Online Silos Giving Way to Digital Fusion

Online Silos Giving Way to Digital Fusion

I am amazed today that our industry is still caught up in a “Silo” mentality. “We are a Website Design company.” Or “we are an SEO company.” “We are a PPC company.” “We are a Copywriting company.” “We are a Social Media company.” “We are a Web Hosting company.” “We are an Email Company.” “We are an Analytics and Optimization company.” “We are a Content Management System company.”

Do I need to keep going on and on? The Silos are nice boxes that are simple, straightforward and easy to communicate to others.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that it’s not how things really work and it’s not a successful online strategy.

Here are just a few brief examples. (I could fill a book with more examples):

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An effective SEO program is highly dependent upon website coding, website content or copywriting, internal linking, social media blogging, pitching, bookmarking, analytics software, fast loading times from a hosting company, online press releases and an ongoing process of building high-quality incoming links to pages throughout your website. Is your SEO company proficient and effective in all of these areas?
• Website Development – Today’s website development must effectively fuse very distinct specialties such as image, design, video, programming, a variety of software tools, effective copywriting, SEO (see above), customer website management, email, Web 2.0 technology, high speed and reliable hosting, security, and performance management systems. It must be integrated within the context that different users will interact with it and different employees may administer it.

  You also need to track the performance against the company goals and objectives that were set. You must be able to grow and evolve. How will you deal with upgrades and software bugs? How will it be integrated into the operations of the business? Does your Website Design company competently do all of this?

• Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) – This is easy stuff right? I mean you just set up a Google account, pay money and go. Right? That’s what Google says.

  There is much more to setting up and managing a Google account effectively. Not to mention if you want to add Yahoo, Bing and a host of other players who all use different platforms, tracking systems and make decisions differently.

  Even if you have done all of that perfectly, it only represents at most 33% of what is going to determine online success for your PPC campaign. Add in copywriting, design, ongoing testing and optimization, analytics software, continuous analysis of your campaign and your top competitors, and now you have about another 33% of your online success.

  The other 33% of your online PPC success is based upon you. Your budget, your value proposition and your market. Your PPC company and staff does all of that, right?

The key to success is fusing the various digital specialties into a cohesive team that is totally focused on achieving the online business goals and objectives that were set. The key digital specialties include market strategy, design, development, technology, communications, program management, analytics, hosting, search engineering, social media, media management, training and support working as a unified team using an integrated approach with a proven process.

It is not a “launch your site and now it’s done” plan. It never ends. It’s like your business. The only time it ends is when you are done; you have closed the doors for good and handed the keys back to the building owner.

Do it right and your online success with generate more than enough ROI to cover your investment.