This afternoon I was talking with a gentleman about his web site, and it made me think about do-it-yourself marketing.

The first incident was when I talked with a company that sold western wear — you know cowboy boots, cowboy hats and western shirts. I talked with the guy in charge of this company’s web site and gave him a very reasonable proposal on Internet marketing. They had a big site and about 70 stores around the U.S.

Even though they weren’t very well optimized for the search engines, this guy never could get his bosses to commit to Internet marketing, including putting together a good email marketing campaign. I waited and waited, and yet no commitment. I tried calling but never got a response.

About five months ago I was driving down a local road and there was one of those people waving a going-out-of-business sign for the store for whom I’d given the proposal. I’m not one to celebrate when a store is closed, but I wonder how things would have been different if they had made a commitment to building greater visibility for their web site.

I know their online sales would have increased. And it would have boosted their brick-and-mortor stores, too. But we’ll never know, and this company’s doors are now close.

The other incident happened at a church I used to go to. They were building a substantial addition. They decided they didn’t need a general contractor, and chose to manage the project themselves. They ended up going over budget signifcantly, there were problems galore with the workmanship, and they took several months longer than they had intended.

What would have happened if they had chosen to hire a professional, even if had cost them an extra $20,000? They probably would have gotten a better addition, done at a lower cost, and had the addition done on-time.

Now, I’m a do-it-yourselfer whenever possible, but I’ve learned that often it pays to hire a professional. This is not only a financial consideration, but also time and effectiveness. If, in either of these instances, the responsible parties had chosen to use a professional they would have been better off.

The same is true for Internet marketing and web design. Don’t automatically reject a company because their prices seem too high. Of course you’ll find to figure out the ROI on doing business with them, but take into consideration your own costs in time, lost revenue if you do things poorly, and the lost revenue if this company could produce what they say they can.

What are things that you do yourself and what do you outsource? I’d love to hear your thoughts.