The term Integration Marketing has been around for a while. However, not many people know what it really means. Integration marketing basically means integrating your business into someone else’s or another company’s business.

It can be best explained with an example: Coca Cola has integrated its sales funnel into the sales process of McDonalds. When you buy a BigMac, the guy at McDonalds will ask if you want a Coke with your meal. Technically, this is a cross-sell: a cross-sell of another company’s product. While this may not sound too spectacular, let’s take a look at Microsoft.

Microsoft knows the integration marketing game like no other. They have their operating system distributed by computer manufacturers. But they don’t just have other people selling their software. They make other people acquire new customers for them. They manage to keep customers that others have worked hard to acquire. In this sense, Integration Marketing has some touches of ‘parasite marketing’. You are taking advantage of the clients of others and you manage to keep them.

When you transfer this concept to the Internet and Internet marketing, you can achieve this by placing a cross-sell on the thank you page of an e-commerce site. To be specific: Cross-selling from another website. Imagine having your product offer on dozens of other people’s thank you pages. They basically work like your affiliates, but at a very crucial point in the sales process, probably the best point there is.

On the other hand, what is a better time to earn good affiliate commissions than right after you sell your own product? If you don’t have an upsell, why not cross-sell someone else’s product?

This example touches only the basics of integration marketing. Once you begin to understand the full concept, your view of internet marketing will never be the same.