Where the Real Magic Happens:
Integrating Traditional and New Media Marketing
NICOLE LAMOUREUX-MILLER
You might also wonder if she had some insider information
or psychic premonition about the way the market was
going to perform. Barring a crystal ball that shows one
specific security or asset class prevailing over another,
however, it makes sense for an investor to diversify.
Then there’s the client who asks you for guarantees. “If I
do X, will I get Y?” Now, as your friends in Compliance
have told you, you can’t offer guarantees. And for good
reason—there is no magic bullet to investing success. In
fact, when we hear someone who claims to have found
one, we’re rightfully skeptical. There are, however, some
approaches to investing that are more successful than
others, and most would agree that the concepts of asset
allocation and diversification fit that bill.
Why am I telling you things you already know? So
we can draw parallels between investing success and
marketing success.
Everything and Nothing Works
The Advisor Marketing team at Commonwealth fields
calls daily from advisors looking for the “one thing that
really works”—the secret marketing device that will bring
ideal clients en masse to your office door. From experience,
I can tell you that everything works . . . and nothing works.
Some marketers will disagree. They’ll say social media is the
answer. Or advertising. Or having a direct mail campaign.
Maybe they’re proponents of website offers, or print
brochures, or radio, or seminars. They’re all right, except
they’re missing one critical piece of information. There is
absolutely no one action that works in isolation. As with
investing, there is no magic bullet to marketing success.
No, the true magic of marketing takes place when one
takes a diversified and integrated approach. Just like a
well-considered portfolio, a successful marketing plan has
a mix of components that all blend (integrate) to create a
whole greater than any individual part.
Integrating Media and Communication Channels
The Wikipedia entry on integrated marketing
communications explains the concept in a couple
of different ways:
1.
“[Integrated Marketing] is used practically to allow
one medium’s weakness to be offset by another
medium’s strength, with elements synergized to
support each other and create greater impact.”
2.
“Instead of simply using various media to help tell a
brand’s overall story, with [integrated marketing] the
marketing
leverages
each communication channel’s
intrinsic strengths to achieve a greater impact together
than each channel could achieve individually.”
When talking about channels and media, marketers
typically are referring to the following two categories:
•
Traditional:
Print, television, radio, and direct mail.
These methods have been around from the beginning,
and we tend to generalize them with one word—
print
.
•
New Media (or nontraditional):
Website, social
media, e-mail, and multimedia, such as online videos
and podcasts. We can sum this all up as
online
.
If a client told you she wanted to invest
all of her money in one asset class,
or in a single security, you’d strongly
recommend that she do anything but.
Four-Corner Marketing
32
For Advisor Use Only
January/February
2014
