Posted December 14th, 2011 under Marketing Systems

What is a Unified Marketing System

Tags: Unified Marketing Systems, Integrated Marketing Consulting, Unified Marketing Strategies, Integrated Marketing Strategies, Marketing Automation, Marketing Technology

So what is an Unified Marketing System?  The name itself gives you some ideal of what it is, but you've likely have never heard of it nor have it established in your business.  Our definition is simple. A unified marketing system is any marketing platform that allows a business to create multiple individual marketing campaigns across multiple marketing channels into one integrated and unified global marketing strategy that works together cooperatively.  In simpler terms, it's doing many marketing tasks at the same time, with each benefiting from at least one other marketing task being performed.

In the most basic examples, it would be linking your business Facebook account to your Business website, your business website promoting a discount to their Facebook Fans, and  business cards with exact directions to and/or benefits of visiting either the website, the Facebook business page, or both combined with active campaigns to expand the reach of each of your utilized marketing mediums.  Simply having your website on your business card doesn't constitute integrated marketing or a unified marketing system without some way of spreading the reach of the marketing mediums.

 A true Unified Marketing System concerning the details above could be utilized with an event where members are able to buy tickets for the event on the business's website.  However, if they are current fans of the company's Facebook Page, they have access to a special discount code to decrease their ticket price for the event.  Once at the event, they are given business cards and other promotional details to allow the company to make further sells.  In the case of an event, there would likely be a second session to the event where attendees could bring a friend and the business cards given at this meeting would have information, most likely a link, to a special hidden page on the website to help educate that friend on why they want to attend the next event with you.  

Even in this scenario, without the means to push this information further, it is far from an unified marketing system.  The event listing on the website has to be promoted.  The website and possibly Facebook itself must promote that friends can get a discount code to the event with details on how to receive the discount.  Lastly at the event, the business cards must also be viral.  In the case of getting attendees to use the card as a "Bring a Friend" initiative, you are letting your marketing budgets from your social media and website promotions provide up to double conversions for you by getting free leads from the initial event attendees.

This is quite literally one of the simplest methods of creating a unified marketing strategy that builds upon itself.  There are many other more complex and profitable ventures that would encompass both marketing technology and marketing automation.  Utilizing these two features, you could offer free promotional downloads, built in follow up calls, automatic event registration, and online refer a friend feature, CRM system that confirms event participation prior to the event to reduce chance of members forgetting the date, or any other number of incentives.  Many companies would even pre-release chapters of a soon to be published book to attendees if the author is well known.  This would further increase buzz of the new book, allow a sharable story that attendees could brag about to their friends (customers bragging is always good when you create the environment for it), and a physical viral marketing product since many people read in public and would have the opportunity to further sell you to other people.

In a world filled with as much competition as technology, it is nearly impossible for a business to completely segregate itself by using only the tools of the past.  Businesses are looked to become more interactive and convenient for customers.  When money becomes tight, people are always looking for the extra incentive to spend with you vs the competition.  Integrating your marketing process into a more unified system will increase your profits, allow a more centralized and focus brand image, and can significantly reduce your actual marketing expenses.  It doesn't how to be costly to be effective but it is always costly when not effective. Schedule a Free Integrated Marketing Consultation today to learn more.

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