The most common business reality is “when marketing generates leads and sales, business excels”. And in today’s financially challenging and increasingly online focussed world, business is facing a new reality – their website is quickly becoming the no. 1 lead generation and customer acquisition tool within their arsenal.

The problem in the past has been that businesses planned growth using either their marketing or sales department and the results they generated were their responsibility. It was also common practice that anything “webby” or “techy” was the IT department’s responsibility. Consequently the first corporate websites we saw were developed within an IT environment, often in isolation from marketing.

It’s time to move on

Since those early days the die has been cast. Corporate websites have been struggling ever since to prove that they can be incredibly valuable and efficient marketing tools. Only now that digital tactics have become powerful channels in business marketing are we seeing websites being taken seriously by business.

Today the rules have changed – if you are not using your website (and by that I mean online in general) to its fullest potential as a lead and sales generator you are missing out. And by not addressing the situation it is only a matter of time before competitors pass you by, and put you out of business.

Now if you agree with my observation and you are expecting marketing to deliver your web and online activity business results it raises the question should you be talking to a marketing company about your website strategy instead of an IT company?

How do you find the experts?

Smart marketing companies today are realizing that marketing & IT are intertwined. And as a general rule the skill sets of today’s digital marketers and IT professionals are closer than ever before. And soon I predict they will coexist, communicate and complement each other – all in pursuit of the same goal: increasing leads, sales and growth for your business.

If your looking to partner with a marketing company today you need to be sure they have expertise in a few key areas. Look for someone who;

• has experience with dynamic and continuous iterations of market messaging
• has experience with content and design that drives digital channels including online advertising
• understands web page optimization
• understands inbound marketing and social media marketing integration.

Now I can tell you straight up the disciplines above are not the domain of the IT crowd! IT will set up and deploy the infrastructure of your business website and online activity so marketing (and you) get the results you want. IT also has an ongoing roll when it comes to preventing hacking attacks and spamming to your site and the seamless handling of website stress loads for starters.

How to bring it all home?

So what should you look for when deciding who to outsource you marketing to? Well obviously a marketing company that is forward thinking. One that really has its act together should view IT as an essential recourse, always looking out for opportunities to educate each other on the dynamics of their respective specialties. When it comes to discovering ways to implement better, track better, interpret metrics better and produce much greater business results the two specialities working as one is what you want to aim for.

What are your thoughts?
About the author

Peter Engelhardt

Peter has a ridiculous amount of marketing and communications experience. He is an inbound marketing advocate and a new media enthusiast with a passion for spreading his knowledge and blogging. Above all he is the driving force behind Creative Brew and a proud dad.