The Importance of Integrated Marketing

I’ve just spent a very interesting day at the Media Pro Expo marketing exhibition at Olympia where I’ve spent the day listening to a dozen different experts expound on various aspects of marketing, and talking to exhibitors specialising in a wide range of marketing implementation services. The recurring theme that came over loud and clear in nearly every instance was the importance of properly integrated marketing and the fact that most businesses aren’t doing it properly.

Integrated marketing is something that I bang on about incessantly to both clients and prospects, and it is only possible with a proper marketing strategy that includes your business objectives. All of your marketing activity must then work together to achieve those objectives. It means having online, digital, traditional print, advertising, social media, etc, all working together as a unified force to achieve your strategic objectives. If you’re not tying all these things together, then you’re missing out on huge opportunities which, if your competitors are on the ball, will be going to someone else.

This is becoming increasingly important in the process of lead generation and nurturing. Recent research has shown that 36% of companies now have a sales cycle in excess of six months so it is critical that you keep your leads and prospects interested throughout this period.
All businesses should be analysing exactly what it is that motivates their customers to buy, and then presenting this message consistently, in a way that emotionally connects with prospects, getting all the different marketing platforms to work together, continually testing different permutations and tracking the results.

The downside is that, while an integrated strategy requires inclusion of fairly sophisticated email marketing techniques, this is becoming harder to achieve without some very serious thought and planning. The main ISPs are now becoming very hot on making sure email marketing is relevant to the reader and so deliverability is now the big issue. Simply blasting 1000s of people with potentially irrelevant emails is no longer acceptable and will damage your reputation with the ISPs to the point that, eventually, none of your email will get through. Relevant content and interactivity are the keys to making this successful.

A number of the people I spoke to were of the opinion that any business not marketing by these new rules would be very lucky to still be around in five years time.

Running against the herd

Often, business owners concentrate on following the perceived wisdom about what works and what doesn't in marketing but this can result in loads of missed opportunities.

If your competitors are all doing the same types of marketing such as advertising in the Yellow Pages or doing mailshots with the same sort of offers and promoting the same features and benefits, then copying them won't get you anywhere. The way to stand out is to do something different - something that your customers or prospects won't expect.

Common marketing 'wisdom' states that your direct marketing should be short and punchy because people are too busy to read or they don't have a long enough attention span. I've lost count of the number of people I know who won't deviate from this belief which is a shame because it is complete rubbish.

The truth is that people don't have time to read boring and uninteristing drivel, but if what you have to say is vibrant and relevant they WILL read it, almost however long it is. If you don't believe me, think about it in terms of lifetyle magazines for things like cars, boats, travel, home improvement, etc. They sell by their thousands, often to successful and affluent individuals who spend time reading very long articles because it is something they are interested in.

I proved this recently by sending an 8 page sales letter to the CEOs of major international organisations promoting an opportunity with one of my clients. You would imagine that CEOs would be be far too busy to read such a lengthy thing but the content was relevant to them and I presented it in an exciting and unusual way - the result? SIXTY PERCENT of them replied - and they replied immediately because CEOs don't like wasting time!

There are loads of similar marketing 'rules'. Following them will get you the same mediocre results that your competitors get and your business will be viewed like all the rest. Break as many of those rules as you can and you'll soon stand out from the crowd, impress prospective clients, and find out that the crowd wasn't so wise after all.

Most useful book i've read for ages

I've just finished reading The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and I have to say that this is essential reading for anyone running a business who feels they don't have time to do anything!

The point of running a business is that you don't have to do all the technical work yourself. You will probably eventually want to hire staff to do some of this for you, freeing up your time to work ON the business, to develop it, rather than IN the business and trying to do everything yourself.

Many business owners know this but struggle to achieve it. Gerber takes the priciples behind business franchising and applies them to businesses like yours, graphically illustrating how to get staff to do what you want through systems, enabling the business to function like clockwork even if you're not there.

Anyone running a business flat out, and struggling to find the time to do any marketing or business development, or any employer who is constantly frustrated with staff that don't have the same commitment or attention to detail will find this book a revelation.

I've you want to check it out on Amazon, The E-Myth Revisited is in my list of business books to the left. I'm now reading the sequel, E-Myth Mastery, and will let you know if that's as useful when i've finished it.

New website launches

Just launched my new corporate website:
www.turnermarketing.co.uk
Let me know what you think.

Best regards,
Simon

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm eager to get back to work now having got an essential job out of the way - namely building a snowman for my kids!

The start to the New Year always brings with it some renewed enthusiasm to tackle long standing issues and a yearning for “this year to be our best ever”. With the economic climate showing signs of improvement, this is the perfect time to review your current marketing efforts and to make some improvements to ensure you have a successful 2010.

I am writing my next newsletter at the moment which will cover the main points everyone should be looking at such as:

1. Reviewing your marketing strategy
2. Refreshing your corporate image
3. Developing an integrated approach to marketing
4. Talking to prospects and customers more
5. Tracking and improving results

Please email me if you'd like a copy at simon@turnermarketing.co.uk. I'll post an electronic version here when it's complete.

Wish you all a happy and prosperous 2010.

Best regards,

Simon

New Watch and Jewellery Catalogue

Turner Associates, along with sister company Samuelson Wylie Associates, have just completed the latest issue of their magalogue Flawless. The magalogue is a mix of luxury lifestyle magazine and premium product catalogue. Turner Associates handled the design, production and distribution of over 20,000 copies and then produced this online version using the latest turn-page technology which includes live links to all the contributors and links to online purchasing for all the products.

Partners in the project included Banks Lyon Jewellers, Bateman BMW, Blandford Fine Arts, Breitling, Chopard, Gucci, Hipping Hall, Omega, Rolex, Tag Heuer and Willow Water

You can read a copy online by clicking the graphic below.


Click to launch the full edition in a new window.

New Turn Page Technology

See below for an electronic copy of my newsletter using the latest turnpage technology. You can also add video, audio, animation and a whole range of live links to various website or individual pages. I am working on some of these for clients at the moment and will also upload them here when finished.

Electronic copies of existing brochures can be easily done and a link emailed out to clients and prospects you could choose to do a bespoke multi-media version for an innovative new campaign.

If you're interesting in using this for your business call me on 01483 283810 or email simon@turnermarketing.co.uk



Click to launch the full edition in a new window.