One of the biggest misconceptions I have heard in recent years is the over-dependence on the “IT guy” or “IT girl” in any office. Yes, these men and women are often intelligent and talented – but just like everyone else, they can’t do it all. I can’t tell you how often I cringe when I hear that people are leaving their internet marketing decisions to the “IT department”.

No offense to the managers who are making this type of decision, but speaking candidly, how stupid is that?

Really! A formula for business success is this: strong business plan + marketing = sales

Why are you (as a business owner/manager) putting the person who is handling the “plan” part of things (i.e. the website development) solely in charge of a major portion of your online marketing dollars? Often times, the people in the “IT department” are not great at marketing or planning marketing dollars- despite their knowledge of the online aspect of it- yet more often than not, I keep hearing about this happening.

What’s worse, is that I hear of business managers complaining that they’ve “tried SEO” or “tried PPC” and had a budget BACKFIRE! I can’t stress enough how important it is for the folks who are in charge of handing out the money for these services to understand what they are, how they work and on average what they should cost/what they’re willing to spend.

More importantly, if you (as an owner/manager) don’t understand how you are spending your advertising budget, then you should hire me. You need someone who can look at your business objectively (as opposed to asking your in-house IT manager who doesn’t care to educate you or save you money- their primary concern is to still have a job and get paid) and help you understand and navigate the world of online advertising and social media marketing. I promise that the short term investment involved to hire me as a consultant will save you money in the long run. Hiring me will allow you to be more involved in any future marketing dollars spent, simply because you’ll understand where and how to allocate funds based on your sales and business objectives.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say on the misconceptions front, so I’ll leave this as volume 1.

-Audrey