Integrated Marketing

Integrated marketing is a concept of reviewing all of a company or business’ activities and ensuring that the marketing strategy is unified, and that all marketing communications are aligned and supporting the one strategy.

In the past three years of online marketing through social media and the extended Internet world, working hand in hand with half a dozen small and micro businesses, applying the concept of integrated marketing is very challenging. It is the equivalent of trying to multi-task doing a dozen things as one person. Interestingly, requiring the coordination of even one person, but up to two dozen on one common direction can be harder than multi-tasking as one person.

Hearing at the Third Internet Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2010 that this integration is elusive in the international corporations is surprising and not surprising both. Not surprising, because of their size, and at the same time, very surprising, because of the professionalism that these organizations portray to the world.

Ultimately it’s about how to find the common ground between all the key players, and supporting players in an organization, so everyone agrees to one strategy and an integrated marketing plan to accomplish it.

Seeing the possibilities and opportunities can be hard enough for those within a small business. Coming in from the outside, these opportunities can seem very clear, very obvious, even very simple to address. Then, there’s people. How do get gain common ground, get on the same page, or as some say, get in the same book.

This is the challenge.

Avoiding it because it is difficult is not an option.

However choosing clients who are on board with this from the get-go, can be a priority, and it is.