In the typical business or nonprofit organization, the marketing communications include various channels, such as direct mail, email, social media, traditional public relations, print assets, and online and offline advertising. Using these methods shows that your business or organization has made an effort to embrace a wide variety of channels, hoping to engage people from every angle.
As you may have already experienced, the results from any single promotional channel or approach are much less significant than the results from an integrated approach, in which all channels are combined into a single communications plan. To start creating an integrated plan, ask yourself these questions:
✓ How do people typically find out about my business or nonprofit? (From a Facebook friend? From searching on Google? From a road sign? From a newspaper ad?)
✓ What is the next step for someone to take with my business after becoming a Facebook fan? (Joining an email list? Redeeming a coupon in my store?)
✓ Where do people usually begin their relationship with my business? (Searching? Joining my email list?)
✓ Which channel do most of my new customers join? (Email? Direct mail?)
✓ How can my customers easily tell their Facebook friends about a new purchase?
✓ Where do I have a lot of natural attention? (In my store? At events and conferences?) After you’ve jotted down a few ideas for the channels mentioned in this chapter, use the answers to these questions to start mapping a way for all your channels to work together as a whole
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