Integrated marketing is the whole shebang
Dogwood Solutions is a Boise-based marketing agency—with a twist. Unlike traditional marketing agencies, we also offer PR services. And unlike traditional PR firms, we offer marketing and corporate communications services. That’s because we’re an integrated marketing agency. Like an all-inclusive vacation resort, that seamless experience of having all aspects of your marketing, PR, and corporate communications expertly managed by one cohesive agency instead of multiple separate entities is the core principle behind integrated marketing.
Integrated marketing strategically blends your marketing communications to connect with your target audience providing maximum return-on-investment (ROI). And, at Dogwood Solutions, that’s what we do.
What is integrated marketing, anyway?
Integrated marketing is a “one-stop-shop” where all of your marketing communications efforts are planned, managed, and executed by one professional team. Services usually include customer and competitor research, strategic planning, and implementation.
Based on your needs, solutions can include:
brand strategy
web and search engine optimization (SEO)
content marketing
copywriting
graphic design
corporate communications
media relations
digital marketing and advertising
direct mail
event marketing
email newsletters
social media planning
leadership recognition
reputation management
conversion rate optimization
The result? Cohesive messaging and maximized ROI.
What’s the benefit of integrated marketing?
Companies that work with an integrated marketing agency get two big benefits: consistency and a greater return on their marketing investment. When your marketing communications and strategy are provided by one agency you are assured the appearance, content, and messaging for your brand is consistent across all platforms. And, because your integrated marketing agency deeply understands your audience, goals, and existing tactics and strategies, building on what is successful takes less time and is more targeted. Never do you need to share what your digital marketing provider and PR reps are working on—because in integrated marketing agencies these folks all work together.
The integrated marketing jigsaw
Think of a marketing campaign as a puzzle. Each media channel is an individual puzzle piece, and the pieces are used in coordination with each other to complete the whole puzzle. In order for this to be successful, each piece, regardless of where it’s placed, should include your distinct branding characteristics—logo, slogan, brand voice, and visual aesthetic. The repetition of these brand components across every channel is important because consistency ties the message together building brand awareness and nurturing trust.
Increased brand awareness and building trust aren’t the only benefits. Effective integrated marketing offers opportunities for customers to connect with your brand by encouraging their involvement through email marketing and on social media via engagement and content sharing. Integrated marketing ensures all elements of your brand are uniform across the board–streamlining your marketing processes to reduce costs, save time and maximize ROI.
Imagine a tech company is launching a new schedule management app. You might see a streaming ad about the new app, then read about the company’s innovations in an industry publication. A Linkedin post highlights the app’s benefits to leaders like you. While scrolling social media you see an ad on your feed about the app, which leads you to a blog post detailing how the app can help you and invites you to share your email so you can play with some of the features. The company is established as a trusted provider of innovative solutions, and through consistent messaging piqued your interest and gained your engagement.
That’s integrated marketing in action. Multiple sources delivering unified messaging and imagery maximizing your marketing campaign, resulting in more customers, sales, and increasing client loyalty.
Does PR really matter?
In short, YES!
At Dogwood Solutions, we believe public relations is a critical piece of the integrated marketing puzzle.
The goal of PR is to foster trust and enhance credibility, influencing how people perceive a company, product, service, etc., through communications and media. Since both marketing and PR are based around messaging and communications they often intersect—which is why an effective integrated marketing plan considers both areas.
Earned media builds visibility, consumer confidence, and your ROI
Consider one quote by your company’s president that’s included in an online news story, exposing your brand to their readers and followers.
This earned media coverage increases your company’s visibility while positioning your president as a leader in the field, building trust with potential consumers. Additionally, when your company is mentioned as a source, media outlets often include a backlink to the related article. Backlinks from reputable media outlets are golden.
One well-placed article could:
- provide dozens of backlinks
- generate more website traffic
- increase your website’s click-through-rate (CTR)
- improve search engine optimization (SEO)
- boost your Google ranking
- convert more leads to customers.
All of this generates data which is then used to further build targeted marketing and PR opportunities.
PR is more than media relations
Media relations is important, but it’s not PR’s only goal.
Credibility and trust building
Organizations need more than Instagram reels to establish a position of trust with an audience. Through industry recognition, leadership visibility, and consistent positive reviews and testimonials, integrated marketing agencies weave a foundation of trust and credibility for their clients—which leads to greater engagement and sales.
Reputation management and crisis communications
Consider a scenario where a company has satisfied customers but employees consistently give the company poor reviews on Glassdoor. The company begins a new funding round, but investors see the publicly-posted internal strife as a reason not to invest. If the company had a trusted advisor—a PR team—they would have assessed the extent of the negative sentiment, identified key concerns, developed a plan to address the concerns through appropriate messages and channels, equipped leadership with a plan for consistent messaging, developed a tactical approach for stakeholder engagement, and implemented initiatives to rebuild trust and the company’s reputation. The result? A stronger workforce, better employee reviews, and confident investors.
Message consistency
When you align public relations with your other marketing efforts, your key messages are reinforced and your brand voice is clear, increasing business success. Since that’s the goal of hiring a marketing agency, working with an integrated marketing agency gets you a greater return on your investment.
Using data to track marketing ROI
Putting money into marketing without implementing tracking metrics is like throwing cash into the eye of a tornado. You may see those dollars again, but you won’t know if the money came from that tornado or somewhere else. If you’re going to invest in marketing your business, tracking the outcomes of your efforts is vital to determining your return-on-investment.
"Data really powers everything that we do."
Tracking elements like reach, effective frequency, number of clicks, and lead generation on each campaign helps identify your campaigns effectiveness. Small adjustments—or large ones—made based on data-informed strategy move your “effectiveness needle” into the sweet spot of maximum ROI.
Now, imagine that you throw some money into a tornado and some into a hurricane. Without systems in place to track those dollars, when you find them again you won’t know how much came from the tornado and how much came from the hurricane.
The same applies when running cross-channel marketing campaigns. By using data to measure the marketing success of each campaign on every outlet, you can clearly determine which renders the best results. Then, you can make adjustments as needed so you aren’t wasting money.
(Tip: don’t throw money into tornados or hurricanes.)
Integrated Marketing is The Whole Shebang
Unlike humans, the integrated marketing communication ecosystem doesn’t sleep—it’s churning 24/7.
At Dogwood Solutions, our integrated marketing communications professionals take the stress of marketing and PR off your plate. We strategically plan, develop, design, manage, track and analyze your marketing efforts to ensure consistency and maximize your ROI. Then, we make thoughtful, data-based adjustments to continuously improve that ROI.
And, like the all-inclusive resort, we can manage all aspects of your company’s marketing communications…that’s the whole shebang!
Let’s chat about how integrated marketing can improve your ROI. Schedule a no-stress 15-minute call today!
