February 27, 2025

Building Effective Integrated Marketing Campaigns: Insights from Director of Marketing Mary Koburi

Successful integrated marketing relies on clear campaign briefs, understanding your audience, aligning brand strategy, using the right metrics, and creating authentic content that connects with customers.

In a recent episode of Fr8 Marketing Gurus, host Jennie Malafarina sat down with Mary Koburi, Director of Marketing, to discuss the intricacies of integrated marketing campaigns, brand strategy, and the evolving landscape of marketing technology. With years of experience leading complex B2B initiatives, Koburi shared valuable insights on creating cohesive messaging across platforms while maintaining strong alignment with business objectives.

The Foundation: Campaign Briefs and Brand Strategy

At the heart of successful integrated marketing lies proper planning and documentation. Koburi emphasizes the importance of starting with a comprehensive campaign brief – a guiding document that contains all essential information, including background details, competitor analysis, and campaign goals. This document serves as the foundation for unified messaging and team alignment.

“The campaign brief helps to unify everything from strategies and positioning statements to team responsibilities,” Koburi explains. “It gets everybody marching in the same direction.” This approach ensures that when it’s time to execute, everyone understands their role and the campaign’s objectives.

The Brand Sandwich: A Strategic Framework

One of the most compelling concepts discussed was what Malafarina dubbed the “brand sandwich” – a strategic approach where brand identity serves as the foundation and cap for all marketing initiatives. In this framework, your brand sits at the top of the pyramid, with individual campaigns nested underneath. The brand represents your culture and core values, influencing everything from sales approaches to customer demonstrations.

This structure allows for targeted messaging within specific campaigns while maintaining brand consistency. For instance, when addressing a particular market segment, you can craft messaging that resonates with their specific needs while staying true to your overarching brand identity. As Koburi notes, “You have to have a clear brand purpose – what’s the actual ‘why’ that your audience cares about, not just the ‘why’ that you’re forcing onto them.”

Understanding Audience Behavior and Channel Selection

A critical aspect of integrated marketing is knowing where and how to reach your audience. Koburi advocates for taking a current customer perspective when selecting channels: “If things are working well for your current customer base, it’s an easy indicator to see what they’re doing and what channels they’re on.”

This approach helps ensure you’re delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time – a fundamental marketing principle that both experts emphasized throughout their discussion. The choice between platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, for instance, should be driven by understanding where your target audience spends their time and how they prefer to engage with content.

Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation: Understanding the Distinction

The conversation revealed important insights about the relationship between demand generation and lead generation. Koburi defines demand generation as a combination of three key elements:

Segmentation
Great content
Targeting

The goal of demand generation is to encourage potential customers to raise their hands and request more information. Lead generation, on the other hand, focuses on converting that interest into action, often through specific events or platforms.

As Malafarina points out, companies often want to jump straight to lead generation without building awareness first. However, without proper demand generation efforts, the likelihood of securing quality leads diminishes significantly. It’s essential to view this as a journey rather than a single touchpoint.

Measuring Success: The Right Metrics for Each Stage

When it comes to measuring marketing effectiveness, both experts stress the importance of using appropriate metrics for different campaign objectives. For awareness campaigns, focus on metrics like:

Impressions
Reach
Engagement

For consideration metrics, track:

Click-through rates
Website visits
Content engagement

For conversion metrics, monitor:

Lead generation form fills
Direct inquiries
Sales conversations

Koburi emphasizes that different campaign objectives require different success metrics. While cost-per-lead is important, it shouldn’t be the only consideration. Sometimes, a higher cost-per-lead is justified if you’re reaching the right decision-makers with quality engagement.

Leveraging Marketing Technology Effectively

The discussion touched on the importance of properly utilizing marketing technology tools. Koburi has experience with various platforms including Marketo, Pardot, and Asana, and emphasizes that these tools are only valuable when used effectively by the entire team.

“Marketing tech tools are great, but if they’re not successfully utilized, there’s no point – you’re getting a bigger headache than you are value,” Koburi notes. Success with these tools requires proper training, consistent usage, and regular check-ins to ensure everything is working smoothly.

How to Get Started with AI in Your Business?

Integrating AI doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Follow these steps:

Identify Bottlenecks – Find time-consuming, repetitive tasks that can be automated.
- ✔ Example: AI-powered tools like Superhuman automate email responses and prioritize messages.
Test AI Tools on a Small Scale – Start with free versions or trial AI tools before full adoption.
- ✔ Example: Try ChatGPT to generate blog post ideas before investing in a full AI content platform.
Measure Results & Optimize – Track KPIs like response rates and time saved.
- ✔ Example: Use AI for lead generation and track conversion rates to gauge success.
Gradually Expand AI Integration – Once successful, scale AI adoption across business functions.
- ✔ Example: If AI helps automate sales outreach, extend it to customer service with AI chatbots.

Creating Authentic Content That Resonates

One surprising insight from Koburi’s experience involves the power of authentic content. She shared an example where behind-the-scenes video content, initially considered supplementary material, performed better than expected with their audience. This experience highlighted two important lessons:

Audiences often respond well to authentic, informal content that feels genuine
Existing content can often be refreshed and repurposed effectively

The Future of Integrated Marketing

Looking ahead, both experts agree that successful integrated marketing requires a deep understanding of audience behavior and a commitment to creating unified customer experiences. As Koburi emphasizes, “Integrated marketing is not just about covering every channel. It’s about creating a unified experience that feels seamless to the customer.”

Key Takeaways for Marketers

Start with a solid foundation: Use comprehensive campaign briefs and clear brand guidelines to ensure consistency across all marketing efforts.
Understand your audience: Take time to learn where your audience spends their time and how they prefer to consume content.
Balance brand and campaign objectives: Remember the “brand sandwich” concept – let your brand identity guide your campaign-specific messaging.
Measure appropriately: Choose metrics that align with your campaign objectives, whether they’re focused on awareness, consideration, or conversion.
Invest in proper tool utilization: Ensure your team is properly trained and committed to using marketing technology effectively.
Stay authentic: Don’t be afraid to show the human side of your brand through more informal, authentic content.

By following these principles and maintaining a customer-centric approach, marketers can create more effective, integrated campaigns that drive real results while building lasting brand value.