You wouldn’t believe how many times I have heard this! I cannot stress this enough, online marketing is far too important to let just anyone deal with it.

So your web developers build websites, that certainly doesn’t qualify them to do online marketing. My favourite analogy is the racing driver and the race mechanic. They are both fundamental to racing a car but you wouldn’t expect one to undertake the others  role. This goes for your company’s website. Your web developer could possibly undertake the role of online marketing but they aren’t necessarily the most suitable choice.

You might wonder why I am so skeptical? Let me explain… When web developers try and offer online marketing services as an added value service in addition to their core services they try to maximise the revenue they generate from you.  Spending more of your budget might be good for your web developer but it isn’t necessarily the best decision for your business. Obviously, revenue generation is fundamental to all businesses but in this instance the individual aims of both businesses has a chance of being in conflict. It goes without saying you should only ever embark on a business relationship where this isn’t the case.

If you are happy you aren’t in conflict, what about their competences? Are your web developers capable of delivering online marketing to a high enough standard to provide you with the genuine value your business essentially requires? This is where you need to do your home work. The first thing to find out is, are they just starting out with online marketing? If they are new to it they cannot claim to be experts. Similarly, do they have a proven track record and bona fide clients with significant testimonials? Again, if they don’t they cannot back up the claims of their abilities then you must question their expertise and experience. Next, do they have in-house experts or are they simply intending to farm everything out to other companies and take a cut? If they aren’t dealing with it themselves then they are simply brokering. Do you really want to pay anyone a margin to source you another service supplier? You might have good reason to do this such as ease of management and having a contract with only one company, but make sure you understand the relationship fully before you do. It won’t make it easier to get things done by putting more people between you and and the person actually dealing with it.

So when your web developer tells you they do online marketing, think are they actually capable of delivering what my business needs?  If the answer to this is no then be aware that there are other alternatives.