What happens when you bake a cake and use the wrong flour? Well, many things can happen. Maybe it doesn’t mix well, maybe it tastes off, maybe it doesn’t form a cake at all? Well, the same thing happens when you don’t mix your marketing activity. Your advertising, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing, social media marketing - they all need to work together as a unified force, or the perfect cake recipe, directed towards one specific goal.

At Digital Disco we are big believers in a holistic marketing approach and we always do our best to encourage a perfectly blended digital marketing agency strategy for each and every one of our clients. But, let’s explain a little more as to why we do that!

So what is Holistic Marketing?

Holistic marketing is a business marketing philosophy that considers the business and all its parts as one single entity and gives a shared purpose to every activity and person related to that business.

Just like a cake’s common goal is to be enjoyed, a holistic marketing concept’s single goal is a great customer experience.

To achieve that common goal, all of the services, communication, and other business activities should be aligned and integrated in such a way as to create a unified, consistent, and seamless customer experience.

Components of Holistic Marketing

Holistic marketing focuses on strategies designed to market the brand to every person related to it in a unified manner while keeping in mind the societal responsibility of the business.

1. Integrated Marketing

An integrated marketing strategy designs and directs all communication (branding, direct marketing, public relations, digital marketing consultants, website, social media, signage, marketing collateral) in a way that will work together to center around a strong and focused brand image.

How is your marketing working for you? Here’s a little quiz to get you thinking!

• If someone was referred to your business and decided to check you out on social media - would they be impressed?

• After they head to your social channels they might Google you - do you show up on the first page?

• If you have a website and they find you in Google - is it easy to navigate?

• They put their email in to receive your discount code or lead magnet/offer - are there follow-up emails in place?

• They head to your Google reviews - is Google My Business set up and do you have any reviews?

• They run into someone who has a friend that works for your business - do your staff have good reviews and speak highly of your brand?

• They decide to book in with you - are your contact details easy to find?

• After they have invested in your service - do you thank them or stay in contact with them?

There really is no point investing a tonne of money into advertising before you look at the SUM of your activities. Are they in synergy? If not - it’s time to prepare a holistic marketing strategy, or get some help with one, and then once the above is in place we guarantee you that you will be closer to those big goals.

2. Internal Marketing

It’s easy for business owners to forget about their internal customers. While focusing on external customers should be the top priority for every business, your staff and stakeholders should never go unnoticed as they play a vital role in marketing your brand and products to the external customers of the business.

Ask yourself - are your stakeholders and staff aware of your company’s vision and core values? Do they represent the brand and understand their role in the content marketing process? Are they familiar with the brand standards for the business?

3. Relationship Marketing

This aspect of a holistic marketing philosophy focuses on nurturing long-term customer relationships and engagement rather than short-term goals like finding and selling to customers. It is important to include a retention strategy within your business for existing customers, to create a strong, emotional, and everlasting connection and essentially a brand advocate for your business. By building on these connections you encourage repeated sales, highly valuable 5-star reviews, free word of mouth marketing and referral, and essentially, more leads!

4. Societal Marketing

Societal marketing considers all stakeholders and encourages broader concerns of society at large. It requires the business to follow certain business ethics and focuses on partnerships with the community, competitors, affiliate businesses, and aligned organisations.

So if you aren’t already convinced, why is holistic marketing so important?

• BRAND BUILDING

Customers are no longer purchasing a single product, the landscape is changing and you need to be focused on selling your brand, not just the product or service.

• CONSISTENCY

If you want to stay in the market for a long period of time you need to be consistent. By marketing the brand to all stakeholders and through unified communication strategies you will ensure consistency.

And remember: ‘A man who stops marketing to save money is like a man who stops the clock to save time!’ - Henry Ford

• EFFICIENCY

When every aspect of the business talks to each other and melds together as a unified force it becomes easier to be efficient and can save a business time and money, not to mention it can also reduce potential threats!

• EFFECTIVENESS

By focusing on the big picture, the common goal, a holistic marketing strategy creates a synergy that effectively reinforces the brand message, image, and position in the mind of its customers and stakeholders. And then of course this leads to more success!

At Digital Disco we are passionate about the Holistic Marketing Philosophy and that is why we aim to be your only partner in marketing. We take a birds-eye view at all of your marketing activities before we make recommendations and then we prepare a strategy that you can either implement yourselves OR we can implement for you. From the design of your brand (logo, website, collateral, social media), to advertising your brand (SEO, social media advertising, Gumtree advertising, online listings), to nurturing those relationships (social media management, email marketing Sunshine Coast), we are here for you every step of the way.

Would you like some help? Contact us today, or book a FREE Discovery Call.