Why You Need a Holistic Marketing Strategy

You’ve probably heard of holistic healthcare. In healthcare, holistic means to approach one’s health from a zoomed-out perspective. Looking at the approach to life, rather than focusing on a specific illness or body part. A holistic approach to marketing works in much the same way.

Think about how advertising used to be. In the 1900s, businesses simply had to declare themselves the best and hope it was enough. “We craft the BEST pianos,” “We are the ONLY stovetop cleaner that works.” Advertising has changed drastically since then. Unless you’re Nike, it’s nearly impossible to rely on a marketing strategy that simply involves ads declaring your superiority. People are now just a Google search away from reading reviews, researching alternatives, and ripping your product or service apart.

Holistic Marketing from 10,000 Feet 

I’m a staunch believer in the fact that businesses must cater to their customers- no matter how that customer gets their information. Yes, sometimes that might mean radio spots. Sometimes that might mean Google AdWords. And sometimes it might mean a little bit of everything. ‘Everything’ might sound a little foreboding, but to exclude an effective form of marketing because you’ve never done it before is a futile way of doing business.

Much like healthcare, when talking about holistic marketing we are talking about a zoomed-out perspective on a marketing strategy as a whole. Not JUST Facebook ads, not JUST blog content, but every piece that makes up a strategy, and how they all connect to one another.

Please Expound 

Sure. When people hear the term advertising campaign they automatically think of a string of TV ads that follow a similar style. Maybe it’s Toyota’s, “Let’s Go Places,” series. Perhaps it’s Poo-Pourri’s hilarious, “Go Anywhere,” videos. When we talk about campaign strategy, however, we are talking about the behind-the-scenes elements that connect ALL efforts to generate the most successful results.

Funny TV commercials and surprising billboards that almost get you into car accidents are great and all, but they don’t necessarily combine to make an effective marketing campaign. To do that, you must truly understand your prospective client: your persona. You need to know how they consume content, how they respond to it, and how to instigate their next action. This involves a lot of ‘unsexy’ stuff, like conversion rate optimization, placement strategy, user experience analysis, and workflows. An effective plan outlines every step of a user’s journey from stranger to customer. 

What's the Next Step? 

I honestly hate this part, myself. When I learn about something that I know I should be doing, but also know that it’s totally unrealistic for me to make it happen.

Okay, deep breath.

It really isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Start small. Put yourself in your user’s shoes and try to understand their journey first. How are they buying your products or services? Do they first do research on your website? Do they want to learn more about that product or service on their own before reaching out to you? Are the right pages on your website showing up when they asked a question on Google? I know it sounds like a lot, but if you intend to do it on your own, it’s best to take things one at a time.

Need even more specific information? No worries, we got you. Check out these other blogs to learn how you can amp up your efforts: 

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Could You Benefit from a Holistic Marketing Strategy? 

If your heart is saying, “YES. This is what we need,” but your brain is saying, “I’m already working nights and weekends, I have no time for this,” we might be able to help. Download our free marketing toolkit below.