Acora supports young people getting a foot in the door through the RMIT Work Integrated Learning Program. This blog article was authored by RMIT intern Lachlan Scouler.
What is IMC? - Integrated Marketing Communication
IMC is a strategic process of promoting a new product, service or brand consistently through multiple channels which all reinforce, infrom and promote each other. This includes the use of web, social, search engine marketing, display ads, video streaming, news, television and more. A slightly different approach is taken in each channel due to the different audiecnes, but all advertising has the same messaging and goals. Through the fusion of modern and traditional marketing techniques IMC is able to acquire the best of both words and engage the widest customer base possible.
Do you feel like you aren't reaching your customers in a the way that they are engaging with content?
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is an essential strategy in marketing your business, brand or service. The focus of an IMC strategy is to be able to acquire customers and consistently engage stakeholders.
Why Use IMC?
Communication is progressing more and more each day and average consumers can become overwhelmed by the many different platforms available. Various companies are advertising their brand, and so customers don’t feel bombarded with news and messages from these companies, IMC aligns their companies across platforms to advertise the same single cohesive message.
IMC further establishes a relationship between company and customer, with communication helping to spread awareness of their brand and its great customer service.
How to Use IMC
- To begin, it’s important to create your create your own communication plan. Look at the many different methods of digital communication available to you and decide which are best suited for you. Not all channels will have a return on investment for your marketing dollars.
- When creating your plan, decide what you want to sell and who to sell to. Then research that targeted audience’s preferred methods of communication, and how often they prefer to receive messages.
- Once you’ve found your audience, identify what common problem that you want to solve offering your product - why they should buy from you of all companies.
- Once you’ve completed your IMC strategy, you need to remain consistent in message frequency and your method of communication towards your customers.
- Remain up to date with your targeted audience so you’re able to get on top of new trends and services offered by competitors.
- Regularly monitor your performance. Success is not just driving traffic but achieving a commercially significant outcome.
- Learn and iterate your approach.
Types of IMC Approaches
External
When a company chooses to outsource and task their marketing to a digital agency, marketing agency or PR firm. This outside perspective of your brand can help in providing a fresh, unbiased, objective approach.
Internal
Marketing within the company. When a company’s management works to inspire its workers with excitement and anticipation for new products and services being introduced. This works on the likelihood that employees will leak details early to the customers and generate further excitement for the public.
Horizontal
During the development of the product, a company may bring together different departments to collaborate upon the selling of the product, such as distribution and financing departments. With all departments kept in the loop, a business runs more smoothly.
Vertical
This approach requires that a company’s product or service is developed and sold strictly within its own corporate policy.
Having a strong awareness and perception of your company and what it offers greatly improves the implementation of IMC.
Having a strong awareness and perception of your company and what it offers greatly improves the implementation of IMC. Not such that it is an optional strategy in spreading your company’s reach, but is a necessary step in doing so. It’s essential in closing distance between a company and its customers, and provide rapport between the two.
Acora Supporting your IMC delivery
Acora can power your integrated marketing communications strategy. An omnichannel, multichannel platform including website and mobile app management, push messaging, email marketing and marketing automation and analytics all in one platform. Store your brand messages and concepts and drive consistent and carefully linked messages across all channels.
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