More Business Than You Can Handle
Integrating Your Marketing For Business Growth
I’m going to share information that would cost you thousands of dollars anywhere else and make you even more. I’m going to explain how integrated marketing works and why spreading your message can be more effective than putting all your eggs in one basket. Then I’ll show you how you can implement a plan on your own for about $250.
If you have read any of my other articles or listened to any of my Podcast you may have heard me explain that integrated marketing deals with promoting yourself with as many tools possible through as many advertising and promotional outlets as you can afford. The trick is making all those tools mesh with one singular message, so even though you’re bombarding people with your name and what you do, you want to make sure it’s a consistent message that becomes recognizable and then memorable.
Now, the more outlets you have the better, but you must make sure you stay in a range that is not too saturated, but also not spread too thin. A good example of an integrated marketing plan is a campaign Kleenex is running right now. It is running a direct response TV commercial that shows people speaking to a “good listener”. Each one reaches for a Kleenex tissue and the tag line is “let it out.” Visit letitout.com and if you go to the site, visitors are allowed to submit their own stories of happiness, sadness and anything else that they feel is relevant. People my not admit it, but they like talking about themselves. When people leave their message on the Blog they will be added to the Kleenex email newsletter. This will send people email coupons and other product news. I have not scene any print ads yet but I’m sure they are out there. The campaign also has a cross promotion with TNT which will run Tearjerker movies. Kleenex also has cause related marketing implemented with its box topper program that will allow people to give the box top to their local school and the school will get 10 cents for each one. The in store displays also promote the web site and match the colors of the commercial and the site. The fonts used in all these mediums are consistent, so you recognize the message visually.
The marketing effort is all pointed toward one goal. Drive people to the web site. If you think about it, why would anyone want to go to a website about tissue? By taking this approach, Kleenex has allowed for people to remember that they need to stop and by a box of Kleenex.
So now we’ll answer the big question. How can a small company afford to do everything Kleenex is doing, or even more? The answer is by scaling down the effort. Determine your budget and then figure out what geographical area you want to control. If you have millions of dollars and want to cover the country or you have $250 dollars and want to conquer your block, it can be done. Don’t believe me, I’ll show you. Say you have a marketing budget of $250 a month and you want to implement a campaign. 1st you will determine where your customers can be found. If they are spread out amongst the city narrow your search down to one area that you can manage and if possible make sure there is no apparent competition centered in that area. Determine what you want to say to those people. Write out a set of commercials for yourself, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds and one minute. It should take you that long to read each one out load respectively. Now first you will need to get yourself some business cards. Not cheap ones. The rest of the stuff on this list will look like do-it-your-self stuff, but please don’t make the mistake of getting bad business cards. You may be able to find them for less, but if you mention this article you can get 500 for $50 from my company and that will be full color front and back. Anyway, You’re going to want to print your 5-second commercial on the back of that card. You now have $200 left. Next we are going to design a flyer. Go to your favorite office supply store or paper supplier and buy some glossy paper. You can get about 300 to 500 sheets for about $15 or less. Print these to match your business cards. Your flyer should have the contents of your 30-second commercial. Make sure you have a clear headline. You have about $185 left. Everything above will serve as your direct marketing pieces.
Next you’re going to need a web site. Buy a template from us for $25 and if you don’t have a domain name already, get one. It will cost about $10 a year or less. The $25 also covers 30 minutes a month of graphic design services each month so we can design stuff for you moving forward. Hopefully you bought your cards from us so now your web site and cards match. Put your minute long commercial on your services page and your 10-second on your home page. If you don’t, then be sure your cards match your site. You now have web and print covered with $140 to spare.
That $140 will be just enough to cover a search engine marketing account and an ad in a small weekly newspaper or maybe even a magazine. An even better idea is to make an arrangement with a non-profit that you would like to support and tell them that for every sale you make they will receive x amount or x percent. Then have them help promote your business. This will be your cause related marketing. Run your small ad and promote the cause, your new partner may even pitch in and help you get a larger ad. Write a letter to the local paper, TV station and radio station about your new partnership and maybe it will get some publicity. This will help you get some much-needed PR in your area.
All this and I haven’t even mentioned networking events. Try and get to as many as you can. You will have plenty of chances to implement those commercials I told you to write earlier.
Now you are also going to want to create a Myspace page as well as get on any other social networking sites you can get on. You may even want to consider getting a blog set up for yourself if your business lends itself to that.
Wow! I just realized I forgot to mention Craigslist and Twitter.
As you can see there are a ton of options available for you to successfully create an integrated marketing plan. The key to expanding your reach is doing all this and then increasing your spending as your sales grow. Once you have taken over one area you can then spread into another.
This plan is a lot of work, but it isn’t hard to accomplish. If you’re a VMD360.com customer and you would like help implementing something like this, contact your Marketing Director to get started.
