Here’s Why Integrated Marketing Is So Effective [+ Best Practices]

I fly Southwest Airways nearly completely, and one factor I’ve seen about Southwest is that their branding is on level.

Whether or not I’m reserving a flight on their cellular software, being served my go-to in-flight ginger ale, or strolling by way of the terminal at Halfway Airport, I’m surrounded by Southwest’s constant model colours, messaging, and imagery.

That is an instance of built-in advertising and marketing at work. Should you’re taken with presenting a cohesive, constant model expertise that leaves your services or products top-of-mind — like Southwest does — this information is for you.

Learn on to be taught extra about built-in advertising and marketing, learn how to weave it into your marketing plan, and learn how to create your individual marketing campaign.

Desk of Contents

What’s built-in advertising and marketing?

Built-in advertising and marketing communications is about aligning your advertising and marketing channels to advertise your services or products in tandem, sometimes by way of a strategic marketing campaign. Built-in advertising and marketing additionally works to align the first model message that’s deliverable by way of your advertising and marketing channels and belongings.

Think about discovering a brand new model on Instagram and visiting the corporate’s web site to buy one in every of its merchandise. If their web site promoted a distinct message or marketing campaign than the one you discovered on their Instagram account, you’d have a tough time understanding the gist of the model, proper?

Built-in advertising and marketing exists to get rid of these disparities and variations no matter how or when a buyer interacts together with your model. It’s just like multi-channel marketing, besides built-in advertising and marketing aligns the message you share on all these channels.

I’ve discovered that built-in advertising and marketing doesn’t simply apply solely to your inbound or digital marketing channels; it additionally contains traditional media channels. Many built-in advertising and marketing examples I’ll evaluate under incorporate standard advertising and marketing channels comparable to print, radio, and TV adverts.

Why are built-in advertising and marketing communication plans efficient?

Whereas built-in advertising and marketing campaigns can differ of their objectives (e.g., changing views, constructing model consciousness, and many others.), they need to all have one element in frequent: to align your advertising and marketing channels to current a united advertising and marketing “entrance.”

I’ve additionally discovered it more practical to run built-in advertising and marketing campaigns than campaigns on particular person channels. Built-in advertising and marketing campaigns are extra impactful for a number of causes as a result of they have a tendency to:

• Attain a wider viewers than a single advertising and marketing channel.
• Improve visibility as they’re extra more likely to be seen on a number of channels.
• Construct belief with guests as they see a constant message on a number of channels.
• Prevent cash since belongings are shareable between totally different advertising and marketing channels.

The best way to Construct an Built-in Advertising and marketing Marketing campaign

1. Set up your overarching marketing campaign objectives.
2. Select your advertising and marketing channels and set objectives for each.
3. Outline your purchaser personas by channel.
4. Establish your channel managers.
5. Create adaptable advertising and marketing belongings and messaging.
6. Set up your built-in advertising and marketing communication plan for gathering leads.
7. Launch, measure, and iterate your marketing campaign.

So, how are you going to construct your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign? These are the steps I comply with to get began.

1. Set up your overarching marketing campaign purpose.

Earlier than you contemplate what channels will probably be a part of your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign, you have to contemplate the purpose of the complete marketing campaign.

When you’ve recognized your purpose, bear in mind to make it SMART. It will show you how to keep centered, observe your marketing campaign success, and discover ways to enhance the following time.

Once I’ve tracked my very own campaigns, I’ve centered on creating objectives that relate to key efficiency indicators (KPIs) and their subsequent metrics.

KPI	RELATED METRICS
Site visitors/attain	Distinctive web page views by channel and supply
Engagement	Bounce fee; common time on web page
High (and falling) content material	High web page views; prime exits
Affect	Click on-throughs; conversions; backlinks
Sentiment	Feedback; social shares
Lead technology	Whole leads; whole periods; session to steer conversion fee
Gross sales	Result in marketing qualified lead (MQL); MQL to gross sales certified lead (SQL); buyer buy/closed-won enterprise

Additionally, whereas elevated engagement and new leads are at all times thrilling, a multi-channel marketing campaign ought to contemplate the larger image: how your marketing campaign impacts gross sales alternatives and enterprise income.

2. Select your advertising and marketing channels and set objectives for each.

Now that your overarching built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign purpose, you most likely have a greater concept of what channels (if not all of them) can assist you attain that purpose.

For instance, if you wish to roll out a brand new brand and branding suite, you don’t essentially must leverage radio adverts.

Then again, for those who’re extending your viewers to focus on a brand new geographic area or metropolis, radio adverts, billboard adverts, TV adverts, and different native channels could come in useful.

In my view, there are 10 main advertising and marketing “channels” that you should use to distribute your campaign content, together with:

1. Advertising (each print and PPC)
2. Direct advertising and marketing
3. Email marketing
4. PR
5. Personal selling
6. Gross sales promotions
7. Digital advertising and marketing (e.g., web site, content marketing, and SEO)
8. Social media
9. Events and sponsorships
10. Packaging

Your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign ought to embody a wide range of advertising and marketing channels to succeed in the widest viewers and drive house your marketing campaign message. Should you see a number of channels plateau, don’t hesitate so as to add, take away, or take a look at new ones.

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3. Outline your purchaser personas by channel.

Each advertising and marketing channel targets its particular buyer persona. Because of this, as a substitute of defining a broad persona on your marketing campaign, I like to recommend defining your viewers by channel.

There’ll inevitably be some overlap, however I believe it’s clever to grasp precisely who you’re speaking to on every medium and learn how to tailor these particular belongings to be essentially the most profitable.

With some campaigns, you could be concentrating on a selected viewers. On this case, flip steps 2 and three — outline your purchaser persona(s) first after which determine which channels can assist you attain that viewers.

Professional tip: Along with HubSpot’s (enjoyable!) buyer person tool, you may make the most of free buyer persona templates to jumpstart this course of.

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4. Establish your channel managers.

Relying on the dimensions of your advertising and marketing workforce, you will have totally different individuals (or total teams) accountable for different channels. Nonetheless, you continue to should select who particularly will guarantee their channel(s) align with the marketing campaign.

That is essential for 2 causes:

• So managers may be the knowledgeable on their channel (e.g., viewers, posting cadence, optimization techniques, reporting methods, and many others.) and can know learn how to tailor the marketing campaign to be essentially the most profitable.
• As a result of placing one individual accountable for all channels could also be overwhelming and trigger the content material and marketing campaign to endure.

Professional tip: Should you’re like me, you will have a smaller advertising and marketing workforce the place one individual handles a number of channels. No matter your workforce dimension, do your finest to share channel administration obligations throughout a number of individuals — ideally, with one individual working one or two channels.

5. Create adaptable advertising and marketing belongings and messaging.

You have got your marketing campaign purpose, audience(s), and advertising and marketing channels. It’s now time to create your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign content material. This stage is the place copywriting, graphic design, and different inventive processes come into play.

Earlier than I dive into how, let’s speak about an integral part of built-in advertising and marketing content material: adaptability.

To maintain your marketing campaign constant (and ease your workload), you must be capable to repurpose content to be used on totally different channels.

For instance, let’s say your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign focuses on the launch of a brand new 3-minute model video. You possibly can repurpose this video into:

• 30-second and one-minute “trailer” movies
• Nonetheless photographs
• Quotes
• GIFs
• Hashtags
• Weblog posts
• Soundbites

One wonderful means to do that? AI instruments like HubSpot’s Content Remix generally is a large time-saver.

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Professional tip: Create brand guidelines on your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign to share together with your workforce and any channel managers. This documentation might embody a number of issues:

• Visible pointers (brand, coloration palette, typography, and many others.).
• Any developed and repurposed belongings in a number of file codecs.
• Voice and tone pointers (taglines, most well-liked language, phrases to keep away from, and many others.).
• Messaging pointers (ache factors, objectives, kinds of content material, assets, and many others.).
• Purchaser persona data and pointers.

6. Set up your built-in advertising and marketing communication plan for gathering leads.

Whether or not or not you plan your marketing campaign to gather leads, you must at all times be able to obtain them. Belief me, you don’t need to depart this as an afterthought when you launch your marketing campaign.

Step 1: Think about how a customer may convert to a lead:

• Would they subscribe to your publication?
• Enter their data to obtain a content material provide?
• Create an account in your web site?

Guarantee these conversion features of your marketing campaign are additionally on-brand with the remainder of your visible and messaging belongings.

Step 2: Think about how your leads will probably be nurtured as soon as they convert.

Nonetheless you go about this step, I counsel you to verify your leads aren’t forgotten as soon as they willingly give over their data.

Professional tip: I attempt to prioritize speaking with gross sales to verify they’re conscious of my marketing campaign and on board with the plan for brand spanking new leads and prospects.

7. Launch, measure, and iterate your marketing campaign.

Bear in mind these KPIs and metrics I discussed? Whichever KPIs relate to your overarching marketing campaign purpose (e.g., boosting model consciousness, rebranding, new product, and many others.), begin monitoring these subsequent metrics every week, month, and/or quarter to see how profitable it’s at reaching your purpose.

Don’t neglect: Apply what you be taught from every built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign to your future campaigns.

Built-in Advertising and marketing Methods and Finest Practices

As you assemble your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign, there are a number of key methods and finest practices to recollect. I’ve detailed them right here, they usually apply no matter your chosen media, channels, or objectives.

Align behind the scenes.

So that you can efficiently implement an built-in advertising and marketing method, it’s crucial that you just not solely select advertising and marketing channel managers but in addition that every one your advertising and marketing managers talk typically about tasks and campaigns.

Whereas not each built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign or promotion should be on all channels, they need to a minimum of complement one another to keep away from a fragmented model expertise for purchasers.

Think about the channel transition.

Built-in campaigns obtain visitors from a number of sources. Think about how a customer could view/expertise every advertising and marketing channel:

• If it was their first go to.
• In the event that they transitioned from one other channel.

Take into consideration how every channel can assist others convert.

For instance, say a buyer noticed your new billboard on their strategy to work and, as soon as they arrived, visited the web site on the billboard.

Think about if, in your web site, the shopper couldn’t simply discover no matter your billboard was advertising and marketing. How complicated would that be? That buyer would probably drop off instantly.

Don’t neglect the overlap between your campaigns.

Built-in advertising and marketing exists to eradicate the silos of conventional advertising and marketing and produce collectively a cohesive marketing campaign expertise. Because of this, don’t neglect the locations the place your marketing campaign overlaps.

I like to recommend checking these locations to boost your consistency throughout campaigns:

• Your email signature, the place you may plug your social media handles, web site URL, or video hyperlinks.
• Your social media bios and posts, the place you may embody hyperlinks to your web site, weblog posts, content material gives, or different digital content material.
• Your weblog and web site, the place you may incorporate social sharing buttons.
• Your standalone touchdown pages, the place you may optimize for relevant keywords and SEO.
• Your PPC copy, the place you may take a look at topic traces to see what your viewers responds to.

Whereas these overlaps may not immediately help your marketing campaign objectives, they assist your viewers transition seamlessly between channels, get pleasure from that constant, cohesive model expertise, and finally discover their strategy to a web page that converts them.

Examples of Built-in Advertising and marketing Campaigns

1. Odor Like a Man by Outdated Spice
2. Transfarency by Southwest Airways
3. You are Not You When You are Hungry by Snickers
4. Share a Coke by Coca-Cola
5. Develop Higher by HubSpot

Each marketer is aware of how a lot you may be taught from these earlier than you. On this part, I’ve pulled collectively a handful of well-executed built-in advertising and marketing campaigns to provide you an instance of this tactic’s success.

1. Apple TV+’s “Severance” Grand Central Station Stunt

Should you’re an avid tv watcher, you’ve probably heard of the profitable Apple TV present “Severance.” Forward of the season two premiere of the present, the solid and crew arrange an sudden pop-up on the Grand Central Station in New York Metropolis, gathering the eye of native New Yorkers and the world.

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Main as much as the Severance pop-up, Apple TV modified the principle header picture on their app to one in every of Severance and likewise put the present of their primary slot for standard sequence.

By using an built-in advertising and marketing technique, they ensured that the publicity stunt at Grand Central would level viewers to their app, which then made it very straightforward to search out the present.

Professional tip: If you’re planning a publicity stunt for the promotion of a specific product, it’s crucial that you just be sure your web site, social media, PR, and many others., all additionally promote the identical product.

2. Duolingo and Social Media Built-in Advertising and marketing

Sassy feedback from firms on social media is nothing new. However Duolingo, the language studying app, takes this to the following degree with its unhinged and hilarious model picture.

Duolingo went viral on TikTok and different social media platforms in 2025 when a TikTok creator requested the model to create a video of the Duolingo owl mascot going to sleep to appease her toddler, who wouldn’t go to mattress till the owl did as effectively. This viral video was shared by many on social media in addition to featured on the Duolingo app and web site.

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We are able to be taught rather a lot from Duolingo’s built-in advertising and marketing technique by their totally different social media platforms. Their owl mascot is closely featured and is at all times as much as something unexpected. Replies from the model have a unified (if not barely scary) voice, and prospects get the identical marketing campaign, irrespective of the place they enter the advertising and marketing funnel.

Professional tip: In case your company goes to answer to feedback on social media, it’s important to have a unified brand voice and image.

3. The Barbie Film and Mattel

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2023 was a giant yr for films, and a kind of profitable blockbusters was the “Barbie” film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

The entrepreneurs and advertisers behind the film used a number of built-in advertising and marketing methods to advertise the film, together with having Margot Robbie costume up as totally different iconic Barbies throughout the press tour, having a photograph sales space Barbie field for moviegoers to snap pics of and put up to social media, and inspiring friends to put on pink when attending the movie.

All of those have been profitable built-in advertising and marketing techniques, however probably the greatest strikes was involving Barbie’s unique firm, Mattel, to take part. The yr the Barbie film was launched, Mattel created individual Barbie dolls for every of the principle characters of the movie.

This sort of built-in advertising and marketing is profitable as a result of those that get pleasure from Barbie dolls wished to know what these new dolls have been primarily based on, and those that loved the film have been motivated to take a look at the Barbie doll merchandise for the movie, growing earnings for each.

Professional tip: Should you’re together with merchandise in your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign, be sure it’s high quality and one thing individuals will really need to purchase. Low cost or rushed merchandise is not going to assist your marketing campaign however relatively hurt it.

4. Coca-Cola and Oreo Collab

Restricted version merchandise and collaborations are frequent advertising and marketing methods shoppers expertise on a regular basis. However what occurs while you pair up two unlikely but gigantic model companions like Oreo and Coca-Cola? A shocking success.

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In contrast to previous collaborations the place a soda-inspired cookie may exist or only a cookie-inspired soda, the Oreo Coke collaboration had each — and each have been marketed on each doable channel.

While you’re a giant model like Oreo or Coke, you typically don’t even want your individual social media marketing campaign – shoppers will style take a look at and promote your product for you.

And that’s precisely what occurred right here. Should you go to both firm’s web sites, social media, or extra, you’ll see that all of them promote the restricted version collaboration gadgets.

Professional tip: In case your model is planning to collaborate with one other model, just remember to’re each on board for an built-in advertising and marketing method and technique so prospects can get a unified expertise irrespective of which model they begin with.

5. Spotify “Wrapped” Marketing campaign

The perfect advertising and marketing campaigns require little to no promoting as a result of your prospects love them a lot they do the advertising and marketing for you. That is the case with music app Spotify’s yearly “Wrapped” marketing campaign.

Spotify Wrapped reveals listeners their prime artists, songs, listening time, and extra. This marketing campaign returns yearly and has improved its built-in advertising and marketing technique over time.

I bear in mind the primary couple of years that Spotify launched Wrapped — it was tough to search out the place my yearly wrapped was positioned on the app. By bettering their built-in advertising and marketing technique, now you can simply discover your Wrapped on the entrance web page of their app, web site, and in your inbox. This has helped prospects keep away from getting pissed off and improved the entire consumer expertise.

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Professional tip: Should you launch a yearly marketing campaign, it’s essential so as to add new options and optimizations yearly. Think about updating your design, together with new additions or stats, or figuring out new channels to showcase the marketing campaign.

Advertising and marketing Plan Template

As you may see, planning is the important thing to profitable built-in advertising and marketing. Should you want additional steerage by way of the planning course of, I like to recommend HubSpot’s free marketing template to assist set you off heading in the right direction.

The template contains:

• A enterprise abstract
• Enterprise initiatives
• Goal advertising and marketing
• Market technique
• Price range
• Advertising and marketing channels
• Advertising and marketing Expertise

I like this template as a result of it’s each straightforward to fill out and excellent for sharing together with your advertising and marketing workforce and executives who must log off in your plan. The template additionally invitations you to guage your strengths and weaknesses whereas on the lookout for alternatives and avoiding threats.

I imagine that armed with a stable funds and built-in advertising and marketing communication plan, you’ll be capable to get govt buy-in to start reaching prospects on channels you haven’t beforehand.

Built-in Advertising and marketing Helps You Develop Your Enterprise — Higher

After reviewing the idea of built-in advertising and marketing, I respect the way it turns your advertising and marketing campaigns into multi-channel actions.

In in the present day’s omnichannel world — with shoppers encountering your model on-line, on social media, and on their day by day commutes — I imagine built-in advertising and marketing is extra essential than ever to seize new prospects and construct model recognition and loyalty.

Use the methods, template, and finest practices shared on this put up to launch your individual built-in advertising and marketing technique efficiently.

Editor’s be aware: This put up was initially revealed in October 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.