A Website Designer, website programmer & online marketer story

A Designer, a Programmer and a Marketer Walk into a Bar... Which One Do You Use to Get a Profitable Website?

Unless you spend an inordinate amount of time hanging around online marketing firms, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the differences in our job titles and respective roles. Combine this with the fact that a lot of our duties overlap from time to time, and it's no wonder that so many clients are confused about what kind of professional they need to help design their new website – or if they need some kind of combination.

 

To help clear up the confusion a bit, here are the three types of web professionals you need to know about, and how they factor into the process of getting your new site online:

Web designers. Web designers tend to be artists ta heart; they are usually creative types with the background in painting, photography, and other visual media who just happened to have a flair for -- and appreciation of -- the wonders of HTML. In other words, they are painters who choose to work with pixels because they liked the evolving possibilities of the Internet and a blank screen.

Programmers. These are the men and women who make websites "go." What does that mean? Well, all of the pretty icons, pictures, and other items you see online are typically drawn are created by designers; once they actually have to do something, however, programmers supply the code to make that happen.

Marketers. While a marketer might have been put on the site's design or functionality, their mindset is usually one of producing leads or sales. That means they're going to be more concerned with placement, messaging, and intended outcomes than either designers or programmers. For marketers, websites aren't as much about art or usability as they are profits -- not a bad trait when you want to see some bottom line improvement.

So going back to the question at hand, which do you need to build your website? For most businesses, the answer is going to be all three: you'll want a designer to make your site look great, a programmer who can ensure that it is as functional as it is pretty, and a strong marketer to keep an eye on the business end of things.

Of course, at Ekzact, we integrate design, programming, and especially marketing into your web design plan. We wouldn't recommend you do without any of them, and will make sure you get the best of all three.