Our love affair with making the perfect cup of coffee has led to a booming business where artisans skillfully blend flavors and ingredients into a premium experience. However, the art of integrating content messages is still lost on many marketers, and strategic tactics remain in their individual silos.
In marketing, much like roasting coffee, nothing good comes from rushing. As content marketing’s share of the overall business goals and budgets continues to grow, so does the importance of carefully creating a meaningful and strategic approach.
Let’s first break down the main ingredients of content marketing channels:
- Social media
- Websites
- Video
- Blogs
- Newsletters
- Emails
- Direct mail
- White papers
- Press releases
With such a wide range of content marketing channels, it’s easy to see how an integrated approach can be lost in the shuffle to push out messages and generate sales. Understanding and addressing this challenge can greatly assist your business in overcoming marketing limitations.
Here are some helpful tips for brewing up a pot of cohesiveness as you work to integrate your content messages.
Find Your Voice
In today’s marketplace, consumers are seeking consistent messages that strengthen their view of your product or service. Identifying your “voice” can reinforce your company’s value and strengths, thereby delivering greater business results.
An integrated plan starts with the four “Rs,” according to MarketingProfs. They recommend delivering the following:
- Right messages
- Right channels
- Right times
- Right audiences
Work Together
The way to start the integration process is to break out of the compartmentalized approach of many business plans and begin to work in teams. PR, Marketing and Digital teams should be treated as a single integrated function, also according to MarketingProfs.
The process of creating and sharing content becomes much more efficient when goals are aligned across disciplines. From an email lead to a news media story, cross-promoting the same content message reinforces the desired results — and that will make your boss happy.
Create Consistency
Staying “on message” across channels is one of the most difficult challenges facing marketers today. Each platform requires a custom approach, and audience behaviors can differ.
A designed approach can provide your business with the foundation for a consistent cross-channel campaign. Key messages and calls to action should be reflected in both written copy and visual assets. Each asset should follow a style guide and reinforce main copy points.
Build a Journey
The worst thing you can do to your customer is to send him or her around in circles. Today’s savvy buyers will quickly lose interest in your company and move onto a competitor. Each piece of the content and communication platform has the potential to work together to bring the customer one step closer to becoming a buyer.
Identify the funnel in which you want to reach your customers from inspiration to consideration to making the purchase. A bonus is to also capture post purchase data in the form of customer testimonials and experience feedback.
It’s natural to make sense of business by compartmentalizing tasks and goals into distinct buckets. However, this model limits the effectiveness of your content marketing approach and will have limitations on all of your initiatives.
Overcome your marketing limitations and achieve better business results by providing a consistent experience for your audience, no matter where they receive your message.
Please stay tuned. In the coming weeks, I will break down each of these concepts and discuss in more detail.
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