When marketing your brand as the small business owner you have situations where you get different people to do their part of an overall project such as with a website.

However it seems they are often briefed separately or one may finish their part before the other is even briefed.

Further it appears that the content is thought about after the design is done.

Big mistake.

Reading Sarah Mitchell’s  recent blog post The Website Conundrum: Design vs. Content brought this issue to my mend.

I wondered why the two – content and design didn’t as a matter of course work together. In fact I was surprised that this was occurring as I could not think of one reason why it should.

You would not get a TV advertisement shot and then get in a copywriter to write the script.

It does not happen as they all work as a team.

You are project leader of the team as after all it is your money that is being spent and ultimately your responsibility as you own the brand. Each will have opinions and together they can make the outcome even better that you thought possible. You need to be the leader.

If you are new to this way of working here are a few tips to help you:

• Before you brief anyone think of the pieces that need to come together as this will tell you who you need for the project
• If you do not know one person for the team ask the others who they would recommend that they have worked with successfully in the past
• Have a project timetable so everyone knows their responsibilities, tasks and deadlines
• Brief them together either in person or using Skype etc for the brief
• Provide updates so everyone is on the same page
• Encourage active collaboration between the two so any issues can be sorted out early

Each one adds value to the table however it is ultimately up to you how well the project ends up.

I actually can’t think of any disadvantages of making sure that everyone works together instead of separately so let me know of any in the comments.

About the Author:  Susan Oakes

Susan Oakes is the founder of Marketing for Business Success Pty Ltd and M4B Marketing. Susan helps small businesses get and stay on the path to marketing success. The core is building and strengthening key customer relationships and keeping marketing simple to get greater results.

Link to Susan's website for more info.