Bringing Web and Print Together

We have all seen it. Maybe it's a commercial you saw on TV that looks nothing like that company's Web site. Maybe a salesperson hands you a business card with a logo and tagline that doesn't even come close to the slick corporate branding of their Web-based presentation. Small missteps to be sure, but they often offer a glimpse into a much larger problem affecting even today's most progressive organizations.

Corporate business the world over has taken the Internet very seriously. Special teams and Web partnerships were hastily assembled to get the company's site up and then, later, to "make it work." Yet for all this focus and investment, many companies made a cultural and strategic error -- they created their "Web initiative" in a vacuum.

For all their good intentions, the myopic focus of many Web teams has lead to frustrating consequences, with IS unwilling or unable to share databases and open enterprise systems, sales people feeling unnecessarily on their own, and advertising agencies launching campaigns that are not supported or even hinted at on the company's Internet property.

Even with its inherent advantages and opportunity, the Web is simply another medium, not a "killer app" that replaces all previous forms of communication. Tremendous power is generated when all of your communications tools - electronic and print - execute together to reinforce and support each other. Think Martha Stewart - her Web site, her TV show, her magazine, her books and her products all support and refer to each other, creating a powerful, multi-million dollar brand.

So what does it take to turn this all around? Here is our guide to bringing it all together.

Plan Together, Stay Together

It starts from the beginning. A good externally focused Internet plan is tightly integrated with more traditional sales and marketing plans from the very beginning. More successful companies lay these initiatives side by side, strategically drawing the connections not just for today, but for months and years into the future.

Create a Cross-Media Mindset

Many Internet-minded companies are working with managers and key employees across the enterprise to include the Web in their thinking, planning and decision-making process. They also make it a point to prove the value of the integration between Web and traditional communications to virtually every department in the company. They continued this drive by ensuring open channels of communication, constantly searching for new ways this integration can serve to provide better value to customers, work more efficiently and create competitive advantages.

Work With Partners That Work Together

While many aspects of integrating Web and print take time and patience, you can jump start this entire process by working with a Web partner that understands the importance of not only working closely with you, but also with your IT staff, your PR firm, your advertising agency, and your sales and customer service staff. It's even better if you can partner with a single firm that is able to deliver multiple pieces of this puzzle - such as Web development, multimedia, brand strategy, marketing collateral, corporate identity and more.

The result of all this integration? It's beautiful when everything comes together. Prospective customers go to your site to easily register for upcoming seminars and respond to direct mail. Leads from a key product section of your site trigger a response from a salesman armed with the right sales presentations and leave-behind collateral. Branding and creative campaigns are carried all the way through print ads, press releases, trade shows, corporate and portal sites, Web ads, brochures, press kits - even customer service calls.

Don't worry if you aren't there yet. With a focus on cross-media integration and the right partnerships in place - both inside and outside your company - you will be able to increase the effectiveness of major initiatives across your company.