We all know that great marketing is key to the success of any business. But plenty of small to medium enterprises (SME) out there struggle to maintain a strong and effective marketing strategy and marketing program, due to time pressures, cash flow restrictions and under-skilled staff. But there’s no need to let these restrictions hold your business back. If you haven’t the resources to handle your marketing in-house, take Richard Branson’s advice and outsource it.
‘Everything in your business can be outsourced … if you’re not emotionally attached to doing it all,’ Mr Branson recently said. (And let’s face it, he knows a thing or two about running a business.)
Outsourcing is about more than off-loading jobs. It’s about promoting growth: recognising your limitations, focusing on what you’re good at, and identifying where more specialised tasks can be better handled by experts. It’s a smart, strategic management technique that allows you to tap into innovation, talents and expertise outside the confines of your business’s existing skills set – without adding extra staff to your payroll. Marketing covers an incredibly broad range of areas: from booking traditional media ads to steering a PR campaign, maintaining an SEO optimised website, understanding the nuances of social media, managing email campaigns, to producing brochures and steering sales promotions. The playing field is constantly shifting in line with rapid changes in technology and consumer behaviours. Leveraging the many new and established channels requires huge amounts of specialist knowledge – so it makes sense to outsource to experts.
A professionally co-ordinated campaign will be more integrated, more targeted and more effective than anything you might attempt yourself, which means you’ll ultimately get more bang for your marketing buck.
Even more crucially, an external agency will never be ‘too busy’ to stay on top of your marketing, as you might be. It’s a competitive marketplace out there and taking your foot off the marketing accelerator can have dire results. Outsourcing means you can focus on running your business while the agency maintains your marketing momentum. And – last but certainly not least – outsourcing can save you some serious cash. By contracting the work out rather than hiring additional staff, you side-step the recruitment process, the cost of an annual salary, the down-time associated with training and all those additional expenses such as computers, phones and software licences. So if you’re either trying – and failing – to find the time to manage your marketing by yourself, or you’re thinking about hiring a marketing manager- stop! Maybe it’s time to start looking for an agency instead. To find out more about the advantages of strategic outsourcing and how it can help you drive profitability and growth, take a look at my article ‘Ten Reasons to Outsource your Marketing’ at www.blazemarketing.com.au Blaze Marketing specialises in providing marketing support to SMEs. For more information, call 02 8005 4000.
