Continuing our discussion about integrated campaigns with members of LeapFrog Interactive's Interactive Marketing team, the team talks about the importance of a good website to an integrated campaign and offers an example what can be achieved as a result of a well-run integrated campaign.

Integration seems to be the key. So if you are not committed to it, should rethink your marketing strategy?

Amberly Stitzel: No, I just think those clients who don't integrate don't get the full benefit of an agency approach by doing that.

Stephanie Stokell: You could go out there and do PPC for your site but if you don't have the content on your site with the integrated SEO you will be paying more for each click and won't be realizing the conversion rates that you could. And if they wander on to your site, even if it's great website, if the only way they're getting there is by happening upon it, then a great conversion rate doesn't provide enough return because you're not getting the traffic that you need. Everything works together to not only bring them in but to complete the whole cycle. You really have to have the whole shebang.

Christy Belden: It's also the design of and copy for the site all integrated into the marketing of it. You have to have good design and relevant copy to drive the sale and support the SEO. It all has to match.

Amberly: So having the copy and the design for an effective website should be put first before you would even start your campaign. We can drive people to your site but if the site isn't set up to convert then you've wasted marketing dollars.

Stephanie: It's house metaphor again. You would be sure your house is clean and straight and well-decorated before you invited anyone over.

So if my site is not the best, that's what I need to focus on first?

Christy: Fixing the site is part of the SEO portion, at least how we do it now. We'll take a prospect's site that doesn't have very good navigation and doesn’t have content on the site and recommend addressing those as part of SEO. I consider design and copy really as part of SEO.

Any examples of integrated campaigns you can share that worked really well?

Amberly: We have one client I can think of off the top of my head that we were able to drop the cost per conversion to less than half this year through integration.

Christy: Our integrated efforts also helped increased site traffic for that client up 30% from last year to this year.

Emily Van Winkle: We've also helped increased awareness. In one month alone, we had 48 million impressions for the brand.

Amberly: We've been able to help this client get these results specifically because they are running an integrated agency program. It's not one piece here, one piece there. They've addressed many channels and are getting a better return on all their efforts because of it.

Anyone have a final thought to take us home?

Emily V: Remember that integrated interactive marketing is not just a one-time thing. It's about constant improvement. Going back and researching what happened in prior months and then realigning strategies. The whole process is ongoing. It's never done.

That would be the first thing we recommend: a redesign first and then we come in with all the other initiatives.

The growth of social media is incredible, no doubt about it. A news story across the world breaks and within hours several thousand users have tweeted about it. An accomplished magazine editor reaches out to her college roommate from 15 years ago on Facebook in order to get a fresh angle on an old story. The global reach and sheer speed of social media can be explosive at times.

Brands, of course, are no stranger to this platform. New and veteran brands are emerging as major players in the social media community with each passing minute. However, it is important that brands remember the social elements of all their marketing channels, such as e-mail. With several years of experience under its belt, e-mail marketing has established itself as a trusted channel for brands' transactional communication and promotion offers. Yet, e-mail is also an excellent example of a seasoned marketing tool whose features marketers are still determining how to properly and effectively integrate into social media.

The truth is that e-mail is a social technology. When a friend or co-worker forwards you a "buy one, get one free appetizer" offer, you have received a message via a social contact. In other words, e-mail continues to be a primary way to share information. E-mail marketing, therefore, has great potential to augment the efforts of a recently launched social media campaign and vice versa.

Social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, have become an open ground for discussion about brands, products, trends and more. Their focus is geared toward building a community where users can interact and, in turn, provide a more personable perspective of a brand. If social media is where the conversation is occurring, then e-mail is the piece of takeaway information the individual user can refer back to and potentially share with a wider, networked audience. E-mail provides a touch point for the brand to follow up with additional information or customized promotion offers. After all, each campaign functions to bring consumers back to the brand. Marketers, therefore, need to provide the user with every opportunity to navigate seamlessly between the various channels.

Integrating a social and e-mail marketing campaign is still a new territory for many marketers. However, there are a few points to remember:

1. Encourage an easy transition between the two mediums. Be sure to place a readily accessible link within both e-mail messages and social network pages.
2. Openly explain the benefits of taking part in each program. Consumers want to know what benefit they will receive and how the programs are different.
3. Know the audience and customize your message accordingly. Social fans and e-mail subscribers have different expectations of the platform they are participating in. Consider different tactics for different channels.
4. Avoid duplicate offers. E-mail subscribers have provided their address assuming they will receive a specialized offer not found on a brand's Web site. Give the consumer a reason to participate in numerous channels.

Now is the time to test the waters. Marketing veterans from across all specialties are imploring brands to take advantage of the social media boom. Take a fresh look at your marketing approach and discover ways to integrate campaigns for maximum exposure.

[Contributed by Emily Van Winkle]

Over the past weekend, MSN launched Bing, their new search engine tool. Bing replaces MSN Live Search, which consistently lost market share to Google.

Bing's aim is to answer the question "what am I really looking for" better than any other search engine. Microsoft wants Bing to be known as a decision engine. For example, when searching for "travel" using Google, you are offered up sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz. These same results for "travel" are provided in Bing but results for travel reservation sites also come up in Bing's main search area.

Bing also provides an enhanced Related Searches section along the left-hand side of the page as well as a recent search history. One of the best features of Bing is that it offers a local search option with the search results. Once you click on the local results page, you are shown a local map that includes businesses that are related for the search term. For example, the "travel" search term produced local results for lodging and travel agencies.

According to comScore, Google currently leads the U.S. core search market with a 64.2% share. Yahoo! is the second largest search engine with 20.4%, and MSN falls into third with a 8.2% of overall search volume . Microsoft, however, does not expect Bing to overtake Google any time soon. According to a New York Times article, Bing's goal is to incrementally gain share over time.

So far, reaction about Bing across the web has been positive. Microsoft is planning to launch a multi-million dollar campaign in support of Bing but it will have to move fast. Google is expected to make a search-related announcement sometime this week. So even though Bing seems to provide valuable search features for users, it still has the daunting task of competing against Google, whose name itself has become a verb for searching online.