How to make an integrated marketing communications plan in seven steps?
Before I explain how to make an integrated marketing communications plan, you need to know first
what the integrated marketing communications plan
means.The following are the steps required to make
an integrated marketing communications plan
:
1. Context Analysis or Situational Analysis:
The context analysis is similar to the situational analysis in the marketing planning process, which includes both external environmental analysis (macro-environmental analysis) and internal environmental analysis (micro-environmental analysis).
2. Marketing communications objectives:
Before writing the marketing communications objectives, you need to understand what are the corporate goals of your company, then the marketing goals as marketing objectives of your marketing plan, and finally the marketing communications objectives.
All marketing communications objectives are measured on one of four issues:
- Communications Impact.
- Credibility.
- Cost.
- Control.
Any marketing communications messages objectives are including one of four objectives:
- Differentiate: to differentiate your products or services from competitors.
- Remind: to reinforce, and reassure your customers about how much they will get benefit by repurchasing your products again. Actually this objective is adapted when your product start to go for decline phase in product life cycle (P.L.C.).
- Inform: to inform your customers about your products benefits and value, and this is happening in the growth phase of your product life cycle.
- Persuade: persuading your customers about buying more of your products or to attract a new customers to buy more. And this is happening if your product is in the maturity phase of product life cycle.
3. Marketing communications strategy:
Which are one of three strategies or may be a mix of all of them?
- Push Strategy.
- Pull Strategy.
- Profile Strategy.
4. Integrated Marketing Communications Mix:
Any marketing communications mix is including three parts:
What are the marketing communications tools?
Which marketing communications media you will select for which marketing communication tools?
Which marketing communications messages will be used in your marketing communication tool and media?
5. Marketing Communications Budget:
- Objective and task methods (most common).
- Competitive expenditure (2nd most common).
- Percentage of sales on last year.
- Percentage of sales on next year.
- Percentage of sales on profit expected.
- Percentage of sales on previous year’s surplus.
- Experimentation.
- Inflation Method.
- What we can afford method.
6. Marketing Communications Scheduling:
This part is including the schedule of your marketing communications mix, with its objectives.
And what is the budget that you will use for each marketing communications tool.
7. Implementation, control and evaluation.
Related articles to integrated marketing communications (marketing communications mix):
1. What is integrated marketing communications?
2. What is an integrated marketing communications plan?
3. Integrated marketing communications templates (Word, PowerPoint and PDF).
4. What are integrated marketing communications objectives?
5. How to improve marketing communications in 3 approaches?
6. How to get a marketing communications job?
7. How to make customers profiling?
8. How to use Pull-Push Strategy in Marketing Communications Plan?
9. What is a marketing communications objectives framework?
10. Branding:
- What is a brand manager job in marketing career?
- What is a Brand in Marketing terms?
- What is a branding in marketing terms?
- How to develop a branding strategy?
- How to create a brand identity?
- What are Brand Perspectives?
- How to create Brand Loyalty?
- How to build Brand Value?
- How to build Brand equity?
11. Integrated Marketing Communications Mix:
- What is a marketing communication model?
- What is a Coordinated Marketing Communications (CMC)?
- What is advertising in marketing, advertising age, techniques and strategies?
- How to manage integrated marketing communications mix in different stages of Product Life Cycle?
- Creative Sales Promotions Ideas and Techniques in marketing communications mix
- What are trade promotions management strategies and techniques?
- How to gain customers loyalty and improve customers’ retention?
- What are Public Relations strategies and tactics in marketing communications?
- What are Creative Direct and Interactive Marketing Strategies in Integrated Marketing Communications Mix?
- What is Database Marketing about?
- What is a sponsorship about in marketing communications?
- What is a Personal Selling about in integrated marketing communications mix?
