The vast majority of us have been doing multichannel strategy in healthcare for a while - some more successfully than others. The key truly is to look at it as an integrated effort. Building a website without promotion will show poor results. Adding a website address to your print materials will prove unsuccessful if there isn't anything on that website that is of actual value to your customers. And using a QR code makes little sense (well, it almost never makes sense) when you can't really provide your users with a positive experience, branded or not.

I'm sure this isn't new to many of you but it is clear in some cases, the careful coordination of every communication tool is being sometimes forgotten. From conception to execution, be it print or digital, every message, every channel, every tool should be planned as an integral part of a brand experience and be at the heart of every strategic plan - when will pieces go out, what will they say, how will the brand story connect, how will materials be distributed, what is being tracked, tracking it and understanding the results, regrouping to re-design, re-enforce or re-direct the brand efforts.

Look for ideas and options that will allow you to see the progress of your campaigns as a whole and how your efforts in the field are making an impact outside of the actual interaction with sales reps. There is so much that can be done and not everyone is able to connect all the dots and affect change. Be on the leading side and you'll differentiate.

Marketing matters (!) and integrated marketing, well, that is the proverbial icing on the cake, the magic! In fact, integration has always been the goal. Yet marketers struggle of late to integrate because they're greatly distracted, as the ever illusive and often indefinable target keeps shifting as does the technology with which to communicate. We have to commit to integration strategically at 50,000 feet but then we also need to commit at 5 feet. Nothing can be overlooked and taken with a grain of salt. A grain of salt shared via social media can quickly become a mountain of dirt or an "ice bucket" so we need to make every move with intention. In a perfect world we would have a one-to-one conversation with each one of our consumers - but that is neither possible nor scalable but we need to use this as our litmus test for ensuring we are executing meaningful campaigns. An integrated strategy must deliver the message in an ad (online or off), leveraged on packaging, at shelf, through a direct-to-consumer interaction or sales collateral which shares a consistent idea, look and feel. The basics are still essential and must deliver ROI, technology however affords us multiple opportunities for measurement; never miss one and don't neglect to analyze and then adjust! In some categories such as auto, tech or pharma where the consumer is incrementally engaged and looking for information, an integrated piece of collateral is an ideal scalable option because it can deliver a multitude of messages in multiple mediums that engage and resonate uniquely with a vast array of the target's needs/concerns. We are all moving at warp speed but integrated marketing need not be rocket science but rather a timeless common sense approach that delivers results!

Digital technology created the digital consumer which in turn created digital marketers. We hear a lot about making sure your brand has a digital strategy to engage your audience. But that's where many are getting lost - some marketers are confusing communications strategy with what is really just media selection.

Digital is a way to reach out and touch your audience - its media - just as radio, TV and print are. Your consumer drives your media choices based on their media consumption. You can't afford to be everywhere so you have to make choices and apply your budgets appropriately.

However, your first priority (and biggest challenge) has to be strategy and strategy is media agnostic. What is the connection between your brand and your customer that results in purchase? Figure that out first, wrap it in a great idea and everything else is simply a delivery system for your story.

Of course, you need to understand each delivery system in order to take advantage of its individual properties and relationship with your consumer. And finally, constantly measure and adjust how you reach your consumer based on your own key performance indicators. One thing about the digital age - you can track data for almost any metric that is important to your brand.