When I graduated with a marketing degree over a decade ago, I hit the scene thinking that marketing would always be its own thing. Something like \u201cholistic marketing\u201d seemed unnecessary to me. Marketers had their swim lane; I\u2019d stick to mine.<\/p>\n\n
Now, when I lecture marketing students at my alma mater, I couldn\u2019t imagine not<\/em> thinking holistically about marketing. The marketing function keeps expanding, as Deloitte\u2019s Spring 2024 CMO Survey<\/a> affirmed. And marketing must help other departments and the entire company accomplish its goals and objectives.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s one of many benefits holistic marketing offers. When we free marketing from swim lanes, we invite others to participate and own marketing\u2019s principles and outcomes. Marketing then becomes a guide, directing customers, partners, and employees into a comprehensive, unified brand experience.<\/p>\n But first, you must understand holistic marketing\u2019s history, application, and implications. Let\u2019s chat about how this approach can help you accomplish more with your campaigns.<\/p>\n Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n What is holistic marketing? <\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n For a long time, companies divided operations into discrete business units. Marketing, sales, customer support, product development: each department was accountable to the company in total but operated within their own walls.<\/p>\n But those departmental lines have been blurring, with marketing at the forefront of this process. No doubt many of you are familiar with the clarion call to align sales and marketing into smarketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n But, other departments are leaning on marketing to help them:<\/p>\n Attract more prospects. Central to these needs? Serving the customer. And the key to \u201cholistic marketing\u201d lies in understanding how you, as a marketing leader, can influence the way your entire company interacts with customers.<\/p>\n\n The term \u201cholistic marketing\u201d gained popularity mainly from the efforts of esteemed marketing professor Philip Kotler<\/a> (often referred to as \u201cThe Father of Modern Marketing\u201d). He defines it as \u201cshaping an experience for the customer that goes beyond the product.\u201d<\/p>\n Kotler further defines holistic marketing\u2019s key pillars:<\/p>\n Internal marketing that gets everybody \u2014 from the intern to the CEO \u2014 embracing marketing principles. In this vein, you see how holistic marketing is part of the customer experience (CX) a company delivers. CX\u2019s purview is the overall experience a customer has with a brand. A holistic marketing strategy focuses more on how marketing activities influence that experience.<\/p>\n To answer this question, I talked with Allison Nordenbrock Brown<\/a>, founder of Norden Marketing<\/a>. She provides fractional CMO services to B2B technology and professional services companies.<\/p>\n \u201cI would define holistic marketing as an approach that takes all potential marketing channels into consideration,\u201d she said. \u201cInstead of deeply focusing on one channel because it\u2018s \u2018what\u2019s been done,\u2019 holistic marketers instead consider how all of these channels have performed historically within the company to guide future direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Those potential marketing channels cover any place that could influence a customer\u2019s brand perception, including:<\/p>\n Traditional marketing like TV, radio, out-of-home advertising. Consider a brand like Apple from this holistic perspective. Maybe you bought an iPhone recently. No doubt you saw an ad on TV or reviewed a landing page through a sponsored link \u2014 that\u2019s certainly marketing\u2019s work.<\/p>\n But, what happens after buying the device?<\/p>\n Every post-purchase event also falls under Apple\u2019s marketing umbrella. From the design of the device unpacking process<\/a> to offering in-store Genius Bars for support, you can feel<\/em> Apple\u2019s brand. It\u2019s a uniform, seamless brand experience. That\u2019s the feeling you\u2019re trying to emulate with a holistic marketing approach.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Look how many avenues marketers have to think about in a holistic marketing approach. Is all that work worth it? Let\u2019s investigate holistic marketing\u2019s benefits.<\/p>\n Customers crave a seamless experience like Apple provides. And they notice when you don\u2019t deliver.<\/p>\n Salesforce\u2019s latest State of the Connected Customer<\/a> report found that \u201c79% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet 55% say it generally feels like they’re communicating with separate departments rather than one company.\u201d<\/p>\n A well-executed holistic marketing approach helps companies deliver a uniform brand experience. With a defined core message and approach shared across every business function, every customer receives an experience that accurately reflects your company.<\/p>\n Naturally, better customer experiences likely mean customers want to stay and spend more with you. The uniform brand presence a la Apple can help you generate more revenue. Brand management tool Marq found that \u201cconsistent brand presentation<\/a> across all platforms can increase revenues by up to 23%.\u201d<\/p>\n A holistic approach offers significant internal benefits, too. Brown offers an example familiar to any marketer: sales asking marketing to quickly spin up a new deck to wow a large prospect.<\/p>\n In a traditional marketing setup, \u201cmarketing is annoyed,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThey already made a deck. Why is this an emergency now? They become overwhelmed and frustrated that they didn\u2018t know about this need sooner. Why isn\u2019t the existing deck good enough?”<\/p>\n Holistic marketing allows marketers to operate more proactively.<\/strong> With this approach, marketing can communicate with sales, take ownership, and get things done.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a holistic marketing department, sales and marketing meet on a regular basis and talk about their goals and activities,\u201d says Brown.<\/p>\n \u201cSales is targeting more large enterprise clients. Marketing asks about their needs in advance. Sales shares that the current deck isn’t resonating as well with enterprise prospects. Sales and marketing develop a deck together while sales and ramping up their efforts. Once sales land a meeting, the deck is ready to go, and everyone is less stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re a one-person marketing team or run marketing for a global enterprise, you can benefit from adopting a more holistic approach. How do you get started?<\/p>\n\n Before you dive into developing an incredible, highly detailed holistic marketing plan, ponder the basics:<\/p>\n What do you want to accomplish? Write a memo to yourself detailing answers to these questions. You want to build buy-in before investing considerable time and resources into holistic marketing.<\/p>\n Create the high-level roadmap to achieve your goal, which will help others see the direction you want and where they can support you.<\/p>\n With a brief in hand, start building consensus among other departments. Sales is your first and most important champion. They benefit the most from your holistic approach, and you\u2019ll want them on your team.<\/p>\n Just like how a salesperson builds a logical and emotional case for their prospects, you should approach them similarly. Demonstrate why they should care about a holistic approach. Find case studies and examples from other companies.<\/p>\n Lean on the benefits this will offer customers (and those prospects sales wants to close). It\u2019s not about making marketing better; it\u2019s about how marketing can make everybody<\/em> better.<\/p>\n After convincing sales, consider other customer-facing departments like customer support or product development and design. Invite teams who influence how customers experience your company\u2019s product or service.<\/p>\n With buy-in on the plan\u2019s goals and high-level strategy, you can then develop the details to bulk up your holistic marketing approach.<\/p>\n Within your plan, establish:<\/p>\n Goals, objectives, and metrics. Pro tip:<\/strong> Make sure your messaging reflects your authentic voice. Customers can sniff out a phony. Social content marketing firm Stackla reports that \u201c88% of consumers say authenticity is important<\/a> when deciding which brands they like and support.\u201d<\/p>\n Provide enough details so that your non-marketing peers can embrace marketing\u2019s principles and act accordingly. For instance, user- or employee-generated content can be especially valuable in providing the authenticity customers crave.<\/p>\n A clear guide can help employees produce great content \u2014 and help you avoid mishaps like Chick-fil-A\u2019s treatment of its employee whose food videos went viral on TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remember, a holistic marketing strategy touches upon more than a traditional strategy does. Accordingly, you\u2019ll need to track more than the typical sets of metrics. Additional KPIs worth tracking include:<\/p>\n Customer satisfaction. These data points are more qualitative; get creative in how you gather and use these data. For instance, use post-purchase engagement surveys to determine Net Promoter Scores (NPS)<\/a>. This will help you benchmark customer engagement and track qualitative progress.<\/p>\n If you want extra help completing your plan\u2019s details, check out HubSpot\u2019s guide to building a high-quality marketing strategy and plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n You\u2019ve seen holistic marketing\u2019s benefits, and you\u2019re working to integrate marketing operations and engage other departments.<\/p>\n As you execute strategy and build your coalition, Brown offers a few tips to nail this significant operational overhaul.<\/p>\n A holistic marketing strategy takes a broader way of thinking to execute well. You have to look past the regular channels, spot unorthodox opportunities, and act upon them. As a result, marketers cannot sit back and go with the status quo.<\/p>\n \u201cTraditional marketing departments will often get stuck in a loop of \u2018this is how it\u2018s always been, this is what we\u2019ve always done,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, holistic marketers look at the marketing strategy from a lens of \u2018Should we be doing this?\u2019 and \u2018Is this driving the right outcomes for our company?\u2019 When your approach becomes holistic, you\u2019ll take your marketing efforts from reactive to proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n Building something new requires getting everyone bought into the concept and excited about potential outcomes. It\u2019s a question of relationships within your company. And like growing any relationship, communication is key.<\/p>\n As marketing takes a more holistic approach, Brown reminds you to keep everyone apprised of progress.<\/p>\n \u201cBy communicating that marketing is testing multiple channels to determine how they can all work together simultaneously, departments will be more understanding when marketing is no longer as reactive to their needs,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir needs are already being met with proactive planning and communication.\u201d<\/p>\n Holistic marketing generates lots of data, and it\u2019s tricky to help everyone remember the most important insights.<\/p>\n UX designers may recognize this challenge as Miller\u2019s Law<\/a>: Longstanding research shows most people can hold about seven pieces of information in their minds at once. UX designers have tried many ways to circumvent this limitation, such as \u201cchunking\u201d content<\/a> to make it digestible and memorable.<\/p>\n\n Image Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Like designers, marketers need to chunk data into high-level, manageable insights. Cross-department communication gets complicated quickly.<\/p>\n Marketers should take the lead and focus teams\u2019 attention on what\u2019s most important with a unified goal.<\/p>\n Brown agrees with this strategy. \u201cAll channels should still be measured individually, but a successful holistic strategy will move the needle for the unified goal,\u201d she said. \u201cThat goal should be understood across all departments. Whether it’s to grow recurring revenue in a single line of business, or drive new subscribers, a holistic strategy will drive toward the unifying goal from all angles.\u201d<\/p>\n Pro tip: <\/strong>Use HubSpot\u2019s marketing plan template<\/a> to lay the foundation for your holistic marketing approach. You\u2019ll receive templates to set your strategies, channels, and technology.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n
\n Benefits of Holistic Marketing<\/a>
\n How to Apply a Holistic Marketing Approach<\/a>
\n 3 Tips for a Strong Holistic Marketing Strategy<\/a> <\/p>\n
\n Inform and educate potential customers.
\n Entice customers to renew and upgrade.
\n Provide a consistent, high-quality customer experience. <\/p>\n
\n Integrated marketing that uses many channels and creative outlets to communicate your value proposition.
\n Relationship marketing that champions your customers and marketing partners.
\n Performance marketing that analyzes returns on marketing investment and contextualizes marketing activities amid legal, ethical, social, and environmental factors. <\/p>\nWhat does holistic marketing look like in practice?<\/h3>\n
\n Digital marketing like SEO, email, and social media.
\n PR and earned media.
\n Direct sales conversations and promotions.
\n Customer support like call centers, chatbots, and social media support.
\n Experiential and event marketing.
\n Corporate social responsibility efforts.
\n Internal marketing to employees. <\/p>\nBenefits of Holistic Marketing<\/h2>\n
Improves Customer Experience<\/h3>\n
Increases Company Revenue<\/h3>\n
Increases Internal Team Effectiveness<\/h3>\n
How to Apply a Holistic Marketing Approach<\/h2>\n
1. Set your goals and high-level strategy.<\/h3>\n
\n What do you expect to need to do that?
\n Who should be in your corner to do it?
\n How do you think you\u2019ll integrate everything? <\/p>\n2. Align internal teams.<\/h3>\n
3. Determine details like messaging, channels, and SOPs.<\/h3>\n
\n Core customer-centric messaging.
\n Brand voice, tone, and style guides.
\n Channels to use to manage customer relationships.
\n Standard operating procedures (SOPs) on how to run holistic marketing campaigns.
\n Clear lines of accountability and authority (consider building a RASCI matrix<\/a>). <\/p>\n4. Monitor metrics and adjust.<\/h3>\n
\n Brand awareness.
\n Employee engagement. <\/p>\n3 Tips for a Strong Holistic Marketing Strategy<\/h2>\n
1. Question everything.<\/h3>\n
2. Always be communicating.<\/h3>\n
3. Track a unified goal.<\/h3>\n
Take Proactive Steps to Incorporate Holistic Marketing<\/h2>\n