Marketing, in and of itself is not valuable (as a new piece of equipment has value) — it is the ROI that comes from marketing that provides value — therefore it must be thought of as an investment.

You bring up a good point in regards to the cost cutting benefit of a web site. For many, a new web site, or a redevelopment, is looked at as another cost.

aka more money.

and more to budget for.

and also another thing a company has to do.

But, if it is instead looked at as a tool to better accomplish existing sales and marketing tasks at a fraction of the cost, it begins to look less like “another thing” as well as less expensive.

There was a day when that last person finally bought a car and tied up and abandoned their horse and buggy.

In the same way, there is only so long businesses will be able to hold out – without a well-performing web presence.