How Silo Marketing Can Be Detrimental to Your Business

Discussions Include:

• What is silo marketing?
• The shift from print to digital initiatives
• The impact of Social Media Marketing
• Brands need to connect and integrate
• Tips to avoid silo marketing
• Inspiration: Working with virtual teams

The Hangout:

The Conversation:

ZEF: As well all know, a marketing channel is a vehicle for sharing information. Typical marketing channels include a website, social media, speaking engagements, and newspaper advertisements. With more channels than ever before, marketers must think in an integrated way to reach their customers and present a united front. So Bill, what is "silo marketing" - some of our audience may be wondering what it is and how it can be detrimental to our business?


BILL: In regards to marketing, silo marketing is a metaphor for businesses that do not synergize their various marketing initiatives and campaigns across the viable outlets they use; especially social media. Many businesses have been treating social media as its own stand-alone outlet and it is a major factor in the success or failure of a campaign or initiative for social, but also the campaign itself as a whole.


ZEF: Bill, do you think more B2B and B2C marketers are spending more of their advertising dollars on digital initiatives than on print campaigns - shifting spending from offline to online marketing?


BILL: Absolutely. There are certainly specific sectors where print still works - I am still a believer in print; I am a believer in all advertising and marketing - but it is about defining a target audience. For businesses that can promote through some kind of coupon, print advertisements still work, but in general, things are moving more and more towards digital marketing.


ZEF: What risks or problems are associated with silo marketing?


JOCELYN: With silo marketing, you have lack of coordination and integration of your business' marketing efforts which can weaken your brand and reduce the efficiency of your message and overall communication. I think this problem arises when a small business hires multiple agencies to meet their marketing needs and the agencies act independently. Without a unified vision, common goal, collaboration, and proper management, each agency is a 'silo' which can result in disjointed marketing. Silos also come into play when a small business has separate teams for each product line or teams that focus on specialize vertical markets. In this situation, there needs to be strong leadership in charge of the unified marketing effort who manages how all of the parts contribute to the whole.


ZEF: Jocelyn, do you have one favorite integrated marketing technique that you often use to help your clients in their campaigns?


JOCELYN: If you're a business owner who manages your own marketing, then make every channel do double duty. What I mean by that is - use live events or speaking engagements to drive traffic to your social media websites; use blogs to generate leads, use web-TV shows, like Creative Chat Cafe, to create speaking opportunities, etc. This is especially important if you are a small business owner or entrepreneur that is just starting out.

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Your Hosts:

Meet Zef Here!

WILLIAM DE ROSA
TalkingFinger.com

"William is the president and co-founder of Talking Finger, a multi-award winning social media marketing agency which focuses specifically on integrating social media marketing with other forms of media. Along with his team, he creates comprehensive social media marketing strategies that include a high integration with online and offline marketing initiatives."

JOCELYN MURRAY
Marketing-ER.com

"Jocelyn Murray is the owner and principal of Marketing & Event Resources. She helps clients increase their visibility through online marketing, including social media, blogging, and email, as well as traditional marketing, such as creating print materials, promoting events, and executing public relations campaigns."

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Tips & Solutions:

ZEF'S TIPS:


As a small business marketer myself, I am typically not a big fan of silo marketing, nor do I practice it.
WHY?

• Silo marketing keeps the channels separate so that each one has its own message and its own strategy for message delivery
• I feel that operating in silos leads to inconsistent messaging and consumer interactions
• Without a consistent approach, your marketing teams and business will likely be unable to grow and scale in the way you have intended

HOW DO YOU AVOID SILO MARKETING?

• Be strategic - especially if your company outsources marketing or spreads it among different departments or different team members
• It is important that you create a culture of collaboration by assigning accountability for information sharing and integrated messaging to a chief content officer/content coordinator

Entrepreneurs That SOAR Strategy:

• Even in small teams, like at SOAR, we have different team members creating and producing content
• I am that "Chief Content Officer" and it becomes my responsibility to oversee and manage that the content we produce have the same message throughout all platforms

BILL'S TIPS ON HOW TO IMPROVE MARKETING EFFORTS:

• Take advantage of cross-promotional opportunities between print, social, online, and email!
• When creating the next print ad, be sure to have a social icon/address that people can go to in order to connect and engage
• If you have a Facebook or Instagram contest, be sure to put that in the next email blast and also print out some flyers to use in the store, if a storefront for example
• If you exhibit at a trade show, create events on social media websites, such as Facebook or Google +, then use videos from the trade show to populate YouTube later

JOCELYN'S TIPS:

• The business owner or head of marketing needs to oversee the overall marketing strategy and make sure to integrate all marketing efforts
• All departments or agencies should be sharing information and collaborating to avoid variations in the brand's look, feel, and messaging