What is integrated marketing communication?

Integrated marketing communication consists of using several channels to market your brand. But they all must share a cohesive message. The most significant benefit is strengthening your brand’s identity, helping it stand out.

Learn more about how integrated marketing communication can help your business.

Benefits of integrated marketing communications

There are many online marketing strategies you can use. Each has benefits and drawbacks. This article will teach you what you can expect from integrated marketing communications. Let’s start with the good.

1. Targets more demographics

There are many ways in which people can consume content nowadays, and different audiences gravitate towards different media. So, to cast a wider net, you can create content in various platforms and formats. For example, you may start a blog and an email marketing campaign.

2. Makes your brand more memorable

Successful brands are the ones people remember. Integrated marketing communications help ensure your business stays in people’s minds. It lets you constantly reinforce the message you wish to convey. Whatever medium people use to consume content, you’ll be there.

3. Builds loyalty

A strong message makes it easier for people to identify with your brand. It also makes it more predictable. When people check out your online content, they know what to expect. In both instances, the result is a loyal audience.

4. Efficiency

Integrated marketing communications lets you reuse many assets and ideas. For example, you don’t need to create a visual identity for each communication channel. Instead, you can invest that time into discovering how to best tell your brand’s core message.

5. Lower costs

Reusing assets and ideas lets you save costs. But it’s critical to avoid taking this idea to the extreme. Remember one thing. Even if all media channels share the same message, each has particularities. For example, blog content writing isn’t the same as producing content for a newsletter.

4 Cs of integrated marketing communication

The definition you learned is a starting point. To use integrated marketing communication, you need to understand its four Cs. They’re the principles you need to follow in your marketing efforts. Read about them below:

Consistency

Ensure that all your communication channels share consistent messages with the same tone. A best practice is to invest in a style guide and document the message you wish to convey as thoroughly as possible. These sources will guide future projects and ensure they’re consistent.

Coherence

Even if all your messages support a common theme, they must differ. You can’t copy and paste your content across various communication channels. Create messages using each medium’s strengths, but ensure they are logically connected.

Continuity

Build on your ideas. When you start a new campaign, ensure it starts where the previous one ended. Think of your marketing as a story; the next campaign is a new chapter.

Complementary

All pieces should make sense individually. But, they should build on one another when experienced collectively. Think of a movie that is enjoyable as a single unit but can be even better after reading a novel that deepens its lore.

Disadvantages of integrated marketing communication

Nothing is perfect. Integrated marketing communication is no exception. So, before deciding if you’d like to pursue it, you should learn the downsides this approach brings.

Difficult to tailor to a target audience

Different platforms have distinct audiences. For example, the type of people who consume your TikTok content might differ from those who read your newsletters. As such, they have different expectations and needs. You need to account for that, which is challenging.

Management nightmare

Integrated marketing communication requires superb managerial skills and systems. You must track each piece of content, what it says, and how it does so. Ensure you have the time for such a big responsibility or the budget to hire a manager.

Hard to measure its impact

Working with multiple marketing channels implies dealing with many variables. The result is that it’s difficult to estimate the impact of an integrated marketing communication approach even after setting up Google Analytics. Even if you see positive results, how can you tell they came from this effort?