Named VP, corporate marketing at Splunk in 2012, Sherry Lowe doesn’t mince words describing the software company’s corporate marketing department at the time she took charge. “It was very siloed,” Lowe said. “Every group (marketing, PR, social media, etc.) was looking to do the right thing, but was taking a siloed approach. I needed to push the silos down.”
Part of the reason she was hired was to put an “umbrella” over Splunk’s corporate marketing as well as expand the department. Indeed, since coming aboard Lowe has grown the marketing department to 35 full-time employees, from 7.
Soon after she started at Splunk, Lowe created what she called a “Visibility Initiative” to add cohesion to the company’s marketing.
The Initiative’s elements are:
- Say it: Hold regular weekly meetings with all marketing disciplines, including PR/social, content marketing and digital. “It seems basic,” Lowe said, “but it adds to visibility and openness” within the entire department.
- Write it: Produce a weekly email newsletter covering the company’s entire marketing waterfront and keeping various disciplines apprised of what others are doing; the newsletter also is sent to the C-suite.
- Share it: Hold one-on-one meetings with direct reports, who are then invited to include their team members in the meetings.
The Visibility Initiative, in turn, led to the introduction of Integrated Customer Campaigns. Rather than offering multiple touchpoints from disparate marketing units, the system is designed to have one marketing person serve as a “touchpoint” for the customer. This person can create a marketing campaign holistically that includes a press release, a webinar or a video, for example. “You have to put yourself in the customer’s shoes; he may be getting five or six different marketing emails, but there is no one connection,” Lowe said. “[Customers] want just one ask.”
CONTACT: Sherry Lowe, [email protected]
This article originally appeared in the August 3, 2015 issue of PR News. Read more subscriber-only content by becoming a PR News subscriber today.