5 Signs Your Marketing Isn't Integrated

Integrated marketing is hard.

Every single marketing touchpoint should be working together. Executed well, it is a great example of 1 + 1 + 1 = 5.

However, integrated marketing isn't an exact science, there is not a simple litmus test that tells you if your marketing is integrated. Often it is easier to spot the signs your marketing is not integrated.

So with that, here are five signs that your marketing is not integrated.

1. Your Landing Pages Don't Fit

Do you have landing pages for your search and email campaigns that have a totally different look and feel from your regular site or your emails? Alternatively, do you have great content available on landing pages but you don't link to it from your homepage or elsewhere in your site?

If so, you are missing one of the simplest places to integrate your marketing.

2. Your Database Isn't Broadly Used

Delivering a consistent experience across multiple channels requires good data about your audience and the infrastructure necessary to use it.

If your marketing automation doesn't talk to your email which doesn't talk to your display advertising which doesn't talk to your site CMS, the only way you can deliver a consistent message and experience is if you treat everyone the same way.

3. You Still Have Channel-Specific Ideas

Do you have social media ideas, TV ideas or event ideas? Oops. The channels and tactics used should be a natural outgrowth of an audience centric idea.

4. Your Social Accounts Are Disconnected

Integrated marketing touches every touchpoint with your company that is in your control.

If a search for your brand name returns corporate social media accounts that don't reflect the same core values and message as your corporate site (for instance, if they are full of promotions and discounts while your overall message is about premium quality), you have a social media disconnect.

5. You Are Still Ignoring Mobile

For most target audiences today, mobile is another screen used to access the web, not another channel. If your website cannot handle mobile traffic, then you are not actually presenting your audience with a single integrated experience.

Your Turn

Let me know which is your favorite or share your own sign in the comments below or on Twitter (@wittlake).

Photo Credit: doobybrain via Flickr cc