Q: How do I choose which communications vehicles to include as a part of my integrated campaign?
It depends on what your audience tends to use the most, so it is important to have reliable data and profiles on who you are targeting so you can reach them in their preferred space. Know your demographics and keep in mind that just because you can be on every communications channel doesn’t mean you should. Instead, focus on the channels that speak to your audience the most. Integrate your audience demographics into your calendar. Here is a great resource from sproutsocial.com that shares specific demographic statistics about the leading social media platforms.
Q: What are some tips for using templates for content calendars and planning your messaging?
Using editorial and content calendars can help guide your digital marketing efforts, and you want to make sure to use whatever you and your company knows the best. Whether it’s Excel, Google, or an online platform, such as Airtable, you want the user experience to feel intuitive for everyone in your company that has to use it. Once you choose the platform, you need to decide what to include in the calendar. Use columns to organize all details related to your content. For example, what images are needed, who is responsible for reviewing and approving, etc.
In Summary
When executing an integrated marketing campaign, it is crucial to have continuity across all platforms. Your social presence, website and other digital efforts – along with more traditional marketing, such as billboards and print ads – all contribute to your brand’s awareness among your target audience. When executed well, an integrated campaign will multiply the impact of each individual marketing tactic.