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  How True Integration Delivers Lasting Success
 
Marketing professionals – sophisticated and otherwise – have jumped on the integrated marketing bandwagon. They think they’ve achieved true integration of their messaging by simply applying the most apparent branding terms and graphic elements to their various types of media, only to travel down the path most well paved.
 
“Make sure the print ad looks and feels like the Web site, the Web site looks and feels like your direct marketing pieces and the direct marketing materials look and feel like the letterhead” they tell themselves and their bosses. By taking only these steps, you have achieved integrated media and design, not integrated marketing.
 
Creating and maintaining consistent branding across all communication channels is a very critical part of any integrated strategy, but it is only one piece of a complete approach. This approach may be able to increase awareness levels and enhance credibility, but sales numbers will probably not be affected. The real key to increasing ROI is not necessarily to “push” creatively designed communications at your prospects or clients, but to actually “pull” them through each stage of their decision-making process by offering enough relevant information – at the right time and in the right place – to drive or elevate your prospects to the next stage. This will ultimately lead them to the desired decision. Successfully integrated marketing programs should be anything but passive. They need to facilitate a constant state of motion that will keep the flow of prospects moving through the sales cycle until the client makes the appropriate decision.
 
It’s human and business nature to want to remain comfortable by doing what you know. Once the majority of companies decided to invest in the Internet, they first went online using all the tools and methods they had always been using. They tried their hand at posting an electronic version of their brochures and catalogues on the Web, created virtual tours of their stores, and generally applied the same methods they had been using for years. Rather than utilizing the Web’s power as a tool, they view it simply as another form of advertising.
 
In the non-profit segment, most organizations still aren’t soliciting for donations online even though the medium has been mainstream for over a decade. Most marketers already know the textbook advantages and disadvantages of which media to use, but that still doesn’t provide any help on how to effectively use them. The least risky thing to do when trying something new is to do something old and that’s why many companies think an integrated program is simply sticking the company logo and colors on each individual medium. This is a sure way to be frustrated, as the return on investment from this direction very seldom outweighs the expense of maintaining all the various separate media.
 
True integrated marketing programs tend to consume large amounts of resources. You have to be willing to make a significant up-front investment, but most examples confirm this investment will pay a greater rate of return. Unlike many traditional marketing programs where the goal is to measure net revenue after factoring out program costs, integrated programs require significant up-front costs that often take months of patience and testing before seeing any results.
 
So why spend additional resources and time on an integrated approach? The answer is simple – because it works. Today more than ever, consumers are bombarded with a massive amount of daily communications. They see thousands of messages on television, billboards, posters, milk cartons, mail, email, Internet, t-shirts, in newspapers, magazines, window displays and literally dozens of other places every day.
 
Every day we’re hearing on the radio, from our neighbors, from our children and even from our own conscience a constant stream of data. We are constantly in a state of making a decision about something.
 
Linking Sales Cycle to Decision-Making Cycle: An Integrated Approach
 
The trick to successful integrated marketing is to synchronize your organizations sales cycle with this decision-making cycle. By following these steps, you will be able to closely connect the two all-important cycles.

1. Don’t give it all away at once: First, plot out your current sales cycle by answering a series of questions: How long is the sales cycle? What tools are you currently using? What methods and materials do you utilize to generate the lead? What tools do you use to provide follow-up information to an interested prospect? What tools are proven to actually get your sales team in front of the prospect? What approach provides your firm with sufficient credibility to close the sale? Keep in mind, that even the most senior-level and experienced sales professionals can’t resist the urge to throw your company’s entire arsenal of marketing tools at a passively interested and potentially bewildered prospect. To avoid this dangerous and costly common mistake you need to have a well-designed and organized plan for when to use which methods and materials. You want the process to proceed smoothly forward to continue to move prospect toward the desired decision.
    
   Remember, in order for people to make a decision, they first need to be convinced that the solution meets their needs and how the solution will work for them. They will then want to learn of others that have utilized the solution and nexthow the solution will work for them. In the final stages, they want to see how the solution experienced strong results.
2. One size doesn’t fit all: You must constantly evaluate your audience to determine who they are and what they are really interested in. Now that you have your plan in place for how and when you’ll use each of your marketing tools in the cycle, you’ll need to customize it to each client type and audience level. For example, a C-level prospect will most likely respond to your ability to solve a business pain while a technical specialist may be more inclined to respond to equipment, specifications and software. In general, a C-level prospect shops for a company and mid-management levels shop for products. Your marketing materials have to meet their individual needs for the kind of information that will drive them toward making a decision.
3. Risk with Reward: As potential clients come closer to making a decision, their perceived risk level increases. Until they sign on the dotted line they aren’t committed to anything, so there is little chance of adverse consequences to them. However, as they get closer and closer to that point, their anxiety increases and you should utilize it to your advantage. At this point in the cycle, your materials and marketing methods should be adding more and more credibility to your company, services or products. Your plan should be to carry your prospects further and further into the sales cycle by building upon each previous step. For example, don’t send case studies to your prospects with their first inquiry. Evaluate their interest-level and wait until they are at least at the comparison level of the sales cycle. Save your demos, testimonials, case studies and pilot programs that build credibility until you need them. They will be your towrope that pulls prospects steadily from one stage to the next until they reach the ultimate goal.
4. The spice of life: Prospects make decisions at times that are convenient to them, not just when they are sitting down watching television, reading the newspaper or a magazine. It is important to organize the different messages and media so that it reaches prospects at multiple touch points throughout the decision making process. The goal is to provide the information in an accessible location just as the prospect is in decision-making mode. Remember, a well-planned integrated approach pulls a prospect through the process. The goal is to help prospects complete the decision-making process much faster, eliminate the competition and close the sale.
5. Take the next step: It is important to inform your audience of next steps, rather than leaving them hanging on the edge, unsure of whether or not to move forward. When prospects are not sure what to do next, they typically won’t do anything at all. You need to throw them your towline and tell them exactly what you’d like them to do. In order to fully pull them through the process, you must provide them several well-designed options.
6. The Golden Rule: Once the infrastructure and process is mapped out and in place, integrated marketing tactics will pay off. Less expensive real-time mediums like the Web and permission-based email are quickly replacing news-oriented information in printed mediums. These mediums should be used to fill in the gaps between marketing tactics that have longer lead times. It is rare that prospects consider only one or two products or services and it is important to set your offering apart from the others. There may be something of interest in your message, but there are most likely other decisions that may sidetrack your prospect. Messages need to get the prospect back on track by pushing relevant information often enough to stay in front of the prospect without becoming a nuisance.
7. Salesmen are the not only the ones who sell: Most companies are convinced that selling is only done in the sales department, but it is important to understand how your company defines sales. If a company hasn’t clearly defined lead generation, closing and client maintenance as separate functions with individual skills, it may be a reason for declining numbers. Selling is everyone’s job and that includes the person assigned to answer phones as well as the marketing team. It is important to work with your sales team to determine the silver bullet in overcoming the last and largest hurdle of closing the deal.
8. Identify The Weakest Link: The specific tactics and strategies you employ depends on what you’ve discovered after you evaluate the above steps. It is critical to look at each and every component as if it were the very first one a person might see and then to trace the path of communication from that point forward. Often, integrated marketing is described as being achieved if a person opens a direct mail piece and then goes to a website. In reality it is vital to fully understand that integrated marketing is a circular process of communication with no beginning and no end. It is important to remember that each and every step is important and you must correct any weak links in this closed loop process.