Marketing
Strategies Can't Operate in Silos
Integrating your Marketing Tactics to improve the
Effectiveness of Your Marketing Communications
By Susan Young, President, AimFire Marketing
I often receive requests for particular services that I offer, such as
PR or SEO. As I talk to business owners and begin to learn about their sales and marketing strategies and goals, we discover that often
choosing just one approach and running with it may not prove as
effective. Why?
For one, every marketing, advertising, PR or Internet tactic impacts and is also impacted by another tactic or aspect of the business, such as your:
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sales team, messages and strategies
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target markets or industry segments
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website
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exhibition at tradeshows or events
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advertising
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direct mail or email
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identity and branding
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product packaging or introductions
For true effectiveness, all of these items cannot operate independently of one another because they're all inter-connected parts of your overall sales and business strategy. So it's important to look at them together before you make any major decisions.
If you have separate teams or firms working on various parts of your marketing strategy, be sure to keep everyone in the loop and/or hold regular meetings to make sure everyone's on the same page. This will help align the goals of each tactic with your company's overall goals.
When you integrate tactics (such as focusing your PR efforts, advertising and direct marketing dollars on a particular audience who may be attending your upcoming tradeshow),
you may increase their effectiveness and thus your investment in
them.
It may also help to develop an annual marketing plan
which incorporates all of the important elements, complete with schedules, budgets, audiences and more, and make sure everyone signs off on it.
Let me know how I can help as you determine which marketing approaches work best for you. You can read more about
creating the right marketing mix on my website. Good luck!
Susan Young is
president of Aim Fire Marketing, an Indianapolis-area marketing,
public relations, website development, SEO and Internet
marketing firm that works with
growing companies to implement effective marketing programs. You
can contact Susan and learn more about Aim Fire Marketing by
visiting www.aimfiremarketing.com.
Copyright
- Aim Fire Marketing. You can reprint this article on your
website or newsletter by including this and the above paragraph.
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