{"id":18304,"date":"2024-04-23T14:00:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=18304"},"modified":"2024-04-26T14:50:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T13:50:48","slug":"planning-an-integrated-marketing-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/digital-strategy-development\/planning-an-integrated-marketing-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating an integrated marketing strategy with the RACE Framework"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why use a framework to create an integrated marketing strategy?<\/h2>\n

I believe that implementing a digital marketing strategy framework to follow is essential to ensure the success of your integrated marketing strategy. Importantly by agreeing on a marketing plan structure during the planning phase, you can ensure the buy-in from your team and business to support your integrated marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

Applying a strategic framework creates a system to make your plans easier to understand and gives a way to assign specific metrics to monitor, manage and measure the performance of your integrated marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

The RACE Framework<\/h3>\n

We've created the RACE Framework and subsequent RACE marketing training to empower marketing leaders to take a data-driven, customer-centric approach to planning, managing, and optimizing their marketing strategies. By using this structure for your planning, you can integrate all your marketing activities across your key omnichannel customer touchpoints, to strengthen your reach, interaction, conversion, and engagement.<\/p>\n

\"Omnichannel<\/a><\/p>\n

Smart Insights membership gives you a set of tried and tested online training courses, and marketing tools, integrated across the RACE Framework, to help you accelerate your performance and grow your business. Download our Free digital marketing plan template to get started today.<\/p>\n

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\n \n Free digital marketing plan template\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Free digital marketing plan template<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our popular marketing planning template is structured across the Smart Insights RACE Framework. Join Smart Insights as a Free Member to download our digital marketing plan template today<\/p>\n

Access the Free digital marketing plan template<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

Section 1: Organization Health Check<\/p>\n

There are 4 key areas to focus on: customer, business, internal<\/strong> and external<\/strong> contexts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Customer context<\/h4>\n

This is defined by highlighting specific segments of customers\u00a0<\/strong>who interact with your business whether through acquisition or communication; What the level of awareness, perception, and attitude\u00a0<\/strong>is of your target customer base e.g. is your business benefiting from a growing reputation (e.g. growth in brand search, are your social media metrics providing a positive sentiment? Has email database been increasing in sign-ups?)<\/p>\n

It's also important to think about the external business environment you operate in and the types of perceived risk which are encountered. e.g. What is the level of competition your business operates in within this sector? Are there a number of competitors and what are they doing to attract market share (and more importantly your customer base?).<\/p>\n

2. Business Context
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

What is your corporate and marketing strategy?\u00a0<\/strong>In other words, how do you differentiate your business from the competition? Evaluating your brand positioning\u00a0<\/strong>will also provide you with an external view of how your business is perceived by customers.<\/p>\n

Importantly, how are you perceived by your suppliers? And are you a trustworthy organization to partner with? Think about any existing partnerships\u00a0<\/strong>that are in operation?<\/p>\n

Organisation Identity:<\/strong> If you are an online retailer, it benefits from commanding a strong domain name, use tools such as SEOmoz software<\/a>,\u00a0which can provide you with an insight into the value or trust-worthiness of your website online.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3. External context<\/h4>\n

As highlighted earlier, think about your external environment and list out who your key stakeholders are such as your consumers<\/strong> (look to create a persona on the types of consumers you attract); media<\/strong> (what media channels is your brand available through or can offer interaction with the end-user?)\u00a0affiliates\u00a0<\/strong>(do you provide alternative routes for your product offering, brand to interact with customers?).<\/p>\n

Other tools which can provide a good evaluation to your business within an external environment are a SWOT and PEST analysis.<\/p>\n

4. Internal context<\/h4>\n

As you have completed with the external context, look to critically evaluate the business with an internal focus. Key indicators and questions worth considering and recording are:<\/p>\n

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  1. Financial constraints<\/strong>: any you need to be aware of e.g. If you are looking to create a new product marketing strategy for a new range of footwear, what, realistically is the marketing budget available, and are you being realistic with your overall strategy?<\/li>\n
  2. Culture, values and beliefs: <\/strong>has the business created excellence in customer service for example or despatch and delivery of products?<\/li>\n
  3. Marketing expertise: <\/strong>do you have the necessary skill set, staff, and resources to support your framework in your organization?
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Section 2: Integrated marketing strategy barriers and opportunities<\/h3>\n

    So from completing your context analysis, a series of issues, barriers, and opportunities should now have been identified and documented. Below are some suggested barriers and opportunities you may consider if you are creating an integrated marketing strategy for an online retailer:<\/p>\n