 In this blog post, discover... Why you should outsource marketingAre you busy? If you are a business owner reading this, then the chances are the answer is yes, you are busy - but let’s expand on that: Are you busily working on the right stuff? It’s easy to get busy in the modern world. When you aren’t delivering to a customer, managing staff issues or doing sales and marketing activity there’s always finances and bookkeeping to manage or general admin stuff that’s outstanding. For the typical business owner, there’s even stuff on the list that will probably never actually get done! At this point, you might be expecting some tips for how to prioritise what’s important and manage your lists of endless tasks better. There’s no top tips or discussion on to-do list management in this blog post. Instead, we are looking at a much more effective way to get results in your business… outsourcing. Let’s understand the definition of outsourcing as well as how you can use it in your business and the benefits of outsourcing. Watch the summary of this blog post...What is outsourcing in business?Outsourcing is about getting things in your business done by outside sources, or in other words, by a business that’s not directly employed as an employee is by your company. Typically, work is outsourced to another company that specialises in a particular area of expertise and this has huge benefits which we will discuss later.  What can be outsourced?In recent years, outsourcing has become more acceptable with the growth of businesses that provide support in different areas. A business can outsource marketing, bookkeeping, general admin and even sales activity. Outsourcing examples also include facilities management, catering, HR, logistics and IT support. When deciding who to outsource to, make sure you are clear on what your objectives are, what you want the outsourcing company to do, and that they have the skillsets and ability to help you. In many situations, you will most likely be sharing confidential or valuable information about your business with another company, so it’s important to have a high level of trust. A bookkeeping company for example will have access to your financial information, an admin company might have access to information such as who your customers are and a marketing agency will need to understand many elements about your business and your target market - and if they are posting on social media for you then they are representing you publicly in what they do!  Can sales be outsourced?Outsourced sales is a great way to generate more business, but it must be done properly and in partnership with the right third party. When outsourcing sales, you are putting your reputation with potential customers in the hands of someone else so the company you partner with must understand your products and services and how you operate, as well as the ethics and culture of your business. We aren’t saying you must not outsource sales. If a third party business has proven expertise and you can trust them, then it can be highly beneficial to use them. What are the benefits of outsourcing?As well as freeing up your time, outsourcing has another huge two-sided benefit. It allows you to recruit expertise in an area that you aren’t strong in… And it allows you to focus on what you are good at. Let’s take a plan to outsource sales and marketing as an example. As a business owner, you might be really good at designing and delivering the product or service that you provide to your customers. A manufacturer has expertise in making a great product while a personal fitness trainer provides a great service in helping clients stay fit and healthy. Both the manufacturer and the fitness trainer have proven skills sets and knowledge in their respective areas of expertise, but neither of them might be any good at sales and marketing. In fact, many business owners we talk to dislike the idea of selling and find the art of effective marketing to be overly complicated and tough. We can empathise with those feelings. On the other hand, a marketing agency that delivers marketing campaigns and activities throughout the day and on a daily and weekly basis (and has done for years) should know how to get results out of marketing. Outsourced sales and marketing could be the perfect answer to a business that wants to grow its business while focusing on delivering great products, services and customer service. Should the busy business owner try to learn in-depth how to do effective marketing, or should he or she outsource to an established expert that can fast-track results? From a different perspective, for every hour a business owner works on a task such as bookkeeping or marketing, that’s an hour less that they can focus on what they do best. There are only so many hours in a day and spending it on things that a business owner is not good at is lost time that could be spent on what they are good at. Why should I outsource marketing?We have already given some valuable insights into the benefits of outsourcing and how that can benefit you from a marketing perspective. Let’s also look at some other reasons why outsourcing marketing can benefit your business. 1. Speed up the learning curve Marketing is always evolving. The worldwide web has only existed for a tad over 20 years and Facebook wasn’t available to the public until September 2006 (while TikTok and Instagram are barely teenagers!). There are two choices - spend time understanding how to get results using the latest various platforms and channels with the risk of wasting time or money - or speed up the learning curve by getting help from someone who lives and breathes marketing on a daily basis. This doesn’t mean that you should be ignorant of the latest trends, or not get involved at all in your marketing. When you outsource marketing, the company you put your trust in must be held accountable, and the work they do must be closely aligned with the objectives of your business. And you need to work with them to make sure that happens. Working with a third party is about “working with” them. It’s not a case of dumping activities on them, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. 2. Reduced staff and training costs Another benefit of outsourcing marketing is that there’s no need to hire and train staff to do your marketing for you. Even if you do recruit someone who doesn’t need training, there are still significant costs involved in having someone do your marketing activities in-house. Using a digital marketing agency means that you can increase or decrease activities to suit your needs while keeping within your marketing budget. At Think Twice Marketing, we offer a unique package called the Marketing Manager to support your business as it grows. Click the button below to find out more. 3. Get more marketing done Marketing can be time-consuming. An established marketing agency such as Think Twice Marketing has processes set up to get marketing activities done quicker, without compromising on quality. Take posting on social media as an example. Manually posting on each social media platform can be time-consuming. Having access to a third-party app, however, can save time by scheduling content at the same time across various social media platforms. The content can be tailored to each channel without taking up too much time. Having access to apps and tools as well as having the knowledge and experience mean that an outsourced marketing agency can be much more productive as well as effective. Are you ready to outsource your marketing?If you are looking to grow your business and get better results out of your marketing then get in touch with us to see how we can help. We offer a free consultation to understand your current challenges and objectives. We will also provide you with some valuable insights and tips to help you with your business.
0 Comments
 At Think Twice Marketing, we often get contacted and asked "we need help with our marketing, can you post on Facebook and send out some emails for us?". And while we are happy to help, it does highlight a worrying trend that businesses have come to believe that marketing is mostly or solely about the online channels that can be used. For marketing to be a succes, however, it's a lot more than that! Why marketing isn't just about social media and email marketingWhen I graduated in International Business, a course that was very marketing focused, I went on to work for larger corporations in what could now be labelled traditional marketing. I accept that a lot has changed since then but what I learned and performed in terms of marketing included:
- Developing products and solutions that met the benefits of the customer - Understanding customer needs and how the customers' mind works - Integrating sales and marketing activities as a single unit - Pricing a product inline with it's perceived value and in a way that maximises profit - and much more! The average social media marketer might not, for example, understand how the whole lead generation process should look, how power words such as 'now' or 'limited' make a difference, what the best colour is for a call to action button (orange is usually best) or that black conveys professionalism in artwork while blue conveys trust. That's not to say that the marketer isn't smart, it's that focus is on how social media works and how content should be formatted and scheduled. Marketing has required skills in many areas, so a video agency or an SEO expert isn't expected to understand how to develop a marketing strategy for a customer or why customers behave the way they do. My book Psychology in Marketing and Sales discusses many other elements that marketing involves including the customer buyer journey, why we decide to buy a specific product or service and how we are influenced by different ways in which a product or service is positioned. As a business grows, think twice about who you hire and how they can help. If you are serious about business growth then an expert is social media, video marketing or SEO should be considered but having a marketing manager who looks at the bigger picture and brings the many marketing elements together should be a top priority! |
written byThe opinions in these blog posts are those of marketing professional and book author Darren Hignett. Categories
All
Archives
October 2021
|
RSS Feed