It’s no secret that today’s businesses rely heavily on outsourcing technology-based activities. Many companies make the fatal mistake of hiring low-cost designers or development teams to create their online presence. Yes, it is true outsourcing has become a widely practiced activity amongst today’s business. However, many businesses just don’t understand that the complexities of inbound marketing go far beyond the face of a website.Thankfully, because you’ve landed on this website, you now have a significant advantage over your competition.
Weighing The Risks
Let’s use a simple example to help you understand the distinction between a website designer and an inbound marketing firm. Now let’s be clear, a website designer in this sense can be more than one person. You can in fact hire a team of website designers who specialize in different areas of design from graphics, programming, and user interface. It is possible to hire an extremely skilled team of designers. However, you will not receive the maximum benefit of a comprehensive inbound marketing campaign. Website designers may understand the infrastructure of a site but it’s very uncommon to find individuals or teams who have a strong foundational background in sales oriented design.
A pretty site means absolutely nothing if it cannot be optimized for sales. Case in point, a website designer’s priorities focus largely on accessibility and ease of use while an inbound marketing firm focuses on accessibility optimized for conversion processes.
Oftentimes companies make the mistake of gauging cost effectiveness in terms of initial expenditures. Yes, it’s true you can purchase a fully functional website for approximately $500. However, in the long run the $500 will be superseded by the cost of backlinking, internal linking, content creation, offer creation, data analytics, lead creation, advertising, maintenance, updates, browser interface, device interface, and much more.
The important thing to understand here is that a fully competent website designer has no responsibility in terms of marketing, revenue, sales processes, or testing. A designer’s job is to create a functional site per user client requirements. Everything else on top of is just extra and that means more expenses for your business.
Further Considerations
Another aspect to consider is that a designer, or team of designers, build from the bottom up. This essentially means they hardcode sites based on requirements. If they are not hard coding they are either dependent on open source platforms like Joomla or WordPress. It’s also possible that these designers use commercial off the shelf platforms or in-house source code. While all that may seem a bit complicated, essentially what this means for your business is that:
- Manual development equals a longer development process.
- Longer development equates to larger periods between design output and marketing implementation.
- Open source Platforms mean your site is restricted to the confines of the platform that operates under a general license as opposed to a privately owned service.
Basically your business loses money. In contrast, when you decide to hire an inbound marketing firm you can expect a comprehensive marketing plan that includes all activities necessary to create, support, and improve a thriving inbound marketing campaign.
The Significance of an Inbound Marketing Team
Here’s another great example of why it’s critical to have a team as opposed to a designer. Obviously, your business cannot run on marketing alone. Every business owner understands that their attention must be distributed and in most cases prioritized.
If you hire a designer as opposed to an inbound marketing firm you will inevitably be responsible for carryout or outsourcing all the components associated with inbound marketing. Remember inbound marketing is a strategy that integrates multiple marketing techniques to both generate leads and promote sales. Simply put? Why hire a website designer, who can only offer a couple things, when an inbound marketing agency offers so many things at one time and can set you up for the long run?
It’s a bit like a ‘full on Monet’ as the movie ‘Clueless’ made popular—from far away, website designing firms look like they’ll suffice, but up close and down to the details, things may not look so great or work so well when you get down to it.
Some of the tasks you will be responsible for completing are:
SEO/Content Creation: Why? According to Hubspot in 2012 online buyers will grow to a whopping 145 million, 85% of which will begin product research via search engines.
Social Media: Why? According to Hubspot, in 2012 alone two-thirds of internet users will be using it as a source for finding the products and services they’ll purchase.
Obviously a web designer alone cannot possibly be expected to spearhead or even implement these tasks. However an inbound marketing firm excels in activity distribution. This means that you’re business will receive the benefit of expert management, organization, and implementation as it pertains to a comprehensive inbound marketing solution.
Key Takeaways
It’s far more beneficial to hire a inbound marketing agency rather than relying solely on a web designer to handle all of your marketing needs.
Web designers focus solely on creating a website, and as a result, often neglect the marketing strategies necessary to a websites potential success.
An inbound marketing agency can help to both build your website and also consider the various methods of optimization in order to effectively maximize your websites and businesses potential.
Need Help?
If inbound marketing is something you are interested in but are having trouble getting started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.
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