In Today's Multi-Channel World, You Need Marketing Integration

The rapid growth in marketing channels in the last 30 years has opened incredible opportunities for marketers in all fields. Businesses, education institutions, nonprofits, and other organizations can now create campaigns for a wide range of digital and social media channels in addition to their old television, radio and print ads. Hundreds of studies in business have shown that the ability to deploy a wide range of marketing channels (via "multi-channel marketing") delivers more sales, revenue, leads, engagement, and customer satisfaction - usually for a lower cost. I believe strongly that this same phenomenon has been true for education and non-profit organizations as well. The simple chart below shows how digital media have emerged to become the dominant forces in the advertising and marketing landscape.

These amazing marketing options for education and nonprofit marketers in 2022 have come with what may be a marketing "law of unintended consequences:" it is now essential that these institutions and their team members who leverage the expanding range of marketing channels have a strong grasp on "marketing integration:" the ability to bring together the strategy, content, messaging, imagery, calls-to-action, and more across all these channels. The marketing battle is being reshaped in front of our eyes - no longer is being an ace in web content, a Facebook ad titan, or an email wizard a guarantee of success. Now the top marketers are those who understand strategy, synergy, and connectivity and can develop the broader vision, data tools, and tracking capabilities to build marketing programs that capitalize on our multi-channel world.

What is Marketing Integration?

Marketing integration and its close relative marketing alignment have much in common. Both can help you can increase the success of your campaigns by creating a unified marketing strategy and ensuring your messaging, themes, images, headlines, and calls-to-action are consistently presented across all of your marketing channels.

  However, there is an important difference between alignment and integration. Per WikiDiff, “Alignment is a case where something aligns with something else," while “integrated is composed and coordinated to form a whole." Basic marketing alignment acknowledges that you have many digital, print, and social media outlets and captures your main themes and content across them. Advanced marketing alignment goes further by ensuring the copy, imagery, and value proposition are featured consistently across your marketing and fundraising programs, with the same goals and calls-to-action. With strategic marketing intergation, you enhance the connections with deep insights based on knowing your prospect, student, parent, donor, or other constituent and what they are seeking, then using highly personalized techniques and data-driven marketing to tailor these messages and calls-to-action to each individual. This holistic communication supports your institution's primary objective: how to help your constituents achieve their goals and dreams. At each level of integration, you can expect a higher return on your marketing efforts and investment.

Given the complex, growing, dizzying array of marketing platforms across several media, you need all your marketing channels to be so tightly connected as to behave as a whole. Only then will your current and prospective constituents see a coherent and consistent representation of your institution across all your marketing, advertising, and public relations channels.

Marketing Integration in Action

Let’s illustrate how marketing alignment and integration can work for your school, college/university or nonprofit organization. We will start from your marketing goals and strategy and proceed to your messaging and marketing channels.        

• Marketing strategy is always the first place to begin. Have you used your vision and mission to define who you are, your brand, and value proposition? Just as significant, have you used research or your own insights to fully understand the needs of your current and prospective constituents? This strategic step is crucial to ensuring that not only your education, athletic, arts, and community offerings are of interest to your families and prospects, but that your copy, imagery, storytelling, and chosen media also resonate with your target audience. Don’t forget to apply strategic thinking to your advancement efforts, too - be sure your fundraising letters, emails and phonathon scripts are strategically connected to your other marketing copy, images and messaging.
• Selecting your marketing channels is a crucial part of your planning. Do you know where your prospects “like to fish,” i.e., which magazines or blogs they read, websites or video sites they visit, social media they follow, or radio they listen to? Don’t go blindly to the same fishing holes as you have done in the past, or as your competition does. Survey your current parents to find out what they see, read, and hear and consider how you can apply those findings to future families. TEST these marketing options for key e-data such as open rates, clicks, inquiries, online applications, and online gifts as well as print activity including response slips, postcards, mailed-in gifts, and paper inquiries and applications received. The test results will guide you in decisions on everything from Facebook versus Google keyword ad formats to the broader ROI’s on print vs digital spending to the growing influence of video ads or the tangible impact of SEO and blogging.

• Personalization is growing more critical in marketing – and it’s evolving fast. Your experience with Google, Facebook, Apple, Pandora, most websites, and email platforms represents the beginning of an evolution toward highly targeted and personal marketing that draws on what these providers know about our preferences and practices, from digital activity to travel to our interests and habits. While some consumers of all types have misgivings about the availability of our personal data, many recognize the trend is not only inevitable but can in fact lead to more successful and fulfilling experiences. I expect that your current and prospective parents will increasingly expect a school to know and understand their child’s goals, interests, and contributions – and do the same for the parents, too. The rise of personalization as a societal linchpin has made personalized marketing a crucial part of strategic marketing integration.

The Role of Messaging in Marketing Integration

While many key elements impact marketing integration, the most significant is a clear and consistent message on your school, college, or institution: who you are; what you stand for; what your brand means; how you can help that student or family achieve its hopes and dreams. It is of utmost importance that your words, images, tag lines, calls-to-action, and parent testimonials are consistent across all your marketing presentations for admissions, retention, and fundraising. Remember that in marketing, messaging is much more than just words – it includes the look and feel, colors, images, and more. Creating an accurate and positive perception of your institution and how you can enhance the life and future prospects of a student or recipient of a nonprofit’s service is greatly impacted by how seamlessly you weave your story across all your channels.

 How Do You Create a Deeply Integrated Marketing Strategy and Plan?  

• The first step in integrating your marketing and communications is simple – be aware of what marketing integration is and how it will increase the impact of your campaigns. Where you see mismatches in how your value proposition or brand are conveyed, or inconsistent images (e.g. showing a very diverse group of students on a community project but a homogeneous set of students in another situation), make adjustments. Have you undertaken research projects such as segmentation studies or image audits (like those pioneered by Mike Connor - https://www.connor-associates.com/)? If so, be sure to leverage those findings and recommendations across your marketing media. A comprehensive communications audit that reviews all your marketing channels and ads will spot mismatches and ensure consistency in your content, images, calls-to-action, brand, and the other areas I have noted.

• Less strategic but equally important is to watch for possible disconnects between your current marketing campaigns and content that may remain on older web pages, newsletters or social media posts. Ensure your brand, logo, tag lines, and images are up-to-date. This is especially important if you have undertaken a website or newsletter redesign, updated your brand, or commissioned new research.
•  Scrutinize your admissions and development communication to ensure they leverage the same key values and points. It is quite common in education to have these pieces developed in silos, and unless marketing and communications works closely with each department, it is no surprise to find that some tailored messages in your crucial areas like admissions and development may not match with the other departments. Given that these are your two biggest revenue generators, such disconnects can wreak havoc with your integration goals.

Key Takeaways

1.    Refine your vision and broader strategy and confirm that your marketing plan captures these key elements: your mission, value proposition, brand, and messaging.

2.    Review your current website, magazines, email templates, and social media activity to assess the degree of connection among your various channels.

 3.    Balance the need for integrated content and imagery with the unique requirements of each individual channel; it will hurt the performance of your content if it is true to your integration strategy but does not mesh with the reader’s expectation of look, feel, and user experience on that medium.

4.    Bring your top participants together, either once or periodically, to discuss what language and messaging are working, what enrollment and fundraising data indicate, what themes and content sparks interest, and what media drive the greatest results.

5.    Ensure that the messages and testimonials from your parents and other key influencers are consistent with each other – and with your communications and brand.

6. Apply lessons from one marketing channel to another; this can concern what creative, imagery or tag line works best, what chanel is most effective for what market segment, what channels provide the best return on your advertising investment, and many others.

7.    Understand the needs of your current and prospective constituents through findings from research programs and key data from marketing content and ads. Many institutions fail to grasp how much basic intel is available from email clicks, website traffic, social media interactions and basic advertising analytics; this data will help you best express your unique advantages and surmount perceived weaknesses across all channels.

 8.    Determine what channels work best for your various constituents in terms of response, impact, ROI and feedback – be sure you are doing extensive testing and analytics tracking!

Strategic campaign integration may sound fancy, but it is not. It is about core marketing principles: thinking strategically, understanding your market and what unique benefits you offer the various segments, and then doing the hard work to connect the dots in your marketing programs. I hope these tips and ideas will help your school, college, or nonprofit enhance the level of marketing integration in your institution and leverage your findings to great success in enrollment, membership, retention, and fundraising. Good luck!