This post is a bit of a rant inspired by a comic I stumbled on, but it is so true and so common that it bears talking about.

At a certain point, most SMBs decide that their website is no good and that this critical portion of their marketing (which is very true of course) needs a makeover or a re-design.  The ones that are smart go out and hire a professional or a very reputable firm. The ones that aren’t as savvy hire the cheapest thing they can find, waste time, money and opportunity, and then eventually hire professionals.   So pros are hired, people with years of experience maximizing what a website can do, especially those who combine website development with online marketing, social media, demand gen, and inbound marketing.

But then this SMB proceeds to tell the pro(s) exactly what to do, or as the website nears reality, others in the company suddenly take interest and chime in, and then change their mind(s) over and over. This is a little like going to the doctor’s office because you have a medical problem and telling the doctor what the diagnosis is (based on your web research) and what medications you want him/her to prescribe, and of course on your next visit change your mind entirely.

The blog The Oatmeal sums it up all too accurately in this little comic.  I showed it to our designers and one of them said he wanted to laugh, but it brought up some painful memories.

So the takeaway is that if you’re going to pay good money and hire a professional to develop a marketing strategy (in this case part of your online marketing mix) and execute tactically (design and build the website), let them!

Sitting over their shoulder and directing the development almost guarantees a worse end-result.  The same is true for hiring a professional firm to do your SEO, or set up and maintain your Google Adwords campaigns, or set up and integrate a marketing and lead management automation solution; they do this full time, you’re paying them for their expertise, your involvement above what they ask for diminishes their performance correspondingly.