Today’s B2B buyers and their buyer’s journeys have changed, and that’s why integrated marketing matters - a lot.
B2B prospects now do more research and ingest more content from more channels than ever before. They also require many more touch points and interactions with your brand as they travel from lead to customer through the sales funnel.
They’re being hit on all sides - by emails, social media, websites, and other media - in competing brands’ bid for their attention and sales dollars. The noise and clutter are such that it would be a minor miracle if your message gets through, not to mention absorbed. That’s why an integrated marketing approach has never been more critical and should underpin any B2B marketing strategy.
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What is integrated marketing?
Today’s B2B challenge: how do you drown out marketplace chaos while connecting with prospects across multiple touchpoints to increase brand awareness, credibility, and lead generation?
The solution: speak with one voice across all channels and devices, amplifying your brand message. Combine all tactics - social media, public relations, content marketing, email campaigns, SEO optimization - into one integrated framework that communicates the same brand story harmoniously and seamlessly and works toward the same goal. This is integrated marketing.
Using a consistent brand message across your social media, email marketing, and blogging channels instead of confusing prospective visitors with conflicting messages - you’ll have a better chance of driving more site traffic and collecting more leads for your lead generation program.
Use your integrated marketing approach to appeal to key influencers. If your organization is launching a new solution in the crowded healthcare market, reaching influencers – the people your potential customers look to – becomes key.
If you can forge partnerships where influencers will be willing to create potential viral videos - video marketing and develop brand-positive content to boost search engine results with branded content, the sphere of your influence has greatly expanded.
Benefits of integrated marketing
By investing in an integrated marketing strategy and ensuring all your messaging across all marketing channels is in sync, your B2B company can:
- Boost your brand-building efforts and help your audience quickly recognize you and your value
- Acquire higher-quality leads who are further into the sales funnel
- Reap bigger ROI though amplified brand awareness, combined with savings in time and resources from having one message to implement
- Ensure that the brand message – as long as it is clear, compelling, and consistent - will not get lost in the constant, uninterrupted stream of content buyers face every day and will be easily recalled
- Earn the trust of customers, since a consistent message gives the impression of authority and expertise
- Improve brand perception, advance purchase intent, and increase the probability of buyer action
How to create a B2B integrated marketing effort that delivers results
While it’s not that easy to incorporate a single brand message into a wide range of tactics, channels, or content, it’s critical to make it happen.
To create a successful B2B integrated marketing campaign, follow these tips:
- Know and understand your audience’s challenges, fears, motivations, and pain point - and what type of content will reach them
- Develop a consistent, easy-to-remember message that resonates with your buyers, grabs their attention, and appeals to their needs and wants
- Create a cohesive design and mood/vibe you can apply across all your channels, from websites to public relations to social media to trade shows
- Identify your buyers’ preferred channels, and develop easily adaptable content so your prospects will see and hear the same message in whatever channel they’re in
- Develop lead-nurturing and lead-tracking programs, so you’ll know exactly when and when not to engage them again
- Deploy marketing analytics to track and optimize your campaign: which calls to action work best, which pages attract the most visitors, which channels delivered the most leads, etc.
Successful B2B integrated marketing efforts transform siloed marketing activities into a unified campaign. Needless to say, they call for close collaboration with every team involved in marketing - from the PR guys to the content creators, and even external partners like influencers and the media.