Deciding on whether to hire a marketing agency or a web developer is among the top decision that start-ups, established businesses and companies have to make to ensure their products are marketed to a broader customer base.
The decision to recruit either a standalone web developer or a marketing agency to help in a business setting sometimes is confusing. Businesses find themselves in situations where they only wanted a web developer for their site but end up hiring a marketing consultant or vice versa, who end up not fulfilling their goals.
Who is a marketing consultant
The profile of a marketing consultant varies and depends on the company and the nature of the project they are involved in. However, one common theme about market consultants is that they are responsible for advising companies or business on the best ways they can use to reach their target customers.
To do their job, marketing consultants are able to analyze the prevailing market conditions and make suggestions to businesses on how to make improvements in order to reach more customers. They are also tasked with implementing marketing campaigns such as social media and email campaigns. Their job also involves training employees on the latest digital marketing trends, suggesting new content for marketing and also coming up with new methods of reaching consumers.
Roles of a marketing consultant
Marketing consultants are responsible for coming up with business strategies. They are then expected to relay these strategies to business owners and advise them on making changes to optimize their ability to connect with the customers.
They are also expected to advise on the financial and management of the business. A good marketing consultant should be able to analyze the financial situation of a company or a business and help them make informed decisions on the best strategy they should take. They should also be able to make management decisions and work with business staff to implement those decisions.
Integrating information technology. Marketing consultants should be well versed with the latest marketing technologies in the market. They should also be able to integrate these technologies to ensure that businesses are reaching their targetted consumers.
They are also able to analyze and come up with the most suitable business models for a startup business. They are also able to work with start-up business owners to come up with goals, implement these goals, register companies, launch websites and apps for the startups, and run cost-effective marketing campaigns.
Marketing consultants are also tasked with calculating clients’ return on ad spend (ROAS) against industry averages. This also includes doing SEO audits, evaluating the clients’ market budgeting, and allocating resources to various marketing needs in the company.
Who is a web developer
Unlike marketing consultants, who are more focused on ensuring that clients’ products are able to sell, web developers are responsible for coming up with web applications that these businesses use to push their products.
Roles of a web developer
Web developers are responsible for creating website/websites for companies. Clients looking to establish their presence on the internet should consider hiring web developers since they are more suited for such tasks. They use their programming sites to come up with websites that contain functionalities that their clients are looking for.
They also research business models and the nature of the marketing campaign and make an application that helps marketers optimize their sales.
They provide advice on the latest web technologies to businesses. They are also able to use the latest web technologies to implement ideas suggested to them by business owners.
They are also skilled in ensuring that your website is able to generate leads, nurture prospects, communicate with your market, place orders and pursue clients to ensure that they buy your products.
Choosing between a marketing consultant and a web developer as a client
Choosing between a marketing consultant or a web developer depends on where you are in your product development and your preference. This is because the two job profiles are intertwined when looked at from a business perspective. Their main goal is to ensure that a product has an online presence and more customers are able to find and buy your products. The decision to chose one over the other depends on factors such as:-
Choosing a marketing consultant over a web developer
A client may choose a marketing consultant over a web developer in case they want a continued relationship after a product has been developed.
Marketing consultants not only analyze the prevailing market conditions for an organization, but they also ensure that these decisions are followed and updated regularly depending on changing market forces. This, however, is not the case with web developers, who are mostly concerned with developing a product as instructed by a client. Although they can continue working on a project, it is very uncommon to find that a web developer is offering financial and marketing advice to the organization they are working for. This, therefore, makes it easy for clients looking for a continued relationship to prefer marketing consultants rather than web developers.
Clients can also hire marketing consultants over web developers when they have specific goals such as increasing their sales, creating a better return on ad spend (ROAS), or budgeting their marketing department. These tasks require a different skillset that web developers are not able to offer.
Choosing a web developer over marketing consultants
On the other hand, clients can also choose web developers over marketing consultants when they want a complex web application for their marketing. Web developers are skilled in creating such tools, including automated marketing tools, campaign tools and integrating them to a web application, helping a business grow.
Clients who also have a specific goal of developing only a web application also prefer to work with a web developer over a marketing consultant. This makes their work easier, both budget-wise and time is taken to complete the task.
Clients can also choose web developer over marketing consultants when they are specifically looking to develop a web application. In most cases, the clients have already come up with their requirements and are only looking for someone to help them turn their ideas into a web application.
