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What Integrated Marketing Means to Me -- Jeanne Harris

The opportunity to join with others to enter into discussions on what integrated marketing is, how we can improve the donor experience, understand how organizations can align all of their resources in support of an actionable, cost effective, measurable integrated approach to delivering marketing messages and to share learnings is an exciting one. 

 

As marketers, we understand the need to go where our donors and constituents are and to engage them in a way that promotes excitement, opportunities for engagement and deeper relationships. We understand and deploy industry best practices within specific channels, and now with the ever changing landscape and the communication mediums available -- we are faced with the question on how to best orchestrate and deliver our marketing messages to the right people, at the right time -- in a consistent manner that allows our donors the option of responding in whatever way makes most sense to them and through the channel(s) they choose -- to raise money and to build partnerships.  

 

I believe that integrated marketing is not just having multiple channels at our fingertips, but the more challenging goal of creating “a seemingly simple messaging symphony” to show our constituents that we know who they are and that we are smart in coordinating and defining what it is we want to say to them and where.  The end game is to understand and act on our data to help build a long term relationship with our donors that acknowledges that they are in charge (not us), to build trust equity and to be forward thinking enough that we can increase cross-generational giving which will ensure our organizations remain relevant and dynamic moving forward -- (while raising money all the way.)   

 

There are many examples of organizations that have successfully integrated campaigns.  It will be exciting to see how organizations build upon their marketing strategies aligning channels, budgets and resources.

 

So all this is fine and dandy -- probably not too many would disagree with the basic concepts noted above, but our discussions will be important in working together to navigate the intricacies of:

• Collecting,  analyzing and applying our data across organizational departments;
• Optimizing our analytics tools to measure results on key metrics across all channels;
• Understanding where to allocate our resources in the delivery of our fundraising messages for the best return;
• Embracing (and yes maybe better understanding) donor expectations and assumptions in  our ‘real time’ world;
• Establishing the organizational communication roadmap that will allow us to establish our top priorities and devise the best plan for our organizations to truly move the needle from a results perspective , and
• Retaining the need for innovation and our ability to be fluid and nimble to the marketplace.

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What Integrated Marketing Means to Me -- Christopher McKinley

Integrated marketing is usually poorly defined, just like most newly-hyped terms. For example, remember 10 plus years ago when industries made a mad dash to own “a CRM”? CRM went from a noun (usually a technology solution) to an adjective to an approach -- and finally landed as a philosophy.

For me, integrated marketing has experienced a similar evolution. Today, I think it's best described as an approach to marketing that can only be fully realized when it's fully embraced by your entire organization. Actually, it’s a little like love: it must be wanted, and it takes work, belief and commitment ... and we all need it.

Essentially, integrated marketing combines the core components of advertising, marketing and public relations with activities and gifts, brand development and research data. These components alone offer insight and achieve results, but taken together, they have potential to dramatically outweigh the sum of the parts -- achieving far greater impact.

Admittedly, integrated solutions sometimes seem overwhelming. Many seem to suggest that you must be “everything to everyone ... everywhere.” In reality, that’s less of an integrated marketing solution and more of a “one size fits all” approach. One made increasingly ineffective as it’s debated across multiple functional teams. Along the way, messaging objectives are diluted, and long-term strategy is sacrificed for short-term gain. Eventually, the story becomes virtually non-distinguishable amongst all communication touch points. An integrated approach to marketing is informed by multiple data points and will lead to solutions that selectively choose or eliminate a channel message or audience based upon the goal. It’s the availability of the multiple data points, the sharing of information and collaborative planning that brings benefits.

The benefits of integrated marketing are valuable, but they won’t happen by accident. Careful integration strategy leads to:

• A more accurate measurement environment that enables better decisions.
• Shorter time frames to understand positive and negative impacts to an organization; respectively, reaction times are shorter and better informed.
• Better informed staff due to the increased cross-functional sharing of information.
• Increased efficiencies that uncover cost saving and revenue growth opportunities.

In any industry -- let alone one as cloistered as ours -- the ability to learn rapidly and embrace new solutions is a priceless advantage. That's especially true for organizations and agencies that embrace integrated marketing today. While they're still somewhat rare, those who succeed benefit their constituents, their organizations and their marketing. With respects to Michael Scott, that’s a “win-win-win” situation. And there really is no compelling counter argument.

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What Integrated Marketing Means to Me -- Mike Johnston

Integrated Marketing is so much more than a process. It’s about the end result. And that result is, at a minimum, about meeting the consumers’ expectations.

And people expect an integrated relationship. We live in a time of choice, convenience and customization. People have this experience every single day, multiple times a day even, as commercial consumers. Their expectations have been constructed by their consumer experience.

In the charitable sector, the donor is the consumer (the "philanthropic consumer") and the product they are purchasing is rarely tangible. Rather, it is a feeling and the knowledge that they are making the world a better place, that they are making an impact and making a difference.

It is up to us to craft the whole experience for the philanthropic consumer. You know that people are not one dimensional. You know that people have emotions and feelings, motivations and fears, senses and expectations. When someone decides to make a donation to an organization, they are actually buying an extension of their values, goals, beliefs, etc.

Our challenge is to use our resources in the best way possible to connect these for the donor and to create an entire experience, an experience that they expect. This begins the moment a person is introduced to an organization and does not stop when they make a donation. When organizational departments work together, we can create more meaningful interactions that go far beyond touching on a single aspect of the donor experience.

That is integrated marketing.

Working backwards, we need to identify the philanthropic consumer’s expectations and needs. Our primary goal has to be at the minimum, meeting these. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with the IMAB. We’re out to help nonprofit organizations catch up to the philanthropic donor’s expectations in integrated marketing. The nonprofit sector has limited resources, a change resistant culture, and an amazing ability to keep marketing channels and functions in concrete hardened silos.

It’s time to finally figure out integrated marketing for our sector -- before it’s too late.

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What Integrated Marketing Means to Me -- Roger Hiyama

I was intrigued when invited to be a member of the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board because most people define “integrated marketing” so differently. It reminds me of other terms like “CRM” or “modeling” -- ask 10 people and you’ll arguably get about 15 different opinions.

I believe integrated marketing has become the expected norm of the marketing industry without truly having defined what it is.  It’s what we’re all expected to be doing -- but, with everyone having their own opinion on what’s truly integrated and what’s truly marketing, is anyone really using “integrated marketing”?  

I could easily define integrated marketing as the use of multiple media in expressing a marketing message -- for example, the use of email and direct mail or any other crazy combination of two different outbound media. But that would be a cop-out, because to me, integrated marketing is more than just the use of multiple media.

Rather than outlining a definition, I’ll describe “integrated marketing” as the purposeful and orchestrated combining of three different marketing dimensions with a common goal of ultimately increasing customer value. The first dimension is the audience dimension or Who. The second dimension is the messaging dimension or the What. And the third dimension is the media dimension or the How.

For nonprofits, the audience dimension includes all of the people who make up all of the various sources of revenue or potential revenue within the organization. These audiences include direct mail donors, online donors, major donors, planned gift donors, members, event participants, volunteers, board members, catalog purchasers, and the larger pool of prospective donors. The Who also includes the silo-ed departments within an organization and the people they serve.

The messaging dimension is what we are trying to convey to the audience. It’s the offer, the copy, and the call to action. Messaging can come from leadership, marketing, development or public relations.

The media dimension is the How of delivering the messaging to the audience. This is how we disseminate information -- not how we receive the response. Media includes, but is not limited to, all of the various methods of reaching our audience, including TV, radio, print, direct mail, email, organic search, paid search, telemarketing, public relations, and face-to-face.

The key to truly integrated marketing is to have a purposeful and orchestrated plan. And most marketers don’t. There tend to be a lot of instruments being played, but it neither looks nor sounds anything like an orchestra -- it looks a lot like a bunch of instruments being played at the same time and doesn’t necessarily sound like music.

How intently did you look at all the possibilities and intersections of audience, messaging and media? Did you review a single marketing effort? Did you review the entire calendar of campaigns for each audience? Did you ask yourself “what’s in the best interest of the customer”? Did you ask “what’s in the best interest of my entire organization”?  Or, did you focus only on “what’s best for my department”? Did you discuss the plan with the leaders of other revenue sources? Could you have done more to coordinate keeping all stakeholders’ interests in mind? Did you review all of the various media possibilities to see what would get you the greatest outcome with the most efficient spend?  Did you walk down the hall to discuss with the other “silos” within your organization?

I believe that a simple way of describing integrated marketing is “the purposeful and orchestrated deployment of Audience + Messaging + Media in ultimately maximizing customer value." But, the key is that it must be “purposeful and orchestrated"!

 

 

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What Integrated Marketing Means to Me -- Linda G. Williams

Despite having “integrated marketing” in my business title for the past 2 years, when I thought about writing a response to “what integrated marketing means to me,” I decided to start with a good old-fashioned dictionary definition. What does the word integrated actually mean? 

According to dictionary.com, "integrated" is defined as combining or coordinating separate elements so as to provide a harmonious interrelated whole; organized or structured so that constituent units function cooperatively.

I find these definitions both affirming (so my business title actually does apply to the work I’m doing…) and instructive for us as members of the nonprofit community.

As integrated marketers in the nonprofit space, we try our best to coordinate previously separate elements (for example fundraising and marketing; direct mail and digital channels) to work more effectively and produce a greater yield (revenue; brand awareness; constituents). I think we’re all still working on the “functioning cooperatively” part.

To me, integrated marketing requires 3 core elements: 

• Appropriate channel mix -- using each channel for its inherent strengths. This requires an understanding of how each channel can contribute to reaching your objectives. By contrast, a “we need to be there because it’s the latest fad” approach often appears disjointed, producing disappointing results -- and wastes money
• Identifying, understanding and leveraging the overlap in target audience between channels to maximize impressions, ensure consistency and minimize brand confusion
• Measurement across channels at the constituent level

Often times, organizations start and stop their integrated strategies at deploying consistent graphics, message themes, offers, and timing. While this approach is beneficial because it supports unified branding, it doesn’t fully leverage the power of an integrated approach until data about the target audience and channel performance is aggregated and analyzed collectively:

• How many direct mail donors are also email constituents? 
• How many email constituents are registered website users? 
• What, if any, registration data do we have on our social media constituents? 
• How can we message most effectively to this very valuable “multi-channel” audience segment, taking into account their value and profile data from each channel?
• What is the optimal message timing & sequence?
• For those segments we are likely to reach via one channel, how can we encourage multi-channel behavior?
• What is net revenue per donor per channel? Aggregated net revenue?
• How many impressions are gained per channel at what CPM?
• What is the value of actions taken per channel? Actions per constituent?

A plan that incorporates media/channel mix, target audience (including understanding how and where the target audience overlaps) and a robust measurement framework is the essence of a well thought out integrated marketing strategy.

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© 2014 Integrated Marketing Advisory Board. All Rights Reserved
The individuals who post here are members of the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board. The opinions expressed here are their own, are not necessarily reviewed in advance by anyone but the individual authors, and neither Convio nor any other member of the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board necessarily agrees with them.