I fly Southwest Airways nearly solely, and one factor I’ve seen about Southwest is that their branding is on level.
Whether or not I’m reserving a flight on their cellular utility, being served my go-to in-flight ginger ale, or strolling by the terminal at Halfway Airport, I’m surrounded by Southwest’s constant model colours, messaging, and imagery.
That is an instance of built-in advertising and marketing at work. If you happen to’re excited about presenting a cohesive, constant model expertise that leaves your services or products top-of-mind — like Southwest does — this information is for you.
Learn on to be taught extra about built-in advertising and marketing, easy methods to weave it into your advertising and marketing plan, and easy methods to create your individual marketing campaign.
Desk of Contents
What’s built-in advertising and marketing?
Built-in advertising and marketing communications is about aligning your advertising and marketing channels to advertise your services or products in tandem, sometimes by a strategic marketing campaign. Built-in advertising and marketing additionally works to align the first model message that’s deliverable by your advertising and marketing channels and belongings.
Think about discovering a brand new model on Instagram and visiting the corporate’s web site to buy one in every of its merchandise. If their web site promoted a unique message or marketing campaign than the one you discovered on their Instagram account, you’d have a tough time understanding the gist of the model, proper?
Built-in advertising and marketing exists to get rid of these disparities and variations no matter how or when a buyer interacts along with your model. It’s just like multi-channel advertising and marketing, besides built-in advertising and marketing aligns the message you share on all these channels.
I’ve discovered that built-in advertising and marketing doesn’t simply apply solely to your inbound or digital advertising and marketing channels; it additionally consists of conventional media channels. Many built-in advertising and marketing examples I’ll assessment beneath incorporate standard advertising and marketing channels reminiscent of print, radio, and TV advertisements.
Why are built-in advertising and marketing communication plans efficient?
Whereas built-in advertising and marketing campaigns can differ of their objectives (e.g., changing views, constructing model consciousness, and many others.), they need to all have one part in frequent: to align your advertising and marketing channels to current a united advertising and marketing “entrance.”
I’ve additionally discovered it simpler to run built-in advertising and marketing campaigns than campaigns on particular person channels. Built-in advertising and marketing campaigns are extra impactful for a number of causes as a result of they have a tendency to:
Attain a wider viewers than a single advertising and marketing channel.
Enhance visibility as they’re extra prone to be seen on a number of channels.
Construct belief with guests as they see a constant message on a number of channels.
Prevent cash since belongings are shareable between completely different advertising and marketing channels.
Construct an Built-in Advertising and marketing Marketing campaign
Set up your overarching marketing campaign objectives.
Select your advertising and marketing channels and set objectives for every one.
Outline your purchaser personas by channel.
Establish your channel managers.
Create adaptable advertising and marketing belongings and messaging.
Set up your built-in advertising and marketing communication plan for gathering leads.
Launch, measure, and iterate your marketing campaign.
So, how are you going to construct your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign? These are the steps I observe to get began.
1. Set up your overarching marketing campaign aim.
Earlier than you think about what channels can be a part of your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign, you could think about the aim of the whole marketing campaign.
When you’ve recognized your aim, bear in mind to make it SMART. This may enable you to keep targeted, observe your marketing campaign success, and learn to enhance the subsequent time.
Once I’ve tracked my very own campaigns, I’ve targeted on creating objectives that relate to key efficiency indicators (KPIs) and their subsequent metrics.
KPI
RELATED METRICS
Visitors/attain
Distinctive web page views by channel and supply
Engagement
Bounce fee; common time on web page
Prime (and falling) content material
Prime web page views; high exits
Influence
Click on-throughs; conversions; backlinks
Sentiment
Feedback; social shares
Lead era
Whole leads; complete periods; session to guide conversion fee
Gross sales
Result in advertising and marketing certified lead (MQL); MQL to gross sales certified lead (SQL); buyer buy/closed-won enterprise
Additionally, whereas elevated engagement and new leads are all the time thrilling, a multi-channel marketing campaign ought to think about the larger image: how your marketing campaign impacts gross sales alternatives and enterprise income.
2. Select your advertising and marketing channels and set objectives for every one.
Now that you realize your overarching built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign aim, you most likely have a greater concept of what channels (if not all of them) will help you attain that aim.
For instance, if you wish to roll out a brand new emblem and branding suite, you don’t essentially must leverage radio advertisements.
Alternatively, if you happen to’re extending your viewers to focus on a brand new geographic area or metropolis, radio advertisements, billboard advertisements, TV advertisements, and different native channels might come in useful.
For my part, there are 10 main advertising and marketing “channels” that you need to use to distribute your marketing campaign content material, together with:
Promoting (each print and PPC)
Direct advertising and marketing
E-mail advertising and marketing
PR
Private promoting
Gross sales promotions
Digital advertising and marketing (e.g., web site, content material advertising and marketing, and search engine optimization)
Social media
Occasions and sponsorships
Packaging
Your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign ought to embrace quite a lot of advertising and marketing channels to succeed in the widest viewers and drive house your marketing campaign message. If you happen to see a number of channels plateau, don’t hesitate so as to add, take away, or take a look at new ones.
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3. Outline your purchaser personas by channel.
Each advertising and marketing channel targets its particular purchaser persona. Because of this, as an alternative of defining a broad persona to your marketing campaign, I like to recommend defining your viewers by channel.
There’ll inevitably be some overlap, however I believe it’s clever to grasp precisely who you’re speaking to on every medium and easy methods to tailor these particular belongings to be probably the most profitable.
With some campaigns, you might be concentrating on a particular viewers. On this case, flip steps 2 and three — outline your purchaser persona(s) first after which resolve which channels will help you attain that viewers.
Professional tip: Along with HubSpot’s (enjoyable!) purchaser individual software, you may make the most of free purchaser persona templates to jumpstart this course of.
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4. Establish your channel managers.
Relying on the scale of your advertising and marketing staff, you’ll have completely different folks (or complete teams) in command of different channels. Nonetheless, you continue to should select who particularly will guarantee their channel(s) align with the marketing campaign.
That is essential for 2 causes:
So managers will be the skilled on their channel (e.g., viewers, posting cadence, optimization techniques, reporting methods, and many others.) and can know easy methods to tailor the marketing campaign to be probably the most profitable.
As a result of placing one individual in command of all channels could also be overwhelming and trigger the content material and marketing campaign to undergo.
Professional tip: If you happen to’re like me, you’ll have a smaller advertising and marketing staff the place one individual handles a number of channels. No matter your staff dimension, do your finest to share channel administration obligations throughout a number of folks — ideally, with one individual working one or two channels.
5. Create adaptable advertising and marketing belongings and messaging.
You might have your marketing campaign aim, audience(s), and advertising and marketing channels. It’s now time to create your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign content material. This stage is the place copywriting, graphic design, and different inventive processes come into play.
Earlier than I dive into how, let’s speak about a vital part of built-in advertising and marketing content material: adaptability.
To maintain your marketing campaign constant (and ease your workload), it’s best to be capable to repurpose content material to be used on completely different channels.
For instance, let’s say your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign focuses on the launch of a brand new 3-minute model video. You would repurpose this video into:
30-second and one-minute “trailer” movies
Nonetheless photographs
Quotes
GIFs
Hashtags
Weblog posts
Soundbites
One good way to do that? AI instruments like HubSpot’s Content material Remix is usually a large time-saver.
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Professional tip: Create model tips to your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign to share along with your staff and any channel managers. This documentation may embrace a number of issues:
Visible tips (emblem, shade palette, typography, and many others.).
Any developed and repurposed belongings in a number of file codecs.
Voice and tone tips (taglines, most popular language, phrases to keep away from, and many others.).
Messaging tips (ache factors, objectives, forms of content material, sources, and many others.).
Purchaser persona info and tips.
6. Set up your built-in advertising and marketing communication plan for gathering leads.
Whether or not or not you propose your marketing campaign to gather leads, it’s best to all the time be able to obtain them. Belief me, you don’t wish to go away this as an afterthought when you launch your marketing campaign.
Step 1: Take into account how a customer may convert to a lead:
Would they subscribe to your e-newsletter?
Enter their info to obtain a content material provide?
Create an account in your web site?
Guarantee these conversion features of your marketing campaign are additionally on-brand with the remainder of your visible and messaging belongings.
Step 2: Take into account how your leads can be nurtured as soon as they convert.
Nonetheless you go about this step, I counsel you to verify your leads aren’t forgotten as soon as they willingly give over their info.
Professional tip: I attempt to prioritize speaking with gross sales to substantiate they’re conscious of my marketing campaign and on board with the plan for brand new leads and prospects.
7. Launch, measure, and iterate your marketing campaign.
Bear in mind these KPIs and metrics I discussed? Whichever KPIs relate to your overarching marketing campaign aim (e.g., boosting model consciousness, rebranding, new product, and many others.), begin monitoring these subsequent metrics every week, month, and/or quarter to see how profitable it’s at reaching your aim.
Don’t overlook: Apply what you be taught from every built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign to your future campaigns.
Built-in Advertising and marketing Methods and Greatest Practices
As you assemble your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign, there are a number of key methods and finest practices to recollect. I’ve detailed them right here, they usually apply no matter your chosen media, channels, or objectives.
Align behind the scenes.
So that you can efficiently implement an built-in advertising and marketing strategy, it’s crucial that you just not solely select advertising and marketing channel managers but in addition that every one your advertising and marketing managers talk typically about tasks and campaigns.
Whereas not each built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign or promotion should be on all channels, they need to a minimum of complement one another to keep away from a fragmented model expertise for patrons.
Take into account the channel transition.
Built-in campaigns obtain site visitors from a number of sources. Take into account how a customer might view/expertise every advertising and marketing channel:
If it was their first go to.
In the event that they transitioned from one other channel.
Take into consideration how every channel will help others convert.
For instance, say a buyer noticed your new billboard on their approach to work and, as soon as they arrived, visited the web site on the billboard.
Think about if, in your web site, the shopper couldn’t simply discover no matter your billboard was advertising and marketing. How complicated would that be? That buyer would probably drop off instantly.
Don’t neglect the overlap between your campaigns.
Built-in advertising and marketing exists to eradicate the silos of conventional advertising and marketing and produce collectively a cohesive marketing campaign expertise. Because of this, don’t neglect the locations the place your marketing campaign overlaps.
I like to recommend checking these locations to reinforce your consistency throughout campaigns:
Your electronic mail signature, the place you may plug your social media handles, web site URL, or video hyperlinks.
Your social media bios and posts, the place you may embrace hyperlinks to your web site, weblog posts, content material presents, or different digital content material.
Your weblog and web site, the place you may incorporate social sharing buttons.
Your standalone touchdown pages, the place you may optimize for related key phrases and search engine optimization.
Your PPC copy, the place you may take a look at topic strains to see what your viewers responds to.
Whereas these overlaps may not immediately assist your marketing campaign objectives, they assist your viewers transition seamlessly between channels, take pleasure in that constant, cohesive model expertise, and finally discover their approach to a web page that converts them.
Examples of Built-in Advertising and marketing Campaigns
Scent Like a Man by Outdated Spice
Transfarency by Southwest Airways
You are Not You When You are Hungry by Snickers
Share a Coke by Coca-Cola
Develop Higher by HubSpot
Each marketer is aware of how a lot you may be taught from these earlier than you. On this part, I’ve pulled collectively a handful of well-executed built-in advertising and marketing campaigns to provide you an instance of this tactic’s success.
1. Apple TV+’s “Severance” Grand Central Station Stunt
If you happen to’re an avid tv watcher, you’ve probably heard of the profitable Apple TV present “Severance.” Forward of the season two premiere of the present, the solid and crew arrange an sudden pop-up on the Grand Central Station in New York Metropolis, gathering the eye of native New Yorkers and the world.
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Main as much as the Severance pop-up, Apple TV modified the principle header picture on their app to one in every of Severance and in addition put the present of their primary slot for well-liked collection.
By using an built-in advertising and marketing technique, they ensured that the publicity stunt at Grand Central would level viewers to their app, which then made it very straightforward to seek out the present.
Professional tip: If you’re planning a publicity stunt for the promotion of a specific product, it’s crucial that you just make sure that your web site, social media, PR, and many others., all additionally promote the identical product.
2. Duolingo and Social Media Built-in Advertising and marketing
Sassy feedback from firms on social media is nothing new. However Duolingo, the language studying app, takes this to the subsequent degree with its unhinged and hilarious model picture.
Duolingo went viral on TikTok and different social media platforms in 2025 when a TikTok creator requested the model to create a video of the Duolingo owl mascot going to sleep to appease her toddler, who wouldn’t go to mattress till the owl did as properly. This viral video was shared by many on social media in addition to featured on the Duolingo app and web site.
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We will be taught quite a bit from Duolingo’s built-in advertising and marketing technique by taking a look at their completely different social media platforms. Their owl mascot is closely featured and is all the time as much as one thing sudden. Replies from the model have a unified (if not barely scary) voice, and prospects get the identical marketing campaign, irrespective of the place they enter the advertising and marketing funnel.
Professional tip: In case your company goes to answer to feedback on social media, it’s important to have a unified model voice and picture.
3. The Barbie Film and Mattel
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2023 was an enormous yr for films, and a type of profitable blockbusters was the “Barbie” film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
The entrepreneurs and advertisers behind the film used a number of built-in advertising and marketing methods to advertise the film, together with having Margot Robbie costume up as completely different iconic Barbies in the course of the press tour, having a photograph sales space Barbie field for moviegoers to snap pics of and publish to social media, and inspiring visitors to put on pink when attending the movie.
All of those had been profitable built-in advertising and marketing techniques, however among the finest strikes was involving Barbie’s authentic firm, Mattel, to take part. The yr the Barbie film was launched, Mattel created particular person Barbie dolls for every of the principle characters of the movie.
This type of built-in advertising and marketing is profitable as a result of those that take pleasure in Barbie dolls needed to know what these new dolls had been based mostly on, and people who loved the film had been motivated to take a look at the Barbie doll merchandise for the movie, rising earnings for each.
Professional tip: If you happen to’re together with merchandise in your built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign, make sure that it’s high quality and one thing folks will really wish to purchase. Low-cost or rushed merchandise won’t assist your marketing campaign however relatively hurt it.
4. Coca-Cola and Oreo Collab
Restricted version merchandise and collaborations are frequent advertising and marketing methods shoppers expertise on a regular basis. However what occurs once you pair up two unlikely but gigantic model companions like Oreo and Coca-Cola? A stunning success.
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In contrast to previous collaborations the place a soda-inspired cookie may exist or only a cookie-inspired soda, the Oreo Coke collaboration had each — and each had been marketed on each potential channel.
While you’re an enormous model like Oreo or Coke, you typically don’t even want your individual social media marketing campaign – shoppers will style take a look at and promote your product for you.
And that’s precisely what occurred right here. If you happen to go to both firm’s web sites, social media, or extra, you’ll see that all of them promote the restricted version collaboration gadgets.
Professional tip: In case your model is planning to collaborate with one other model, just be sure you’re each on board for an built-in advertising and marketing strategy and technique so prospects can get a unified expertise irrespective of which model they begin with.
5. Spotify “Wrapped” Marketing campaign
The most effective advertising and marketing campaigns require little to no promoting as a result of your prospects love them a lot they do the advertising and marketing for you. That is the case with music app Spotify’s yearly “Wrapped” marketing campaign.
Spotify Wrapped reveals listeners their high artists, songs, listening time, and extra. This marketing campaign returns yearly and has improved its built-in advertising and marketing technique over time.
I bear in mind the primary couple of years that Spotify launched Wrapped — it was troublesome to seek out the place my yearly wrapped was positioned on the app. By enhancing their built-in advertising and marketing technique, now you can simply discover your Wrapped on the entrance web page of their app, web site, and in your inbox. This has helped prospects keep away from getting annoyed and improved the entire person expertise.
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Professional tip: If you happen to launch a yearly marketing campaign, it’s essential so as to add new options and optimizations yearly. Take into account updating your design, together with new additions or stats, or figuring out new channels to showcase the marketing campaign.
Advertising and marketing Plan Template
As you may see, planning is the important thing to profitable built-in advertising and marketing. If you happen to want further steerage by the planning course of, I like to recommend HubSpot’s free advertising and marketing template to assist set you off heading in the right direction.
The template consists of:
A enterprise abstract
Enterprise initiatives
Goal advertising and marketing
Market technique
Funds
Advertising and marketing channels
Advertising and marketing Expertise
I like this template as a result of it’s each straightforward to fill out and ideal for sharing along with your advertising and marketing staff and executives who must log out in your plan. The template additionally invitations you to judge your strengths and weaknesses whereas in search of alternatives and avoiding threats.
I consider that armed with a strong finances and built-in advertising and marketing communication plan, you’ll be capable to get government buy-in to start reaching prospects on channels you haven’t beforehand.
Built-in Advertising and marketing Helps You Develop Your Enterprise — Higher
After reviewing the idea of built-in advertising and marketing, I recognize the way it turns your advertising and marketing campaigns into multi-channel actions.
In at this time’s omnichannel world — with shoppers encountering your model on-line, on social media, and on their every day commutes — I consider built-in advertising and marketing is extra essential than ever to seize new prospects and construct model recognition and loyalty.
Use the methods, template, and finest practices shared on this publish to launch your individual built-in advertising and marketing technique efficiently.
Editor’s be aware: This publish was initially revealed in October 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.