(2.5 min. read)
Raise your hand if you have an in-house marketing team. You are fortunate if you do. A small business owner wears many hats, and it often includes being the marketing department. “Do more with less staff” has been the business norm for years but it’s exhausting. What if you could shift a few of those responsibilities off to someone else in a way that works within your budget and comfort level? What if you outsourced your marketing plan? Remember, outsourcing simply means finding an individual or external agency that understands your business goals to perform specific tasks so you can focus on running your business more efficiently.
What Would it Look Like?
There are a few options to consider when it comes to outsourcing your marketing plan. The obvious advantage to handling it yourself is that you know how you want your brand to be represented. You won’t need to share your vision with anyone else. In this regard, it’s easy to manage yourself or one other person, and not have to oversee or communicate direction to an outside party. But you need to ask yourself if this is really the best use of your time. Taking the time to sit down with a qualified marketing partner to communicate your vision, goals and how you want your brand perceived can be tremendously advantageous.
You can certainly find a company (GLM Custom for one) to take it all on, freeing you up to focus on more important tasks, such as business development and expansion, as well as the handling of the day-to-day functions of your business. The right partner should allow you to retain or give up as much control as you feel is optimal. There may some things you feel need to stay under your thumb, while others can be delegated right off your to-do list.
Benefits to a Partial Outsource
Should you decide to hire a third party to manage some of the workload, start by sitting down to review your marketing strategy. Which functions would you like help with? Bringing on a partner to manage some or all of these functions can boost your brand in big ways. It can increase the quality and quantity of your content, streamline processes and establish frequent and uniform content delivery that will help establish your brand as an industry leader.
Consider these elements that have outsourcing potential:
- Social Media
- Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Content Creation
- Content Marketing
- Marketing Strategy
- Branding
How to Decide
It is difficult to answer that question because the answer is different for every business. How much is your time worth and how much are you willing (and able) to invest in the growth of your brand? Using your marketing strategy as noted above can help you determine your current marketing workload. Are there things on your plan that are outside of your current skill set or those of your employees? What about your time? Always remember that finding a good work-life balance is an important element to any successful business.
Consider this analogy: The weight of a glass of water is dependent on how long you hold the glass. The longer you hold onto it, the heavier it gets. It can be the same with your marketing plan. The longer you try to hold onto things you may not have time for, the heavier they can weigh you down. Maybe it’s time to put the glass down and consider outsourcing a portion or all of your marketing plan and/or process. The decision can be a difficult one, but the benefits are many. It can guarantee a professional look to your brand across all marketing channels and can be less expensive than adding to head count. According to Rock Content, 37% of small businesses outsource some type of function, including marketing, while 66% of larger brands tend to also use outsourcing in some form. (Source: https://rockcontent.com/blog/outsourcing-statistics/)
GLM Custom delivers solutions and services custom tailored to fit the needs and meet the goals of growing brands. Our expansive offerings include full-service sales and marketing capabilities, custom publishing and content marketing, social media management, and a suite of design services.
For more than 40 years, GLM has served as an asset and a proven go-to partner. Our extensive experience allows us to support, guide and continually improve the standard for our clients. Our hands-on customer care approach and impeccable reputation have allowed us to maintain
relationships that span decades.
Give us a call today – (844) GLM-2456 or visit us at www.glminc.com