While monthly website maintenance is great for ensuring your website is running smoothly and there are no errors, it’s doing little to nothing for reaching your target base, and failing to continue to produce new content can result in drops in your SEO rankings.
Marketing never stops. There will always be updates to search engines and Google algorithms, as well as new businesses constantly putting out new content to attract customers and land coveted top spots on result pages.
Today we will be discussing why it is important to prioritize a marketing strategy and why your web development agency may not be contributing to generating the leads you desire.
When we get down to the nitty-gritty of the structure of marketing agencies, most web developers really only focus on one thing, which is web development. This is mostly because web development can be extremely time-consuming depending on the complexity of the website and any functions it may need. Developers are highly skilled in writing website code and often know the ins and outs of troubleshooting potential issues, however, this is not marketing.
Digital marketing goes beyond your website in the form of advertising, SEO, social media, and inbound campaigns. Sure your web developers can set you up for success with a new website capable of reaching new leads, but without a true marketing strategy and consistent content catered to growth, your website is likely to just sit there not really doing anything for increasing business.
You can’t turn traffic into qualified leads if you don’t have any traffic to begin with. Organic growth can offer your business the most value in the long run, however, it can take months, if not years to build up. Without a content strategy, it’s unlikely that your website will beat out competitors for high traffic-generating keywords, losing you more potential business and leads.
When working with a full-service agency like LAIRE, you are partnered with dedicated strategists and account managers that can help you achieve qualified traffic and leads.
Monthly development retainers often contain hosting, backups, security, and a number of routine maintenance hours, which you’re probably not getting the most out of. Sure, every company has updates to their team, maybe a service or two, or some image updates sitewide. However, unless your website is so ancient that you can’t navigate the backend without the help of a web developer, you could likely do it yourself.
Now, I get everyone doesn’t have the time to go poking around the website unsure of where to go, however many general marketers could also do these updates for you. Unless you are in need of a new website template or are looking to completely change the look and feel of your website, you likely don’t need a developer.
As mentioned above, your development retainer likely includes hosting and maintenance and website updates, but again this is still not marketing. Developers can not provide the insight needed to improve your traffic for growth and ROI, which leaves you to do the research and planning yourself.
Often when you are updating your website with a web developer you are likely still writing the content yourself, so how do you know that it is fully optimized for search engines and that it is likely to build rankings? This is why it is so important to trust your actual marketing to the true digital strategists and content wizards.
Marketing is always changing, and there will be times when your website may need a facelift or even updates to your user experience. However, unless your website goes completely down or you request the changes yourself, most web developers will likely not pay any attention to your website. You’re left spending more money, and your own time and energy to craft something that still may not be working for you.
When partnering with a marketing agency, you are not limiting yourself to just one area of marketing. Your agency can recommend different tactics and services to deliver the most significant return on your investment and help you reach your business goals.
During this time, there may be two or three different team members that provide a strategy for user experience, perform keyword research for organic growth, as well as implement paid advertising campaigns. Not only is this great for dissecting any potential issues, but you have insight from many different viewpoints, providing you with a more detailed and comprehensive strategy for success.
At LAIRE, we believe your website is just a piece of the full digital marketing puzzle. While your website is essential to reaching your online marketing goals, without a dedicated marketing agency your website may not be reaching its full potential. Every partnership at LAIRE starts with a detailed MAP by LAIRE®, dedicated account reps, and continuous collaboration to reach your marketing goals. Schedule a free 20-minute assessment to learn how we can grow together.