Why Integration Is Critical to a Successful Marketing Campaign
By: Adam Mawer
What is Integration?
As a writer, you probably understand the importance of integration. To write a great story, all of the central elements – plot, characters, setting, conflict and theme – must work together to create a narrative that is both meaningful and impactful for your readers. When one or more of these central elements fail to grab the reader’s interests, your entire book may be cast aside in favour of another book where the central elements are properly reinforced and complementary.
Much like a good writer, taking an integrated approach has quickly become the best way to catch the attention of consumers for marketers. With a rapid increase in digital technologies, consumers now have their eyes on multiple screens in multiple places making it difficult to grab their attention and ‘sell’ them on your book.
In the traditional approach to marketing communications, businesses and agencies plan separate campaigns for advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, public relations and e-mail. Integrated marketing communications is an approach to planning communications that combines these same communications tools to reinforce and complement each other and, therefore, improve overall effectiveness.
How Does An Integrated Approach Work?
In an integrated campaign, all communications work together to help achieve a common objective. For most authors, this objective would be to sell the most books possible. For the campaign, you may have an author logo or creative treatment that is to be used across all communications including advertising, e-blasts, social media, sales promotion, press releases and media appearances. Advertising and e-blasts may be used to create awareness of your book while encouraging consumers to enter your contest(s) on your social media sites. After entering your contest, the consumer may receive a 15% off coupon to buy your book. By communicating this same information in press releases and during media appearances, you’re reinforcing the message in your advertising, e-blasts and on social media. By repeating specific headlines, key expressions and creative content in each communication, you create a synergy of messaging for maximum impact on the target market.
Our New Logo
Long before discussing a logo change, our book marketing experts were already embracing integration as a solution in a market brimming with new authors and books. However, to reflect changes in both the publishing and marketing industries, it was deemed necessary to create a modern logo that reflected our commitment to an integrated approach.
The most obvious addition to our logo is the symbol. Made of four identical triangles, each piece is meant to represent one of our many book publicity services. When multiple services are combined to achieve an author or publisher’s objectives, the result is an integrated approach to book marketing. When all four pieces of our symbol are combined, they resemble an open book.
While our logo has changed, our commitment to independent authors and small publishers has not. We still understand that both groups, while inherently unique, are similar in that both have limited resources (time, money, knowledge) when it comes time to promote their book to a wider audience. We still understand that, with so many options available, it can be frustrating having to decide what the best options are for you and your book(s). We still understand that the majority of independent authors and small publishers want their work to be discovered by the right audience, in the right market for the right price. Therefore, our mission remains the same: to help independent authors and small publishers share their dream and be discovered.
Our New Services
To both reinforce our mission and integrated approach to book marketing, we are pleased to announce the launch of additional services. Now, you can be discovered with our:
- Author Branding Services
- Customized Book Covers
- Graphic Quote Images
- Pseudonym Creation Package
- Social Media Cover Photos
- Social Media Services
For those with a tighter budget, we are also pleased to announce the upcoming launch of our Writer’s Edge courses. Launching in 2014, these DYI courses will provide a comprehensive overview of the most popular social media channels and how to use them to market your book(s).
