The start of a new year always brings its share of articles and posts on resolutions or trends to watch for in the coming year or summaries of the year just ended. Don’t worry, this is not one of those.

I came across a post in some PR-related readings that stated “integration” would be a trend to watch for in 2012. The author entitled the post “8 Social Media Trends for 2012,” suggesting that the growth in social media use has made the need for integration important. And that’s true.

But integration is not a new concept that has arisen because of social media. It’s something we should be striving for in all of our marketing activities whether you use social media tools or not.

What is integration?

The concept of integration is exactly what it sounds like. It’s about having all your activities (sales, customer service, marketing, advertising, PR, social media, etc.) aligned and supporting one another. Think of it as breaking down the silos between the many marketing-related functions within your business. What sales tells a customer, what features engineering designs into a product and what marketing touts as product benefits should all reinforce one another.

Puzzling

Sounds simple enough, but integration can be a very real challenge. And it becomes more problematic as a company grows in size.

Integration brings effectiveness

I’m starting my twelfth year at Marketing Partners and one thing I can say with certainty is that “integration” has always been a big thing for us. To us integration really has to do with being strategic and “on position” with client marketing. And helping a client chip away at the silos within their organization is something we have to do from time to time. And it takes time—loads of time. These silos are often functional in nature, but also attitudinal. (Sometimes it’s the attitudes that are the hardest to break through.)

When you consider all the various activities that your company is engaged in, it makes sense that coordinated activities and consistent messaging–integration–will provide your company with a stronger, more powerful, presence in the marketplace.

So please forgive me for asking for a “Kumbaya” moment here, but I must. If you’re in sales, marketing is trying to support you. If you’re in marketing, sales has valuable customer information to offer. You are left and right hands that need to work together. If you’re in engineering, understand that product, size, shape and color really do matter to the customer—and try not to roll your eyes at the marketing person who tries to provide this input. And last but not least, don’t forget about us PR people who are trying to orchestrate the social media activities and all the other external messages—rather than view us a control freaks or busy bodies, please understand that we want to know what everyone’s working on so we can share these stories with our audiences! Remember, it’s all about integration!

Resolution for 2012: Rather than make “integration” a trend to watch for in 2012, how about adding it to your “to do” list?

Resources

An updated version of the book viewed by many as ‘the bible’ of customer-focused integrated marketing and communication

IMC, The Next Generation : Five Steps For Delivering Value and Measuring Financial Returns

A Marketing Strategy Checklist

How to use your marketing data strategically (across functional areas)