There is no argument that the Internet has become the axle that spins the marketing, promotional, and distribution programs of businesses. The Internet has grown exponentially over the last 20 years. In 1995, only 16 million people representing 0.4% of the world’s population had access to the Internet. By 2015, there were 3.3 Billion online every day (3.3% represents 46% of the world’s population).

In 1995, the Internet was used primarily to connect government agencies and key institutions. But even the Internet cannot overcome the power of evolution. Evolution is driven by innovation which is spurred by consumer demand. It is a chain that can never be broken because mankind will always find new ways to make life and business easier, faster, and more convenient.

In 2000, there were 304 million Internet users. Five years later, the Internet had a billion people online daily. With usage increasing by leaps and bounds, it was a natural evolution for marketers to look for ways to capitalize on the gigantic ocean of opportunity.

Social media was the offspring of digital technology and the Internet. Social media networks were sprouting. Friendster, MySpace, and LinkedIn were among the first social media networks that opened in the early part of the new millennium. Facebook started in 2004 but was limited only to high school students.

In 2005, Facebook opened up to the Harvard community where its founder Mark Zuckerberg was studying. By 2009, Facebook had gone global and reached 350 Million users.  Today, Facebook is a global phenomenon; a market mover and shaker with a community of 1.54 Billion users.

During the time of Facebook’s growth from 2004 to 2009, other social media networks came about such as YouTube and Twitter. No doubt these networks saw the potential of introducing innovative digital channels for distributing content.

These digital channels were a gold mine for marketers. The challenge was to create a system that would best optimize the possibilities presented by these digital channels through the vehicle of the Internet. People were reaching out, communities were being built, and networking became a byword. But how could these be put together to create new growth avenues for business?

Given the huge population of the Internet and social media users every day, businesses started to build their online presence. In addition to social media, many online tools were available to enhance their digital presence. These included:

  • Blogging
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • E-mail Marketing
  • Display Advertising
  • Videos

Businesses included digital marketing in their budgets. They could do it in-house or hire a digital marketing agency. In time, businesses started opening social media accounts on various networks. Many utilized e-mail marketing to aggressively promote new products and services. Content writers were hired to craft articles and blogs for posting and distribution.

The Internet was buzzing with activity. Businesses were competing with others for market supremacy in the digital landscape.

The problem was many were missing their mark. The numbers on digital marketing did not add up. In a 2015 study by SmartInsights, which began in 2012, 50% of respondents reported they have a digital marketing program but with no clear and defined strategy.

Interestingly by 2014, less than 50% of businesses had a website. How could you expect a digital marketing strategy without a website? Where will prospective customers or clients go to find you on the Internet? If you successfully connected and engaged in social media, where will the lead be converted into a sale?

The statistics on the lack of website usage show disregard for pertinent digital marketing data. Of the websites operating in 2013, only 26% were mobile-friendly, and 14% had a dedicated mobile website. Keep in mind that search patterns were changing in 2012.

For the first time in more than a decade, sales of the once-mighty desktop fell in 2012. Meanwhile, sales of mobile gadgets such as smartphones and tablets were increasing. The data foreshadowed a change in the guard. By 2014, 60% of online traffic came from mobile gadgets. The fall of the PC was complete.

The ascent of mobile technology is a highly significant development in the digital landscape. It confirms that consumers have embraced the mobile lifestyle. Everything that we do; work, play, or at home is influenced by mobile technology. Take note of the following key statistics that can befall your website if it is not mobile-friendly:

  • 40% will abandon your site.
  • $1.1 Trillion of global sales were website influenced.
  • 48% of Internet users who cannot access a website through their mobile gadget will brand the proprietor as “uncaring”.
  • 62% of respondents reported that a mobile responsive website increased sales.

Even search engine giant Google acknowledged the influence of mobile technology and required websites to shift to mobile responsive design or be penalized in the search rankings. Despite the ramifications of these data, some reports claim only 11.8% of websites in 2015 are mobile responsive!

This is the problem if you don’t have an integrated digital marketing strategy. You are not able to maximize the full potential of the powerful digital channels at your disposal.

Here’s my question to everyone who has a digital marketing strategy:

When you started your business, did you organize it without the benefit of a business plan?

Just like starting a business, a digital marketing strategy involves key areas of responsibility and presents many options to utilize and avenues to take. Launching a digital marketing platform without any sense of purpose or clear vision of what you want to achieve is highly inefficient.

Every business that implements digital marketing programs wants the same thing: to increase profitability by improving performance. As stated earlier, many businesses are using digital marketing, but 50% of them have no defined strategy. Can you imagine a destination point that can only be attained by one avenue? That avenue will be packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic by people who want to reach the same destination point.

If you had an integrated strategy in place, you would know of other avenues that would help you reach the destination point ahead of everyone else. This is the value of an integrated digital marketing strategy; the ability to harness the full power of digital channels by identifying the processes which work best with your value proposition.

Having explained its purpose, here are ten reasons why your businesses should need to have integrated digital marketing services in place:

1. Operate with Direction and Focus

Businesses that don’t have an integrated digital marketing service have an idea of what they want to accomplish and how to get there.

But for any marketing campaign, having an “idea” is not enough assurance that it will succeed. Your approach must be specific not generalized otherwise you will expose the campaign to higher levels of risk due to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and disengagement.

An integrated digital marketing strategy designs its campaign based on purpose. You cannot have direction if you have not determined the purpose of your digital marketing campaign.

Once you have defined your purpose, you can outline your goals and objectives. When you have goals, you set targets that you have to hit. Thus, purpose allows you to establish the direction of the campaign and build greater focus to make sure you can attain your goals and objectives.

2. Improves Communication with Everyone Onboard

Your purpose becomes the basis for the design of the system.

A digital marketing strategy operates under a specific system. A system has its series of frameworks and processes. The frameworks and processes that make up the system must be written down and shared with everyone on the team. Without it, the team will not be able to work as one.

In an integrated digital marketing service, the system is encapsulated in a document called the Creative Brief. The bases for the Creative Brief are all the information provided by the client plus updated research on industry trends and developments, market demographics, specific goals and objectives, and current systems or programs in place.

The Creative Brief is thoroughly discussed with the digital marketing team and is referenced for any clarification on the campaign.

Integrated digital marketing lends your business better structure and organization.

3. Empower Your Value Proposition

If your digital marketing campaign is not integrated, you’ll be firing away your content like a Shotgun instead of a Browning Buckman 22 caliber semi-automatic. Your message will scatter everywhere without a direct hit at your target.

Every marketing campaign must have a central message which is rooted in its purpose. You must identify the target of the message and come up with the best avenues to deliver its content.

Businesses that don’t have an integrated digital marketing campaign will tend to use any and every online marketing tool that is available. The problem is not all online marketing tool functions in the same way or generates the same result.

In the end, your value proposition loses its value.

Integrated digital marketing knows the most effective courses of action to take to deliver content accurately to its intended market. This strengthens the value of the proposition.

4. More Efficient Management of Resources

Many businesses, particularly start-ups, fail because of inefficient management protocols.

They do not have effective systems to oversee the management of limited capital and other sources of funding. The same will happen to your digital marketing campaign if you have no idea of your budget.

Integrated digital marketing outlines a plan that details the demands and requirements of all courses of action to be undertaken including contingencies.

The plan cannot be implemented if its processes cannot be supported financially. The business will either streamline the budget and revise the campaign or look for additional funding sources. This way the campaign will proceed unhindered because funding fell short or was proven insufficient.

5. Greater Efficiency in Implementation

One of the costliest mistakes for marketers is duplication.

Duplication presents redundancy problems. Businesses could be purchasing programs or contracting service providers that essentially do the same or similar functions.

With an integrated digital marketing campaign, objectives are clearly defined, processes and schedules are updated, information is properly circulated and distributed, and the budget is frequently referenced before any transaction is authorized.

Under an integrated digital marketing strategy your right hand knows full well what your left hand is doing. Everything is clear and transparent.

6. Generate Synergy

Businesses that say they have digital marketing without a properly defined strategy probably use SEO as a separate and distinct online tool. For them to maximize SEO, it should be allowed to stand on its own and carry out its functions.

But the principles of SEO are maximized when these are used in conjunction with other online tools.

SEO works to have your website get found by increasing its organic search rankings on the search engine’s SERP page. This is done through the use of keywords in strategic locations in the website’s tags, web page copy, and blogs.

But the keyword-rich content can be distributed through various social media networks and link-building arrangements with related blogging communities.

Thus, with integrated digital marketing, synergy among online tools is encouraged. The principles of SEO become the driving force to generate inbound traffic to the website.

Remember, this is INTEGRATION. Our purpose is to utilize the processes that best drive the performance of a business and result in improved profitability.

7. Optimize Your Online Processes

The advantage of having a clearly defined strategy is that you will work to ensure online processes are fully optimized.

This is because every online process has been qualified before being integrated into the system. These processes have their set of implementing guidelines that correspond to the entire digital marketing strategy. All of its parts are moving to keep the campaign on course.

With integrated digital marketing, the most effective digital channels for distribution are identified and utilized. It will not use every social media network because not all communities function alike.

Thus, under an integrated digital marketing system, resources are allocated and managed to ably support its online processes.

8. Stay Ahead of the Competition

Yours is not the only business that is doing digital marketing. Many others, especially your competition, are doing digital marketing perhaps even using the same processes, tools, and techniques as you.

The difference between success and failure will come down to implementation. Your competitor may use SEO, link building, content marketing, and social media as its core processes as you and even have a dedicated mobile website but if its implementation lacks direction, focus, consistency, and organization, it will fail or perform miserably.

In short, if your competitor is part of the 50% that is without a defined strategy and you have integrated digital marketing, it doesn’t matter how much money he invested in his campaign, you will beat him!

9. Build Stronger Relationships with Your Market

Integrated digital marketing is cognizant of the value of SoLoMo or Social, Local, and Mobile. The term refers to the characteristics of your buyer persona; the people who may patronize your products and services.

Especially with the evolution of mobile technology, it becomes more important for businesses to answer the three most important questions to their target audience:

  • Who they are? (Social)
  • Where do they come from? (Local)
  • How did they find you? (Mobile)

With integrated digital marketing, it is not enough that you post. You must frequently engage with your audience. You must persevere to give answers, and responses or find a resolution to their queries and concerns.

Remember that when a reader responds or posts a comment, he is extending courtesy regardless of his content. Engagement always sets the ball rolling for a relationship to begin. Having a solid relationship with your audience will foster greater royalty and market retention.

10. Keep Track of Performance

What makes digital marketing effective is that results can be measured in real-time. This enables your strategy to evolve with the changing trends in the market.

Other marketing methods such as traditional and outbound are difficult to track and measure. In the first place, traditional and outbound marketing methods follow rigid structures and frameworks. Worse, these methods are found intrusive by most clients. Getting actual data will be difficult.

You can use online analytics to determine which blog pages are frequently read, where your demographics are coming from, and how many are active users. Having the information available whenever you need them allows you to update the Creative Brief.

How do you develop an integrated digital marketing strategy?

  • Identify the key digital channels. These are the digital channels that contribute significantly to your performance numbers and result in the highest conversion rates.
  • Know your audience. Use online analytics to retrieve data that tell you who your audience is. You need to know their demographics and what characteristics define their online behavior to have an idea of the buyer persona.
  • Set up your digital marketing team. An integrated digital marketing strategy has many components and these require specialization or expertise. A standard digital marketing setup would include a project manager, social media manager, SEO professional, content writer, and web developer.

If today, you still don’t have an integrated digital marketing service in place you may be eaten up and swallowed by the industry.

The conditions that validate an investment in an integrated digital marketing service are in place: the continued evolution of the internet, the growing influence of social media, and the dominance of mobile technology. You simply cannot and should not ignore these factors.

These reflect the ever-changing and dynamic nature of today’s market. Digital marketing will only yield the expected results if it can focus and direct its resources to its identified goals and objectives. This will not be possible without integration.