What is integrated marketing?

Integrated marketing, particularly through omnichannel marketing, involves unifying your brand’s messaging across multiple marketing channels.

This approach reinforces your brand identity and enhances customer engagement by making sure all aspects of your marketing initiatives are consistent, including:

  • Copy and messaging
  • Brand colors
  • Slogans and taglines
  • Logos
  • Images

How to successfully implement integrated marketing

To develop an integrated marketing plan that drives results, follow these steps:

1. Choose your integrated marketing channels

Integrated marketing typically includes various traditional and digital platforms, including:

To come up with the channels you’ll extend your messaging to, use analytics to analyze the performance of your initiatives on your existing channels. See who interacts with your marketing materials the most to determine your target audience, and then analyze where they spend the most time. If you don’t have a presence on these channels, mark them as your next goal to share your messaging.

2. Write cross-channel key messaging 

Your key messaging should speak to your target audience’s main challenges and how your product will address them. A customer data platform (CDP) can help you centralize data about your audience so you can either develop messaging from scratch or determine how to adapt existing messaging for new channels (based on new customer data).

For example, if you’re promoting winter coats, your target customer’s main challenge may be how to dress for severe weather without sacrificing style. You may have run surveys to find out which styles your customers prefer during the winter months while collecting other data, such as their birthdays, through sign-up forms on your website.

This information can help you develop top-line key messaging that can then be adapted for various marketing channels, ensuring an integrated marketing approach while still remaining consistent.

3. Track performance

Identify your best performing marketing channels and boost your efforts on those channels to increase your ROI. Run A/B tests to adjust your strategies for channels that aren’t performing as expected.

To find the channels where your strategy works best, leverage analytics to analyze the performance of all your channels by looking at metrics like:

  • Click rates
  • Engagement rates
  • Conversion rates

4. Benchmark your strategy 

Benchmarking helps you measure the performance of your marketing efforts and understand your performance relative to your competitors.

Once you create your messaging, compare your integrated marketing approach to industry leaders to see how you can improve it based on their successful points and areas they’re falling short.

Focus on your best performing channels and look at how your messaging on these channels compares to your successful competitors based on publicly available data. Use your insights to adjust your messaging by adding elements that work well and removing the elements that don’t perform as effectively.

3 benefits of integrated marketing

Here’s what you can expect from a well-implemented integrated marketing strategy: 

1. Integrated marketing is cost effective

With integrated marketing, you repurpose your copy and design assets and adapt them for different channels instead of creating new assets from scratch. This saves you resources for developing entirely new marketing materials.

2. Integrated marketing improves brand recognition

By consistently presenting your brand story across all your channels, you enhance the brand experience, making your brand more recognizable and memorable.

When your target audience repeatedly sees your messaging, logos, and colors across all channels, they’ll quickly learn to associate them with your brand, boosting your brand awareness.

3. Integrated marketing builds brand trust

Your audience’s trust in your brand grows when they see consistency across channels. This consistency communicates care for your customers’ interests and enhances their brand experience.

What is an example of integrated marketing?

One compelling illustration of integrated marketing is the “Share a Coke” campaign by Coca-Cola. This ingenious strategy coordinated its advertisements across diverse platforms with the same compelling message—a personal connection through customization.

The campaign was a testament to Coca-Cola’s innovative prowess. They replaced their classic Coke logo with popular first names, fostering a profound personal engagement with consumers.

Advertising efforts seamlessly streamed across TV, social media, digital marketing, and in-store displays, all featuring the personalized Coke bottles. This integration created a cohesive narrative that resonated with audiences globally, driving significant user-generated content as customers shared photos of their personalized bottles online.

The brilliance of this integrated marketing example lies in its ability to transform a simple idea into a marketing revolution. By connecting with consumers on a personal level while maintaining consistent brand messaging, Coca-Cola effectively leveraged integrated marketing to amplify brand recognition and foster deeper consumer trust. This campaign remains a benchmark for others aiming to blend creativity and integration for maximum impact.

What are the 4 P’s of integrated marketing?

Integrated marketing thrives on the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Each element is a cornerstone of an integrated marketing strategy designed to consistently convey a brand’s core message. Together, they foster a cohesive narrative that resonates across diverse channels.

Product is the foundation, providing the value and benefits sought by your target audience. Elevating product quality and aligning it seamlessly with customer expectations is vital for compelling integrated marketing approaches.

Price communicates the product’s perceived value and must be carefully structured to reflect market conditions and consumer demand. A well-cast pricing strategy harmonizes across channels, underpinning the brand’s image as accessible yet premium, drawing in discerning customers.

Place refers to the strategic distribution channels, ensuring your product reaches the right audience through the most effective mediums.

Promotion is the offer that you communicate across all channels to ensure messaging, inventory and offer alignment.

In integrated marketing, ensuring the alignment of distribution with the brand’s overarching goals enhances accessibility, whether through physical locations or digital platforms. This ensures customers have a consistent encounter with the brand, no matter where they engage with it.

Implement integrated marketing with Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an advanced marketing automation platform that unifies your email and SMS marketing efforts with enriched customer data.

With over 350 integrations, Klaviyo helps you connect customer data to cross-channel and omnichannel marketing efforts so that your messaging is consistent and relevant, embodying the principles of integrated marketing communications.

Ready to implement integrated marketing for your business? Sign up for Klaviyo to build marketing messages that boost engagement and brand recognition.

Additional resources