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Silo marketing is still alive and well, despite that it’s 2008. While it can be effective, the greatest challenge of separate silos is that of timing.

I remember receiving a huge, glossy direct mail piece – my estimated cost would have put it at over $8 to print and mail, it was very nice but I got it three weeks after I purchased my new vehicle from another manufacturer. As I dug around, I learned that I was targeted because I had gone to that company’s website. They leveraged the internet to capture me but the execution was tardy and not really related. I got an email from them two days after the direct mail piece and a phone call a week after that to inquire about what I thought. They did leverage the online form I filled out, why couldn't they call or email me first – I had indicated that I would purchase in the next month.

In this instance an email would have been a great, cost-effective way to speed up the communication process – the company obviously doesn’t have a problem with internalizing the channel, they used an email to follow-up on that expensive print piece. I obviously value email, and would imagine it would be easy to convince other customers/ prospects the importance of the channel.

My suggestion to this company would be to use email to coax prospects, to learn more and then do a quick combo of communiqués. Make the email data available to your other channels easily so they know how to talk to your prospect – customize a message on a kiosk/ ATM based on the interaction, you can also do the same for the call center and even print. So today’s assignment is to consider how your company is interfacing with customers/ prospects – are your mediums working together?