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The importance of an integrated comms strategy
An integrated communications strategy connects your channels so you can connect with your audience. In a world where people expect smooth, seamless interactions in everything they do, it’s a must-have.
Integration, sometimes called an omnichannel approach, involves bringing all your channels onto a single platform. It can be a simple, efficient way for government organisations to reach and engage with constituents and employees. Integration makes it easier to reach out and simplifies data collection, helping you gather insights as you go.
Still using disconnected systems to handle messaging, email and other comms? Here’s how integration could make all the difference.
Keeping up with customer expectations
Integrated, omnichannel communication is a basic expectation in retail and marketing settings. The stats show that 75% of customers want to communicate with businesses in the same way they communicate with friends and family and that 50% regularly use more than four brand touchpoints before making a purchase. In short, people want to interact with businesses on their phones, via email or through social media – wherever they happen to be at a given point.
Of course, government organisations aren’t selling products or services, but your constituents and staff members are still consumers who are accustomed to smooth, seamless brand experiences.
Meet people where they are
You reach a broader audience when you have a range of communication channels available. It’s about giving your staff or constituents more ways to interact with your organisation so they’re more likely to engage with your message. If you’re working with a diverse audience, it’s even more important to use multiple channels – some groups will strongly prefer SMS and ignore email communications, others will prioritise email, and some will communicate through messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
An omnichannel approach lets you maintain consistent messaging across different channels. Whether people interact with your organisation through SMS, email or social media, they should access the same information. For example, a constituent should be able to click through from an email, SMS or other messaging platform to access a rates bill or payment details. It’s about curating frictionless journeys – not making things harder for your audience.
Try it out for yourself
Try Sinch MessageMedia for 14 days for free, and see what an integrated comms strategy can do for your business.
Engage and convert
In marketing, conversions are often used as shorthand for sales. In government organisations, it’s a broader term that covers any desired action you want your audience to take. For example, if you send a message to constituents asking for feedback on a district plan, anyone who clicks through and leaves feedback counts as a conversion. In other cases, you might look for engagement rather than a conversion – for example, you may want employees to read a message or email about a new policy when it’s sent out.
An integrated approach helps boost engagement and conversions simply by giving your audience more opportunities to see messages and more chances to connect. Think about it: it’s easy to miss or forget a single email, but it’s harder to ignore an SMS or MMS reminder and social media update.
One Sinch customer, a leading US-based telecom provider, found that an integrated approach worked wonders for engagement. When they added email to the existing SMS strategy, they saw a 400% increase in conversion rates. Adding MMS boosted conversions by another 260%.
More channels, deeper insights
Managing multiple channels on one platform has another benefit for government organisations – data collection. When you use disconnected systems to communicate with your staff or constituents, data is also disconnected, making it hard to get a cohesive picture of audience behaviour or the impact of your messaging.
With an integrated approach, you can track the response rate for all channels in one place, as well as conversions, open rates and other behaviours. These insights can help you tweak future marketing or outreach campaigns to make them more effective. This could be as simple as sending SMS messages at a particular time of day because it correlates with higher open rates, or using rich text messaging with embedded links to promote local events.
Integration = impact
While government organisations and retail businesses have little in common, they do have similar goals when it comes to audience outreach: engaging with their audience, communicating key messages, and getting people to take action.
An integrated communication strategy is one way to level up your engagement and get those crucial messages out there – whether they’re about the latest sale or a tax refund. Connecting comms channels can help your organisation reach a broader swathe of constituents or employees and make it more likely for them to engage.
The good news? Sinch MessageMedia handles integration for you, giving you a simple, user-friendly platform for all your communication.
Want to find out more about integration in your organisation? Visit our booth at TIG or book a chat with our team.
