I wish clients could hear the thought-processes going on in the minds of veteran marketers when what they think they are saying really sounds more like this: “We’re going to go ahead and F’ this one up. Outdated customized website development requiring huge hidden costs of doing business with us, because I know a guy who designed our last website ten years ago, and I am not into trying new things. Basically, we’re going to be inconsistent in our expectations and not listen to input from trained and experienced experts. In short, we are designing this to fail.”
Are you designing your marketing to fail because of what you think you know about web marketing? Or because your decision maker “knows a guy”? If you have strong opinions and no particular strong understanding of the technologies and best practices currently, chances are you are designing your marketing to fail in an epic way.
Want some good advice?
Listen to someone with ample experience with these tools and types of campaigns. Do some initial homework on current best practices and tools available on your own, and then use that as a gauge for your conversations. If you simply “feel better” when talking to a particular person on the phone, chances are you are buying snake oil, or are about to.
The reason I bluntly ask questions and throw up perceived obstacles is because I understand that it’s my job to do that. If I don’t do that, I’m not doing my job as a marketer. And while you may think a buck is a buck to a marketing firm, in reality it is not like that. We want case study worthy clients and accounts, not projects and campaigns that are doomed to #failure.
