In the digital age, integrated marketing communication allows businesses to promote their products and brands to target customers. By planning integrated marketing communication, businesses can communicate messages consistently to target customers when coordinating different communication channels. However, not all marketers fully understand the standard integrated marketing communications planning process. Stop by this article to listen to the sharing from Optimal Agency experts on this issue.
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What is integrated marketing communication (IMC)?
According to Armstrong & Kotler 2005, IMC or integrated marketing communication are communication activities that are coordinated and closely linked together to convey a clear, convincing, and consistent message about a business or its products to target customers.
Businesses understand the role of communication and marketing tools in reaching target customers. If using individual communication tools for a marketing campaign, it will not bring the desired results. This is the origin of the birth of IMC. It is a combination of selected marketing communication tools with the resources of the business to impact target customers at the most optimal cost. Possessing many marketing communication tools such as advertising, direct marketing, promotion, public relations, and personal selling, … IMC plays the role of a bridge between businesses and customers to help convey information about products and services. Raise customer awareness of the brand, and build trust and loyalty to the brand. At the same time, promote sales and profits for businesses,…
Outstanding advantages of integrated marketing communications
IMC is an effective marketing strategy for businesses with outstanding advantages:
High efficiency, cost savings
Through communication tools, businesses can effectively convey messages to target customers. Especially when businesses have a perfect integrated marketing communications planning process. By selecting appropriate communication channels as well as making the most of available and free resources, businesses will optimize costs when implementing marketing campaigns.
Wide coverage
IMC strategies are often widely deployed on many communication channels. This creates conditions for businesses to reach many target customers. At the same time, promote products and brands widely. When customers see the message that the business conveys many times on communication channels, they will be impressed and remember the brand. Or customer awareness of the brand is improved.
Building customer relationships
With wide coverage, when the message that the business conveys on the media channels is attractive enough, it will promote interaction. This helps companies to build close, intimate relationships with customers.
Building trust and loyalty
When messages are repeated many times, the audience will pay attention, attract, and remember the brand. If the business provides complete information about products and services that are attractive and convincing enough, it will build trust and customer loyalty to the brand.
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Why is it necessary to have an integrated marketing communications plan?
For an integrated marketing communications campaign to achieve the best results, you need to have a plan. It will guide the entire campaign to operate effectively, saving time and costs for marketers. Before learning about the integrated marketing communication planning process, let’s find out the reasons for planning:
Each customer segment has different behaviors and interests, so if you only use one marketing tool, you will not be able to reach and satisfy the needs of customers. The birth of IMC helps to simplify everything when there is an integration of many marketing channels. By planning integrated marketing communications, businesses can have an overview of the market and at the same time know how to effectively implement campaigns and achieve revenue and profit goals.
Because IMC is a combination of many communication tools and resources of the business. Through planning integrated marketing communications, businesses will know how to combine marketing tools flexibly and effectively. This helps businesses to effectively implement steps to approach target customers and ensure work progress is quick and smooth. Based on the plan, the business will know which factors are important to focus resources on to achieve the desired results as well as save time and costs.
Standard integrated marketing communications planning process
IMC is an important factor that determines the success of a business’s marketing communication campaigns. Below is a standard process for IMC planning for marketers that you can refer to:
Step 1: Determine the goals
Before doing anything, you need to define your goals clearly. Integrated marketing communication planning is no exception. These goals will help you measure and evaluate the effectiveness of communication activities. It also has the right direction for the entire IMC campaign to be implemented effectively. If you do not know how to set goals, apply the SMART principle. You should choose goals that are consistent with your business goals.
Step 2: Identify the target audience
After identifying the target, you need to identify the target audience that the IMC campaign is reaching based on analyzing their characteristics and behaviors. When implementing an integrated marketing communications campaign, identifying the right target audience will help businesses achieve the desired results and save costs. Knowing how to coordinate multiple appropriate marketing communication channels to convey the desired message. To accurately identify the target audience, you can collect and research data collected through field surveys or analyze competitors.
Step 3: Find out customer insights
This is the most important step in the IMC planning process. Finding out the problems that customers encounter will help businesses create appropriate messages. At the same time, offering appropriate solutions stimulates customers’ curiosity and desire to experience products and services. However, customer psychology and behavior change over time, requiring marketers to have a solid foundation of knowledge and the ability to analyze collected customer information when determining customer Insight.
Step 4: Big Idea
Once you have grasped customer Insight, marketers must next come up with ideas to implement a suitable IMC campaign to solve the problems that customers encounter. This factor plays a very important role in the marketing campaign with the ability to orient the implementation activities to convey messages so that customers can understand. When setting up an idea, you need to ensure that it is feasible, suitable for the business budget, and capable of achieving integrated marketing communication goals.
Step 5: Implement an integrated marketing communication plan
To bring ideas, messages, or products and services closer to customers, you must develop them into a detailed plan. You need to determine the factors: time, cost, and budget for each specific stage, the main activities that need to be implemented first, and supporting activities for each stage. After having a detailed plan, you should proceed to implement the IMC campaign according to the plan.
Step 6: Evaluate the level of effectiveness
This is the final but important step to help optimize the IMC campaign to achieve the best results. Businesses need to regularly monitor and measure the effectiveness of the integrated marketing communication plan. Based on the data collected from customers and the cost of implementing the goals and the implementation budget, marketers can accurately evaluate the effectiveness and come up with appropriate improvement strategies.
At this point, you have grasped the standard integrated marketing communication planning process? Planning requires a lot of time and effort, but your business will get worthy results to help improve its competitive position, increase recognition, and increase revenue and profits.
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Frequently asked questions
When building an IMC campaign, you need to identify the target audience. These are the audiences that will be affected by your integrated marketing communications campaign. The audiences that the IMC campaign reaches include potential customers, loyal customers, customers who have purchased and used the business’s products and services, etc.
Through marketing communications tools, businesses can convey messages about products, services, and brands to customers. It acts as a bridge between customers and businesses. The tools that businesses often use in IMC campaigns are advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling.
