Laura Čerbauskė

How to Plan Integrated Marketing Campaigns for Optimal Conversion (Tips & Examples)

Today’s consumer is constantly bombarded with messages from a multitude of brands. Companies attempt to connect with their audiences through conversational marketing, personalized emails, and the occasional SMS.

There are also targeted social media posts, video ads, and sponsored posts. This barrage continues outside the digital space—where radio ads, billboards, and other print ads try to reach a broader audience.

With so many companies competing for consumers’ attention across a wide variety of channels, how do you stand out enough for your target audience to notice you? 

The answer lies in consistency.

A consistent message across all channels enables your brand to cut through the noise and generate optimal conversions. This is why integrated marketing campaigns have been incredibly successful.

In this post, we’ll explore integrated marketing campaigns in detail. We’ll look at what exactly they are, why you should use them, and analyze some real-world examples to help you get started with your own.

What is an integrated marketing campaign?

Integrated marketing campaigns make use of various channels in an effort for brands to gain top-of-mind awareness. Each campaign is anchored on a single idea, and every marketing asset is presented in a similar style in order to become easily recognizable.

By presenting your brand in a multidimensional yet consistent way, you’re better able to reinforce your primary message. This leads to better brand recognition and, ultimately, better sales.

Channels and elements of integrated marketing campaigns

The best channels to use in an integrated marketing campaign depend on your audience. In general, the most effective ones involve owned media, paid media, and earned media.

Owned media are everything you have complete control over. These include your official website, newsletters, and all your social media accounts. This can also include properties that aren’t typically categorized as marketing assets, like your in-store design, packaging, and customer service team.

On the other hand, paid media are those that don’t appear on your own properties, yet you pay for them because they boost your reach. This includes traditional advertising (ex., TV, billboards, radio, print) and digital advertising (ex., PPC, sponsored posts).

When done right, integrated marketing also paves the way for earned media to support the primary message and could even have the same look and feel. Such earned media includes influencer endorsements and mileage from content marketing.

When planning your own integrated campaigns, choose only the channels that make sense to your audience. Additionally, you need to ensure your messaging is always relevant to the channel on which it is published yet is still anchored on the campaign's main idea and general design.

Lastly, timing is among the most critical elements of an effective integrated campaign. Every message on every channel needs to be timed correctly so that each one works harmoniously with the other. This makes the entire campaign more impactful and more likely to generate conversions.

Impact of integrated marketing campaigns on conversions

Being present on various media doesn’t just help you reach a larger audience but also generate more sales. In fact, marketing campaigns that use three or more channels enjoy 287% higher purchase rates than those launched on only one channel.

Consistency is key to the success of integrated marketing campaigns. By aligning every channel with your primary campaign message, your assets are more easily recognized. The more channels you’re on, the more often consumers are reminded of your brand.

This top-of-mind awareness makes it easier to convert your audiences into paying customers. Your omnipresence essentially breeds familiarity, which eventually leads to favorability. Ultimately, that leads to a stronger intent to purchase, whether as a first-time customer or a brand advocate.

Why you should implement these campaigns

Planning and launching integrated marketing campaigns might seem daunting, not to mention costly. However, businesses that implement such a strategy benefit in several ways, including:

  • Higher Conversions. Your consistent presence on relevant channels makes your brand more visible and easily recognized by the people who matter. This fosters purchase intent and leads to better sales.
  • Better Customer Retention. Consistent and strategic use of several channels enables you to better engage with your target audience. Continued engagement and top-of-mind awareness lead to repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
  • Improved Collaboration. Having a unified marketing campaign that involves all your channels fosters collaboration within your organization. Different teams can work more cohesively with one another, which enables your company to provide a better customer experience.
  • Greater Cost-Effectiveness. The potential revenue from an integrated marketing campaign can far exceed whatever you can generate on a single channel. Additionally, marketing assets can be shared across all channels, which leads to more efficient marketing spend.

Examples of excellent integrated marketing campaigns

In marketing, it’s critical to see what others have done excellently and ponder how you can do better. Below are a few examples of integrated marketing campaigns that deserve recognition. Hopefully, these inspire you and spark your creativity as you develop ideas for your brand.

1. Casper

Casper’s “Sleep is the Answer” campaign is an excellent example of integrated marketing. This campaign was anchored on a single statement: No matter what the question is, sleep is always the answer.

Casper campaign example
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Playing on this statement, the rest of the campaign involved puzzles designed to spark curiosity with its simple illustrations and yet engage people who may be in the market for a new mattress, whether right then or in the future.

These puzzles appeared most prominently in trains and subway stations, where people are generally idle or bored enough to notice. They’re fun and entertaining and, most importantly, keep the Casper brand at the top of mind for all things sleep.

People entertained enough by these posters could find more puzzles on the Casper website.

There, they could spend much more of their time figuring out sleep-related riddles and engaging with the brand:

Casper answers
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Casper also used several of the puzzles to boost engagement on its social media sites. For example, the brand used this one to get its followers to share their favorite bedtime stories:

Paid ads were also set up to drive traffic to the puzzles and create more brand associations with good sleep:

Casper "Sleep is the answer" paid ad example
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Through fun visuals, engaging puzzles, and witty messaging that appeared consistently across all its marketing channels, Casper successfully positioned itself as the answer to all things sleep.

2. Spotify

Spotify’s “Music for Every Mood” features various relatable moods alongside actual, user-generated playlists. It features a meme-style ad format that hinges on millennials’ and gen-Zers’ love for self-irony, making every variation both funny and relatable to the company's target audience.

These billboards are some of the best examples of its ironic humor:

Spotify billboard example 1
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Spotify billboard example 2
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Similar ads appeared as social media sponsored posts and stories:

Spotify sponsored story ad
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Spotify also published several Facebook Ads in the same campaign.

This one points out a time in almost everyone’s life where they plan for an early morning workout but end up sleeping in:

Similarly, this one highlights how we sometimes intend to take some time to relax. But, the weekend rolls in and warrants a fun “Girls’ Night” playlist:

The company even created videos such as this one which features a woman finding great difficulty getting up despite ironically listening to a Spotify playlist called “Mellow Morning.”

Through the combination of user-generated content and pop-culture marketing, this integrated marketing campaign was undeniably a brilliant way to get the attention of its target audience.

3. Glossier

Glossier might be a beauty and skincare brand, but it is a master of digital marketing. The launch of its facial serum line is one of the best examples of a well-executed integrated marketing campaign.

This launch made good use of various digital channels that worked together to generate hype over the seven days preceding the sale of its new line.

Here’s what the entire launch looked like, as documented by Emily Edwards:

Glossier launch communication strategy

Glossier was everywhere its target audience would have been. It published official posts and conversed directly with its followers.

The company also had shared press and cross-promoted content in relevant blogs and social media sites.

Additionally, its real-world celebration was documented and shared online:

Glossier content examples
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Glossier’s success in this campaign was not just about the number of channels it involved, but also the timing of each post.

Every marketing asset had a similar look and language consistent with the brand’s image. Then, the company was omnipresent, making them the top-of-mind beauty brand for the entire week leading up to the serum launch.

Wrap up

Integrated marketing campaigns significantly affect marketing cost efficiency, which undoubtedly affects your bottom line. These also enable you to create a more collaborative environment for your organization.

But perhaps the most critical impact of campaign integration is achieving optimal recognition and visibility. This fosters a feeling of familiarity with your brand, which eventually leads to favorability and a stronger intent to purchase. 

Ultimately, the consistency and unified messaging involved in a well-planned integrated marketing campaign leads to the best chance of conversions, repeat purchases, and growth.

About the author
Laura Čerbauskė
SEO Manager, Omnisend
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Based in Lithuania, Laura has been working in the SEO industry for several years and has achieved impressive results and growth with her small team. In her free time, she likes to read about digital marketing, ecommerce trends, technology, and personal productivity.