What is the 360 Degree Marketing?

A well-thought-out and once applied action may benefit you. The same action inscribed in the context will most definitely benefit you even more. If the same action is a part of a larger mechanism, it will benefit you most optimally. The 360 Degree Marketing is just that – a toolset of strategies and co-dependent marketing tools.

In today’s world of global market competition, every business advantage is priceless. To get it, you need a holistic approach to your organization. The integration of all marketing efforts and their coordination is necessary. It’s the only way to can truly reach customers.

Today’s consumer is very demanding. We are talking about him using the „always-on consumer” phrase. He is always online, always consuming content, often uses multiple sources of stimulation at the same time. He watches television and browses the internet on a smartphone. He writes an email and listens to the radio.

With this informational noise, it’s really hard to get the message through. For your marketing communication to be effective, it has to be:

• Short
• Clear
• Offering maximum content in a condensed form
• Precisely targeting the client’s needs
• Offering maximum information on the real benefits of your offer

To reach a consumer with that kind of message, you need to surround him with it, deliver the message from every direction. This is the essence of 360 Degree Marketing. The key is to select the right channels for your message and making the right format of the message for every channel. The absolute priority should be the personalization of the message, we will talk about it in the next piece.

The key element of the integrated marketing strategy is effectiveness. Your actions will be effective if you take into account:

• Consumers’ behavior
• Medium-term trends in their behavior
• Consumers’ reactions to your campaigns
• Measurement of campaigns’ effectiveness

When you measure the results of campaigns, you can easily spot the reason for why something works and something doesn’t. More importantly, you can connect different tools and approaches, creating a synergy effect. That will reinforce your message. That is the essence of 360 Degree Marketing.

The other important aspect is a medium-term trend in consumers’ behavior. Why medium-term? Because short periods can show anomalies or positive or negative reactions to what your company did. It can be a bad product batch or unfortunate social media entry. If 99% of consumers had received a high-quality product and a batch with the serial number of XYZ101 have faults, you have to react in a short period. By sending consumers a new product or giving their money back. 

Some people will react with negative posts on social media, phone calls to technical support, they can also sign off from the product newsletter. These are not, however, long-term trends. It’s nothing that a professionally organized company could not handle. These kinds of fluctuations happen all the time. If would take more time to prepare the reaction for the trend, not to mention the implementation, then the lasting of the trend itself. On the other hand, we have long-term trends. The more you pay attention to them, the less sense they have. They are also not that important, because:

• Global markets are to some degree unpredictable. New tools and approaches in marketing, changes in consumers’ behavior and the nature of their needs make long-term strategies ineffective
• Focusing on your company, its goals and following your way is saner then monitoring your competition 24/7

There are a few factors responsible for the success of 360 Degree Marketing:

• A rational assessment of internal resources
• The knowledge about long-term and short-term goals of your company
• Focus on the client and his needs
• Focus on your company’s needs instead of paying unlimited attention to your competitors
• Surrounding consumer by marketing message, adjusted for each channel
• Personalization of the message

You can surround the customer with the message by utilizing these channels:

• Webpages and search engine marketing (SEM)
• Direct marketing
• Social media marketing
• AdWords
• Traditional press, radio, TV stations

Given the modern way of life of your average consumer, his short attention span and challenges coming from the market, the properly implemented 360 Degree Marketing strategy will build your company’s image and increase sales.