The success of any manufacturer or service provider in a competitive market depends primarily on the consumer and his attitude to the goods or services offered. To establish a relationship with customers, each company must have a developed system of marketing communications with consumers. Taking into account that most of the information to a wide range of consumers comes through a variety of promotional activities, as well as VPN, advertising products and activities of the enterprise is an important component of the whole marketing complex, a kind of information outlet to the consumer.
Modern markets are quite dynamic and constantly evolving, so there are many options for possible approaches to conducting integrated marketing campaigns. However, creating an integrated marketing campaign should be considered as a multi-level sequential process, consisting of many stages, each of which makes decisions that will ultimately affect the end result. Therefore, each stage of preparation and implementation of the integrated marketing campaign has an important role and needs attention.
In this article, we will provide you with important information on how to create a successful integrated marketing campaign. Try to study it carefully.
Marketing Campaign Definition
There are a number of definitions of an integrated marketing campaign that distinguish it from regular one-time ads and other disparate promotions. Most scientists define such campaigns as a set of integrated marketing tools designed in accordance with the marketing program and aimed at consumers of goods that have relevant market segments in order to provoke their reaction, which helps the manufacturer to solve strategic or tactical tasks. American advertising professionals understand an integrated marketing campaign as a general advertising plan for a series of different but interrelated advertisements that appear in different media over time. In general, it is a communication program that has common goals, strategy, budget, targeted at the same target audience, and uses the same means of disseminating information.
In the course of determining the most effective advertising channels, marketers use a number of indicators that are available through the activities of research institutions. These structures monitor marketing broadcasts and publications in the media, record information, and process the data by statistical methods. Advertising is differentiated by groups of goods, services, brands, advertisers, programs, display periods, and duration of certain campaigns. Research institutions also collect information about the audience of a particular media tool and provide consolidated data about the target audiences’ age, gender, education, employment, social and marital status, income, property, etc.
Peculiarities of Creating a Marketing Campaign
The process of developing a marketing campaign can be divided into stages:
Formation of promotion goals: The purpose of promotion for the company is to acquaint potential consumers with the company's products and promote its sales. Marketing objectives and goals must be considered from different points of view: economic, socio-psychological, aesthetic, etc.
Development of promotion strategy: In accordance with the defined goals, a marketing strategy to change sales promotion is developed. It is a large-scale, long-term program aimed at solving an important marketing goal.
Determining the promotion budget: In this case, the considered market chooses the method of determining the budget as a percentage of sales. This amount is divided into promotions depending on the main goals and objectives. As competitors increase the pressure due to lower prices, discounts as a means of sales promotion become quite justified. The experience of marketing services allows us to conclude that buyers respond positively to such proposals.
Promotion planning: Key decisions in marketing planning should be based on the principles of fundamental analysis, which combines a comprehensive understanding of the marketing foundations of the existence of firms and an assessment of the factors that determine the outcome of actions.
Thus, the decision-making process covers the study of all subjects and objects and includes the following main components: a situational analysis based on marketing research, development of marketing strategy, planning of marketing activities of enterprises, implementation of a marketing campaign.
Basic Rules for Developing an Effective Integrated Marketing Campaign
To create a successful marketing campaign, we recommend that you pay attention to the following 7 rules:
Step 1: The marketing communication campaign is an element of marketing communications, which, in turn, is an element of the marketing policy of the enterprise, which is formed in accordance with the marketing complex introduced at the enterprise. This means that before deciding on the need for a marketing campaign for a product, product group, brand, or company as a whole, it is necessary to analyze in detail the micro and macro factors that affect the company's activities, consumer reaction, and competitive situation. In addition, the goals of the enterprise must be consistent with the master plan of the company, with its marketing mix.
Step 2: Before approaching the direct development of the strategy of the integrated marketing campaign, specific measures for its implementation, budget calculation, etc., you should analyze in detail its current situation, assess the impact of many external and internal factors, and answer important organizational questions, that is, to perform the stages that are attributed to the first of the two blocks of the marketing campaign (the first block – identifying the need for an integrated marketing campaign; the second – its implementation).
Step 3: After deciding on the need for an integrated marketing campaign, you need to gradually develop and calculate integrated marketing tools for its implementation, i.e., to develop its strategy. To do this, you must first choose the subject of the marketing campaign – the product, product group, brand, the company itself, and so on. To achieve the maximum effect, it is necessary to clearly understand to whom, how, and in what way the information message will be sent. Marketers often use VPNs for this purpose. Do you know what's a VPN do? Why do you need a VPN? Everything is very simple: with the help of a VPN, you can quickly and easily bypass ‘censorship’ and remain anonymous on the global Internet. In addition, thanks to this set of technologies, users can hide their real location and gain access to many services and sites, even those that are blocked in the country. So, the main benefit of using a VPN is privacy.
Step 4: Decisions about the content of the message and the choice of media are key in terms of the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The main characteristics of effective advertising include the originality of the idea in the advertising appeal; relevance; emphasis on the novelty of the product; emphasis on the convenience of the advertised product; original, memorable name; the veracity of the advertising appeal. Therefore, based on the above characteristics, the concept of an advertising appeal is developed. This is an important stage that requires constant monitoring, so at this stage, the communication between the advertiser and the advertising agency should be maximum. This approach will help create the most effective and original advertising appeal and prevent possible problems and losses.
Step 5: Choice of means of transmission of the message. Today, there are many channels of information dissemination, covering different audiences: by age, income level, belonging to social groups, cultures, etc. However, it should be noted that when choosing the means of advertising, it is necessary to take into account such factors as target audience, product features, projected communication effect, the budget of the advertising campaign.
Step 6: The marketing communication campaign always depends on the finances that the marketer agrees to invest in the project. The following methods are most often used to calculate the marketing budget in practice: subjective, fixed benchmark method, normative approach. The choice of method depends on the ability of the company to measure the effectiveness of marketing and the effectiveness of the funds spent on marketing campaigns.
Step 7: Coordinating the idea, methods of its implementation, and distribution channels with the advertising budget are the final stage in the development of the marketing campaign strategy. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the integrated marketing campaign can be divided into two components: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative assessment is defined as determining the communication effect of advertising appeals, the level of influence on consumer behavior. Quantitative evaluation of efficiency is reduced to determining the increase in sales and calculating the ratio of changes in sales to the cost of the marketing campaign. Moreover, qualitative indicators are more important and valuable for the company marketer. When the marketing campaign is implemented and its effectiveness is evaluated, the company returns to the analysis of the market situation and makes the next decision about the possible start of a new marketing campaign.
Wrapping Up!
Integrated marketing is crucial to your marketing campaign. Now that you know the rules start working to develop an effective marketing campaign for your business. If you need the experts to do it for you, here is a list of the best digital marketing companies to take care of all your requirements.
