Just give me a brochure and social media

“Just give me a brochure, we don’t need anything else.”

“We don’t need marketing, just do some social media posts.”

How many times have you said these to your marketing team or agencies? Hand up if you’re guilty of this belief?

We’ve heard this too many times to mention.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re great believers in brochures and social media, we think each has their value for the right audience in the right way. As a standalone piece though? Tsk tsk, absolutely no way!

Just give me a brochure tells a story. It takes a few steps and factors out of the equation. Who is the audience? How do they like to consume information? What kinds of information do they need to make a step to either contact your company or make a purchase?

Is this shortsighted of managers making this request? Do they believe their audience is narrow-minded? Or do they simply not want to spend money or resources on broader activities?

Honestly, it is probably a mix of the three in our experience. But, we’re not here to vilify, we want to talk about why it is important to have a number of different mediums in your marketing campaigns and activity.

In the land we live in, this is called integrated marketing and communications. Some call it multi-channel marketing / campaigns. Either way, it means using a number of different mediums, or channels, in your marketing activities.

Integrated campaigns take into consideration your audience, where they’re active, how they like to consume information, the journey they take to find more information or make a purchase, how they purchase, and how often they need to see your message for them to take the next step.

But here’s the kicker. What is the greatest consideration businesses should take when building campaigns? How each channel helps to build trust, reputation and connectivity with their customers.

Each channels varies not only through reach and audience profile, but the content can be varied across each channel.

Sure, a brochure might include your website details, but will the customer actually be tempted to run the search based on one brochure? Or, are they more likely to take action when they: 1) are given a brochure; 2) see some social media sponsored ads; 3) hear an advert on the radio mentioning your business name; and 4) see an advert on the television. Finally, they might take action.

All of these separate channels create a moment of impact for the customer.

Why? Because they have started to recognise the brand, build a broader picture of your company and have been able to build a sense who they will be interacting with for their purchase and what they can expect. If there is a consistent message across all of the different channels, this creates a greater sense of trust.

For businesses, implementing integrated campaigns offers many benefits.

Primarily, integrated campaigns enable businesses to have greater reach to more audiences. They also provide deeper market penetration as they cover the majority of touchpoints (ie channels) your audience is likely to frequent.

In these times, audiences have access to and engage with a number of different channels on a daily basis. Not all of your audiences will be on social media. Not all will be online. Not all will watch TV or listen to radio. Not all will take that brochure.

What an integrated campaign will also do is give you invaluable insights into where your customers are, and if done well, how they consume information and purchase. This in turn assists with future campaigns and effectively building targeted activities can communications.

By creating integrated marketing and communications campaigns and activities you give your brand and your customers the most chances to connect and create a meaningful connection.

Next time you ask for “just a brochure”, or “we just need social media”, think about what we’ve talked about here.