429. Maps 🗺️
The way to visualize all aspects of your marketing strategy in one unified view
Hi there 👋
If you asked your favorite AI to watch every episode of The Office and write a brand new 10th season of the show, is technology so good that we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the original seasons and the new season? If I were to feed my favorite AI the past five years of my weekly newsletter issues, could AI write the next five years’ worth of content for me?
Be right back!
Kevan
(ᵔᴥᵔ)
Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world and my time at Oyster, Buffer, and more.
Say hi anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. I’d love to hear from you.
How to make an integrated marketing map of your channels, programs, and impact
As a smart, accomplished, brilliant marketer, you know how all the various aspects of your strategy fit together into a cohesive plan.
But does everyone else?
At the very least, they may not know it as intuitively as you do. Your team, your peers, your bosses — even you, probably — can all benefit from a bird’s-eye view into how these marketing pieces fit together.
Enter the integrated marketing map.
Check out a version of one here in Miro →
And feel free to make a copy of your own to use in Miro. (Click the settings icon, go to Board > Make a copy.)
The way this map works: Simply enter in all the various marketing channels and programs and actions that make up your strategy, and connect the dots so you can how each interacts with one another.
The great thing about this type of map is that it allows all the seemingly disparate pieces of a marketing strategy to coalesce into a unified plan. I hesitate to call it a funnel (“loops are the new funnels”). But it does create structure, flow, and order to what could otherwise be construed as separate pieces and parts.
To this end, a good integrated marketing map will include:
All the primary channels you are choosing within your marketing mix
Major programs you prioritize and resource (“programs” being a collection of various activities and channels, like a lifecycle program)
Key actions and outcomes and goals that you’re trying to drive as a team
If you need a list of channels, check out this resource with 50+ broken down by category, impact, cost, and measurability.
To fill out your version of the map, simply take your channels and programs and put them into sequence across the typical marketing journey from Awareness to Consideration to Purchase to Advocacy. It’s okay if some channels show up more than once (like paid social for instance).
Then add in the actions you’re trying to create from each channel or program. What purpose does each serve?
With the channels, programs, and actions on the map, then you can draw lines to connect them all, showing the flowchart of how someone moves through your marketing map all the way from the beginning to the end.
Over to you
How have you mapped your marketing strategy in the past? Is this type of flowchart helpful? I’d love to know how you do it and to borrow any of your learnings.
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I previously built brands at Oyster, Buffer, and Vox. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the archive, or sign up below:
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