People make the supposition that since a company has a competency in one aspect of the internet, they should know all things internet. I believe the problem lies in the amazing machines we have at our disposal. They make everything work together so well and seem so simple. Kudos to the PC giants.
The fact is email is very different from pay per click. Online forms, seem so simple, but can be complex. Scrubbing that data is even more so. When an internet developer says “Listen, we don’t do that” clients get upset. If you do go to a “do it all and do it cheap shop” most likely you are not getting the best of anything, and some parts might be horrible.
The world is changing fast. I think you should seek out people that are experts in a single aspect of it if you need to get something done. This is especially true in the internet. Need better email marketing? Find an email marketer. Need better databases? Find people that are good at data. Need better forms? Find people with better forms. Need PPC? Need someone to bring it together? Find someone to bring it together.
I work almost exclusively in Service SEO, helping match service providers to peoples problems, and match specific types clients to specific types of service professionals through Search and Social Media. It’s a Big Sentence, but a tight niche. While probably better then 90% of other “internet experts” out there in email marketing, PPC and database development, I stay within my field. The Internet is evolving way too fast for me to do anything but this yet keep the edge of being the best here.
Don’t understand where to start? Find someone to teach you the basics even if you are going to hire someone. I spend a lot time educating my clients. Ignorance of the internet is not an option if you want to grow a business in the Information Revolution.