Dec 17 2009
Last weekend I posted a tweet regarding some advice from a book a successful consultant has written:
Above: Tweet that reads, "Consultant advised to 'never accept marketing advice from a web designer.' In many, many cases, that's terrible advice."
Obviously there's some context to be had here, but I don't want to get into the details of the book or its author. Despite some things I disagree with, it's a good book and I want to finish reading it before assuming the worst.
That disclaimer out of the way, I thought I would explain my thinking. Let me start by giving you the full, two-sentence quote:
As with any other designer, you provide the copy and what you want to communicate, and the designer should take care of the aesthetics and technology. Never accept marketing advice from a web designer, who will tend to see the world only through that medium.
For this time, let's ignore the fact that this consultant clearly thinks designers do nothing but create eye candy (especially since I've covered it more than a few times). Instead, let's focus on the last sentence and the marketing aspect.
Not all web designers are good at marketing. This isn't opinion, it's FACT. But there are those of us (and yes, I do include 420 Creative in this group) that do get it. We get it because we market ourselves every day. How we do it is up to us and what works for our agencies. Saying that you should never take marketing advice from a web designer is short-sighted.
Yes, we focus quite a bit on the Web - it's the core of our livelihoods, after all. But most of us aren't so far out of touch that we don't realize there are other marketing methods out there. Some of us have even grown our businesses using them. And some have actually helped grow their clients businesses doing so.
But let's back up and assume that web designers only focus on the web when it comes to marketing (which is true for many web designers - that I won't argue). It's because of our focus, knowledge and experience of the Web that makes many of us qualified to speak to the topic of marketing. No, not just any marketing. I'm referring to Internet marketing.
While many web designers just don't get marketing at all (a majority of them are eye candy web designers, meaning they design for the sake of design rather than to achieve measurable results), many of us do. Quite well, in fact.
Ignoring (or writing off) the experience many of us web designers have not just in building successful websites, but managing them and marketing them (successfully) is a poor choice if your business' online marketing matters at all to you. More and more web design studios across the nation do more than just create a site and consider the project done. They go beyond that. This consultant is clearly out of touch.
What do you think? Can web designers provide Internet marketing expertise and advice to the small business owner?