Yes. Marketing teams excel at messaging and strategy, but web developers ensure the website is fast, secure, accessible, scalable, and maintainable over time. The strongest websites use both.
Marketing teams can build basic sites using tools like WordPress, Webflow, or Wix. However, without development oversight, sites often face performance, SEO, accessibility, and scalability issues later.
Common issues include slow load times, poor SEO after redesigns, accessibility failures, fragile updates, broken integrations, and accumulating technical debt that leads to costly rebuilds.
Marketing-led sites focus on messaging and campaigns. Developer-supported sites are built as systems, designed to support growth, performance, accessibility, security, and long-term evolution.
Absolutely. Marketing strategists define the story and audience, while developers build the structure that supports that strategy sustainably. Collaboration leads to stronger, longer-lasting websites.
January is when teams reset.
New goals. New budgets. New strategies.
And almost inevitably, a familiar question comes up:
“Do we really need a web developer for this, or can marketing handle the website?”
It’s a reasonable question.
It’s also one of the most common, and costly assumptions organizations make about their digital presence.
For many organizations, the website is viewed as:
From that perspective, it feels logical to assume marketing teams can build and manage it.
And to be clear, marketing plays a critical role in any successful website.
But that role has limits.
Marketing strategists and teams are experts at:
These skills are essential.
Without them, even the most technically sound website will fall flat.
But building a website that performs well over time requires a different discipline.
Most problems don’t show up at launch.
They appear months, or years later:
The site may still look polished.
But under the hood, it’s accumulating technical debt.
Marketing mindset asks:
“How does this convert right now?”
Web development mindset asks:
“How does this perform, scale, stay secure, and evolve over time?”
A website isn’t just a campaign asset.
It’s infrastructure.
It supports:
Infrastructure needs engineering.
This isn’t an either-or conversation.
Some of my favorite and most successful projects happen when I work alongside marketing strategists, not instead of them.
Marketing strategists bring:
My role is to support that work by ensuring the website:
Marketing gets the message out.
I help make sure the website can carry that message for years, not just launch week.
When strategy and development work together, clients don’t just get a beautiful site.
They get a system that supports their growth.
The strongest websites are built when:
When these roles collaborate early, websites stop being fragile and start becoming strategic assets.
As teams plan for the year ahead, the more useful question isn’t:
“Can marketing handle the website?”
It’s:
“What does our website need to support this year, and who needs to be involved to make that work long-term?”
When websites are treated as infrastructure, not just campaigns, they become easier to manage, easier to grow, and far more valuable over time.
“Good systems are invisible until they fail.” – Don Norman
Frances Naty Go, Founder of Goldlilys Media, transforms websites into strategic masterpieces for museums, nonprofits, health & wellness brands, higher education, life sciences, travel companies, personal brands and small businesses. With a Computer Science degree from UC San Diego, she specializes in creating digital experiences that educate, engage, and inspire action. Ready to make your digital presence unforgettable?
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