An integrated marketing and design agency
Design agencies offer a wide range of services these days – they have to, in order to compete. The benefit of using one agency rather than a number of specialist companies to deliver your design and marketing is that an agency that can deliver integrated services will take a holistic approach, make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and save the client money.
Talking of money, to deliver an integrated service, agencies work best with a budget. Delivering an integrated service to a client can be a big budget or something more modest, but it isn't something that can easily be priced per activity. It is best to set a monthly amount and let the agency tell you what they can deliver for that and see if that fits with your goals.
Navig8 has delivered integrated services for a huge range of clients, but what does integrated mean?
For the most part, for our clients, an integrated service means:
Developing the original concept collaboratively with the client
Defining the market and audience
Setting goals
Working out a strategy to achieve the set goals
Aligning design marketing, SEO, PR, and any other activity into one plan with a defined delivery schedule
Creative and designing the assets and implementing a visual, written in common language
Rolling out the ‘campaign’
Testing, monitoring, and adjusting
Reporting, evolving and renewing.
Every launch, campaign, or marketing activity will be different – of course – but the framework above covers most clients’ needs. The key thing is definition, action, and monitoring.
Below, I will briefly identify what we do as an integrated marketing and design agency.
Strategy
Define a strategy based on the client’s goals. Who are we aiming at? How will we communicate with them? What channels? What steps will we take to ensure the message and the results deliver the client’s goals?
Concept
Conceptualising the ‘campaign’. This may not necessarily be creative at this stage but can be a broader concept that may underpin the creative brief down the road.
Marketing
Consider the most effective marketing activities that will return the best ROI. This could be a wide range of activities including social media, PR, radio, press advertising, events and face-to-face. These activities will tie back to the strategy.
Creative and design
Working within a defined brief, begin the creative process. Remember, it may not just be a visual approach but might combine naming, defining CTAs (Call To Action) or a radio script.
Photography and illustration
What visual imagery do you need to bring the campaign to life? Do you need to commission photography? What about stock imagery or illustration? Consider and research what will be most suited.
Copy
Work out the headlines, the tone of voice, and the language you want to use. Employ consistent CTAs. If you are working with in-house or external PR teams, it is a good idea to develop a ‘copy kit’ so that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.
Social media
You will have set out your social media strategy in your marketing plan. But now is the time to test campaigns, make the connection you need and throw out your net to a wider audience.
Consider the channels you might use to deliver your campaign:
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram
Website or micro-site
E-Newsletter
APP
Direct Marketing (DM)
Direct Marketing still has a role in the integrated marketing plan. It may no longer be just a letter through the door, but marketing directly to your customer base is a powerful tool. How does it fit with your strategy?
Online
Is the website ready for the new campaign launch? Does the homepage maximise ROI? Do you have the campaign landing pages in place?
SEO
Have you considered SEO and the impact it might have? Have you performed keyword analysis and defined the opportunities? What about PPC (Pay Per Click)? Is it worth setting a budget to deliver demonstrable results that will help your campaign?
Print
Does your campaign have any print requirements? How many copies, what format, when do they need to be delivered? Do you need to organise fulfilment?
Exhibition and Display
What events will you be holding? What are the logistics to deliver an impactful presence? Have you performed a cost analysis against expenses and predicted the engagement?
I have touched on what an integrated campaign or service might look like, but like any integrated service, it has to be bespoke to a client’s needs.
Projects like Goldmans Sach’s 10,000 small businesses have benefited from our integrated marketing, design and client acquisition through to the ‘graduation events’ services. We can demonstrate, real, tangible results.
http://navig8.co/Navig8-Integrated%20Services-Case%20Study-10ksb.pdf
See how Integrated Services can help your business