Creating an Integrated Strategy

By Jeff Herrity
April 17, 2007

These days, we are more and more accustomed to receiving information pertaining to our everyday lives via many different channels both online and offline (and not to forget TV and Radio.) We connect with friends and colleagues through social networking sites, listen to podcasts on our iPods while grocery shopping, and unfortunately, we receive mail from our favorite ministry the same day we get their e-newsletter - both with conflicting appeals and clearly disjointed. Without an integrated approach, this ministry will wear down its audience.

It is important to realize the value communication integration can bring to organizations that regularly communicate through “traditional” channels - print-mail, telephone, or broadcast media. Some skeptics may say that the internet can be just as disruptive as a telemarketer calling at dinner, or worse, the stack of junk mail on our kitchen table sitting for a month … just waiting for attention. As disruptive as it may seem, the Internet is only disruptive when the user allows it to be. The web user has much more power to filter disruptions than traditional media. Can you imagine telling the phone company to screen your calls?

To take advantage of this user control and to reach a broader audience, it is important to consider how an integrated web strategy meets the objectives of other communication efforts. The Internet should be at the center of these efforts. The Internet does not only refer to your web site - but to everything that is digitized audience communication.

Develop Goals

To make the exercise of creating an integrated strategy as easy as possible, make sure that each internal team or group is represented: public relations, advertising/communications, IT, development, marketing, volunteers, etc. By having all of these teams represented, you will also help to integrate internal communications; something 99% of all organizations lack. Once together, the team should identify the goals that need to be accomplished to further mission or vision:

• Raise money
• Reach more constituents
• Media relations
• Get volunteers
• Educate public
• Building constituent relationships

Understanding the organizational priorities will help to lay the foundation for identifying the responsible teams and identifying ownership.

Assign Ownership of Activities

Agree on ownership for making sure that all strategic and tactical plans are communicated internally, and identify that person as the single ‘go-to’ person for additional input and to manage all aspects of the strategy for consistent results. Remember the old adage: “too many cooks…”

Of the organization’s strategic objectives, which one became the top priority? If it was to “raise money” then put the development team in charge of your website. Did “educate the public about your cause” come out at the top? Put the program team in charge. Is your website primarily for the purpose of worldwide communication? Put your experts in communication and marketing in charge.

It is important to remember that each different component does not belong to each group represented - it belongs to the organization and its supporters. Each team should be involved.

It doesn’t really matter what the number one strategic objective is for your web site. Many organizations have several ‘top priority’ objectives. Make sure the people responsible have the proper authority to achieve success and create a successful roadmap.

Identify Goals

Depending on the organizational priorities, goals must be established to benchmark success and to determine which integrated efforts require more or less time or attention. Most integrated strategies tend to have success measured in dollars raised that relate back to funding various programs which drives other communications, etc.

Identify or forecast the amount of revenue to be generated through each integrated effort. Keep in mind that this will be a small percentage of total offline activities and revenue generated - this is common. Do not treat online constituents the same as you do offline by having the same goals for each group- this is unrealistic. One thing is certain - one day your online efforts will be amazingly successful, the next it could be a big flop - learn from all efforts, not just the top performers.

Identify goals for your website page by page. The homepage will have a completely different set of goals than a page three or four deep within the site. As web sites are mapped out as a part of an integrated strategy make sure to get down to a micro level in which goals are mapped contextually to a page.

Be sure to track results so that you can analyze every aspect of all communication.

Put metrics into place to track and analyze success

Value what you measure and measure what you value. After you have prioritized your strategic objectives, determine how you are going to measure success. Based on past integrated performance, decide on realistic goals for each objective. If you decide not to measure an objective then lower its level of priority.

Modify the report to include the impact an integrated approach will cause. There may be an occasional dip in offline responses when an online campaign or online effort is under way. Expect to see an increase in online activity when communicating the same message to offline constituents. Many organizations shy away from a truly integrated approach to communication simply because they fear response cannibalism.

Look for common elements across all channels. These can serve as initial benchmark numbers. Response rates are the most important statistic - if response rates dip in one area, see how they did in another and find the root cause. Tracking conversion rates also help to identify what is working and what isn’t. Once the common metrics are identified begin to learn about the ‘why.’

Identify what works best for each medium

Once goals have been identified and metrics are put in place to measure success, identify what works best for each medium to best integrate strategy and message.

The organization’s core message will be at the center of each communication - web site, direct mail, email newsletters and other e-communications. Even though the core message is the same, the delivery will change based on goals and anticipated responses.

It is best to test communication types prior to launching a completely integrated strategy. Every organization has a different constituent base that responds differently. The traditional offline constituent leans towards the older females, while the online constituent is the younger, more tech savvy individual.

As a starting point, offline communications that have been used for many years will help to guide the online mechanism. At this point some standard best practices should be applied to your online efforts:

• Shorter copy that can be quickly skimmed for overall message
• Use bold to emphasize key phrases that read as one unit
• Create bullet points to highlight key activities
• Creative that is not visually dominating on the page or would slow download time
• Do not use bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles. Only use technology that can be easily used by recipients
• Make actions easy to find and complete
• Follow up with communications that end one communication cycle and open the door for another

Maximize Results through testing

Each element that comprises a flexible integrated strategy - (web, print, etc.) should be treated in the manner in which they generate the highest anticipated results. Offline communications (i.e. direct mail) are tested and re-tested on a continual basis to identify and ‘beat’ a control. The same holds true for any online communication be it the web site homepage or an email newsletter or appeal.

The offline test plan path is longer because of the nature and process of the printing, thus the online environment is a great place to do quick testing to generate better responses. Many organizations are beginning to utilize the speed of the Internet in testing message, creative, taglines or teasers, and calls-to-action.

Do not be afraid to test efforts both online and offline to ensure a seamless integrated strategy. Learn from each effort and continue to test with different audiences to maximize results.

Segmenting audiences

Much like many offline programs and communication tracks, it is important to realize the value of segmenting your online constituents. Many organizations have huge legacy files and get hundreds of new members on a daily basis but continue to communicate with them as if they were all the same person.

It is important to create an integrated strategy that segments groups and communicates with constituents through desired or even self selected channels. With a legacy file it is harder to start to segment based on limited database information - but this is easily solved by utilizing surveys to begin segmentation. With new names that are acquired, it is important to bucket them according to entry point and create a path that will take them from one track to the next. (They start as a site member, and then sign up for a newsletter, then become a donor, then repeat donor, then advocate, etc.)

Creating an isolated segment of constituents is also a good way to begin testing integrated communications and strategies. Isolating this set group and testing different techniques will help to identify what areas are most successful.

Expand the integrated approach

As organizations grow and constituents change over time it is important to keep integrated strategies as flexible as possible. If one area changes drastically and responses dip - spend some time researching the reasons and focus on other areas that may learn from these dips.

There are no formulaic 1-2-3 type of steps for creating the perfect integrated strategy, but rather a series of techniques that you should apply across all communications. Only through collaboration with vested team members can integrated communications be planned, executed, tested and repeated.

Integrate?

To every organization the concept of “integration” will mean something different. Considering the complexity of an Integrated Web Strategy, the options are limitless and unique to each organization. Are you integrating a major brand with sub brands? Your organization web site and a campaign web site? Offline membership letter and online membership letter? A radio ad with a printed post card ad?

Don’t let the complexity cause panic. The right internal team combined with the experience of your strategic partner is a step in the right direction towards an integrated strategy.