The Word of the Day: Integrate

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: The secret to marketing success is cohesion. Ensuring that your print, digital, social, and even broadcast advertising acts as a cohesive unit is both the most important, and most complicated, aspect of your marketing strategy.

Today, we’re going to look at building cohesion between two marketing tactics on opposite sides of that spectrum: Social Media, and Print Marketing.

Adding Social Media to Your Print Marketing

Despite all of the predictions, complaints, and marketing criticisms, Social Media has proven that it isn’t going away any time soon. Consumers are more active on social channels today than they ever have been before. In fact, many marketing experts claim that social media has given consumers control over your brand, and that social advocacy is the real secret to winning word-of-mouth business in the new marketplace.

But how can you incorporate social into an ongoing marketing plan?

Your customers can be your best sellers, so why not put them to work for you. Select a few online reviews of your product or service from your Facebook or Twitter page, and include them on your next mailer. Not only will this help show off your existing brand advocates, but it will help drive traffic back to your social media channels – and thus to your website.

Adding Print Marketing to Your Social Media

There’s a reason the hashtag is still such a popular tool. It’s easy to use, it’s universally-recognized, and it’s the easiest way to add a social component to any marketing piece.

Including a branded hashtag or Twitter handle on printed flyers, bumper stickers, postcards, or envelopes gives people new ways to interact with your brand. Even if a consumer doesn’t remember your website URL from that sticker they saw on the back of a Jeep in a parking lot, chances are they’ll remember your hashtag.

Now that you’ve got their attention, your social media channels do the rest – pushing out branded messaging that users can engage with on their own time.