Integrated marketing is one of the fastest-growing practices within the industry, mainly because advancements in technology have made it increasingly simple to combine various channels into one focused campaign.
Time once was that marketing campaigns consisted of multiple professionals managing different channels in order to obtain inroads into new industries and marketing mediums. However, that was proven to be a risky venture, as unsuccessful channels were causing companies to waste valuable resources that yielded unfavorable results. Today, many marketing campaigns can be integrated and consolidated, which alleviates the negative ramifications of failed channel campaigns.
According to an article in Customer Think, this will become even more important in 2013. Tony Zambito, the article's author, suggests more organizations integrate their channels to help obtain maximum value from each campaign.
"Campaigns can be costly," Zambito writes. "When they do not add up, this can be painful – in the sense that you have shot your allocated resources on the wrong channels. Look for more focus in 2013 on how to leverage different channels and integrate campaigns. When developing campaigns, how integrating social media, content marketing, mobile, web, and newer emerging channels into the campaigns will leverage cost yet yield more results becomes a key driver."
This practice does have its fair share of new challenges, namely in data analytics. Organizations must find ways to better manage the information they glean from their campaigns, which could become quite the chore if data is all being funneled to one centralized location. Creating a custom database software system will give professionals proper insight into the value of their respective data and make appropriate decisions. By developing a system designed to accommodate their integrated marketing, companies can ensure they maximize the potential of each channel and campaign.