For one of our recent shows, I talked to a company that was having all of its online marketing and web development done by a single solitary web developer, under the semi-watchful eye of management. Ultimately, this policy backfired on the company, and kept them from getting anywhere with their marketing.
There’s a persistent myth that online marketing is only about knowing how to do the technical work. But the larger part of it is understanding your customer. Whether you’re hiring a vendor or working with someone in-house, make sure their efforts are focused where it matters, and delivering fruit. Too many people pour money into marketing, get discouraged, and give up. Best to start with small sums of money and optimize until results start to show up.
The case of the overloaded developer
The company in question was very skilled with technology. A small startup in technology, almost everyone who worked there was a software developer or engineer of some type.
They’d built their own custom website, and had two front-end developers who knew how to make it work.
The trouble was, these two technical people, very skilled in code, were also tasked with optimizing the site.
Neither of the developers was skilled in marketing. They didn’t know how to use tools to figure out what customers wanted to see. They didn’t know how to create content. All they knew was how to maintain the site and add features.
Eventually, management concluded that marketing didn’t deliver much ROI, and they got rid of one developer. This left a single person, with the weight of the entire company’s marketing on their shoulders.
Online marketing is about knowing the customer
This company gave up on marketing, but they’d actually never really tried it. Real marketing means looking at what customers are searching for and what they want, and trying to deliver it. This is much more than one solitary web developer could ever hope to do.
If the company wanted to do their marketing in-house they could have! They would have needed someone assigned full-time to the task of understanding the customers and developing a strategy. Content creation and technical work could have been done by other employees, or outsourced to contractors.
In all likelihood, the company would have gotten much better results just hiring a dedicated marketing team with the necessary mix of skills to succeed.
We see this particular mistake often – a company’s entire online marketing strategy is foisted off on a developer, or a secretary, or an underling of some kind. But the companies that succeed make marketing a forefront of what they do. They invest time and money into it.
Marketing matters – but only if it’s done right
To survive, a company needs a constant stream of new revenue. That means it needs a constant stream of leads that can be converted into sales through a sales team.
Today, that means a constant dedicated marketing effort. And a huge portion of that is online work. You know from your own life that you use your computer and your phone to find products and services. Your customers do as well.
Even if you bring in a substantial amount of business just from word-of-mouth, you could grow faster with online marketing. The keyword planner in Google Adwords is a great tool to use to see what kind of potential there is out in the world. Just type in your services, and you’ll see how many people are searching for your services.
Online marketing matters. Your business may be in a place where you don’t need a full-fledged marketing company, but here’s a good rule: If you’re going to spend money on marketing, make sure it’s on something that will work.
We have a principle called “limited-risk” marketing. Marketing is confusing, and it’s easy to throw away money for zero results. No matter how much you want to pay for marketing, only pay what you can afford to lose, and don’t keep paying if it’s not working
If you’re thinking of spending a lot of money on marketing – stop. Start small. And if you’re thinking of spending zero money on marketing, consider starting small. The Internet is here. And it makes a difference.
