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Online Media Planning and Buying
A Strategic Approach to Integrated Marketing
 The topic of integrated offline and online marketing is hotter then ever and is debated intensively on expert panels at marketing and media conferences. But practical examples of true marketing integration that goes beyond cross-channel message and identity consistency are currently hard to find.
There are various reasons for this:
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Integrated marketing, spanning online and offline channels such as organic search, paid search, display advertising, social media marketing, television advertising and other channels, can be very complex because it requires intimate knowledge of the inner workings of each channel. Especially social media marketing can be challenging because it is so new and the results are often unpredictable. |
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The lack of comprehensive integrated campaign tracking tools and standard performance metrics are making in-depth measurement of the value contribution of each individual channel component to the overall campaign impossible. |
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Due to its complexity integrated online and offline marketing requires a strategic approach while many business owners and marketers are missing the required expertise or are more comfortable with operating on the tactical campaign level. |
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However, the fact that the mindset, skill levels and building blocks for comprehensive integrated marketing are not yet available does not mean that experimenting with marketing integration cannot start at a more rudimentary level.
Integrated Online and Offline Marketing
Good examples of the beginning of integrated online marketing is “blended search”, where a combination of one or more specialized search results, such as news, images and video, appear along with traditional Web page listings on the main organic search results page. This has pushed organic search engine optimization to a new level that not only requires expertise in text search optimization, but also in video, image, blog and news search optimization and how they can leverage and influence each other.
Television can have a tremendous positive impact on the effectiveness of a paid search campaign. Search queries for brand keywords that did not get any searches can suddenly spike after a TV campaign is launched. When this happens marketers need to make sure to buy the related keywords in advance so that ads are showing up at the top of search results when brand keyword searches are performed.
While television may be too expensive for many marketers and business owners, other online and offline channels can drive demand as well. Online display ads, including rich media, radio and print ads are effective in driving demand in search. We have seen in presentations and search reports from Jupiter Research and ad network vendors DoubleClick and Atlas that indicate that there can be an over 20 percent increase in conversion among web users who clicked on sponsored search ads and who were also exposed to online display ads.
A surprising development is that, according to a recent Forester Research report, a full 67 percent of online search users are driven to search as a result of some offline channel. This again, illustrates the importance of consistent, cross-channel online and offline creative, where the keywords of the offline channel should be used in web site copy, web site organic search engine optimization and PPC paid search.
Strategic Integrated Marketing
True marketing integration must be based on a strategic plan and also include event timing, leveraging the strength of each media channel and sharing data across various media channels.
Most marketers and business owners today take a tactical approach to marketing, especially to online marketing. They run a paid search campaign at Google, or buy local cable TV ads or place an ad in the local newspaper to generate leads or sales. Although this may have led to successes in the past, today with an increasingly complex and fragmented media market an integrated marketing plan, that is based on clear goals and objectives with a well-thought out strategy, is required to use the hard earned marketing dollar better.
Defining an effective strategy for integrated marketing, or any other business enterprise, starts with a lot of soul-searching and asking many difficult questions. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses and having the courage to reject things that seem important is an essential part of this process. Effective strategic planning also requires a deep understanding of the customer base. How do they differentiate your company from the competition? How do you believe your company might be different? Only after those questions have been answered you are ready and able to evaluate your objectives and determine what must be improved and what is already good and should be kept in place.
Monitoring Integrated Marketing
As more marketers and business owners seek out an integrated multi-channel marketing approach, it is imperative not only to look at performance in isolation, but also collectively and to understand the lift one channel provides to another. For instance, a successful online display ad campaign may drive very few visitors and conversions, yet provide a tremendous lift in branded search impressions, clicks and conversions. If the display campaign is only analyzed in isolation, the demand created in search may be missed. We also know many people don’t click on banner ads, but that many of the same people eventually go to the promoted web sites to make a purchase or submit a lead.
This means that to track the results of integrated multi-channel marketing campaigns new tools need to be developed that can quantify the downstream value of online ad impressions. Microsoft has announced technology that addresses multi-channel campaign tracking and Google also seems to be working on this. Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping approach conveys how each ad exposure - whether display, rich media or search, seen multiple times on multiple sites and across many channels - influenced an eventual purchase.
Search campaign data collected by the search marketing team may be considered a new useful data stream that can be used not only to evaluate how a broad integrated marketing campaign is performing, but also provides valuable information on how consumers ask for products.
Get Started With Integrated Marketing
The implementation of integrated marketing is difficult and complex due to the increasingly fragmented media market and the intricacies of each individual media channel and therefore requires a strategic approach. A strategic approach can be applied on an organic search engine optimization campaign to take advantage of blended search or a full blown integrated online and offline marketing campaign that spans paid advertising, social media marketing and offline media components such as TV, radio, mobile and print.
Like any new business, integrated marketing needs a plan with a strategy that identifies measurable client business goals and objectives, a market analysis, a defined target audience and an implementation plan that includes tactics, cost, timelines and milestones.
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Upcoming Events
CFUnited, 10th Annual Premier Coldfusion Conference, June 18 - 21, 2008, DC Convention Center, Washington DC.
Advanced Media Productions participates and exhibits at this premier event for Coldfusion developers.
Learn more…
Past Presentations
495/MetroWest Business Expo
Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 11:00 am
Sheraton Framingham Hotel
Pre-Expo Keynote Presentation
“A Strategic Approach to Integrated Marketing”
Presenter: Louise Rijk, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales
Learn more…
Bentley College, 2008 - Waltham, MA
“Planning and Integrating a Targeted Internet Marketing Campaign”
Click here to play the video.
WebmasterWorld Pubcon 2007 - Las Vegas, NV
“Planning and Integrating a Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) Campaign”
Click here to play the video.
BizAction 2007 - Washington DC
"Email, Social Media and Search in the Overall Marketing Mix"
Click here to play the audio.
128 Business Expo 2007
"Blogging and Podcasting For Business"
Click here to play the video.
495/Metrowest Business Expo
Pre-Expo Keynote
"The Rise of the Internet as a Mass Advertising Medium"
Click here to play the video.
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If you would like more information on Internet Marketing, Consulting, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing, please
click here.
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Copyright © 1996-2008. Advanced Media Productions, Inc.
Advanced Media Productions, Inc.
251 West Central St., Suite 28, Natick, Massachusetts 01760, USA
Tel: 508-647-5151 Fax: 508-647-5150
E-mail: info@advmediaproductions.com
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