If you’re a small business owner chances are you’re a highly independent person who doesn’t have a marketing agency relationship. You probably agree with the motto “If you want to get it done right, do it yourself” and likely have expertise in several different areas.
But do you know how to recognize when it is time to call on outside collaboration, for your own good and the good of your business?
A marketing agency provides a service which many small businesses feel they can handle in-house, often with the belief that they can provide these services to themselves at a lower cost than businesses who prefer an outside marketing agency. However there are a number of factors that make a partnership with a professional marketing team a cost-effective- and downright effective- solution for small businesses.
How Does Marketing Make You Feel?
Regarding their marketing needs, small businesses often lack:
- the talent and resources to execute
- the time required
- the understanding in how to proceed
These deficiencies can result in:
- the need for further resources
- time taken away from other, core, business activities
- less than optimal results
In the end an in-house marketing campaign often boils down to more time/money spent and less achieved. Let’s look at the problem from another point of view- what is it that an external marketing agency offers which a small business lacks?
First of all, full-time marketers are marketing experts, and, especially when it comes to the digital part of the field, being up-to-date with the latest technologies and practices is a must. But it’s not about a marketing agency’s costly software. The terrain of digital marketing is a constantly shifting quicksand, and practitioners who don’t keep up with the pace of change are quickly sucked under.
Think about your company’s presence in digital marketing. Are you sure that you can compete with bigger businesses? Does your in-house marketer stay current with all of the latest developments in the field? Importantly, are you satisfied with the amount of the work day which is dedicated to marketing efforts? Marketing should not become an activity which requires so much time that other more fundamental tasks are ignored.
A common belief of small business owners is that marketing campaigns run in-house are likely to have more continuity of message than those run by an external collaborator. The reality is that the most important factor in achieving continuity of message is stability. And stability is more simply reached by an outside team than by members of the staff of your growing business who likely have to change hats several times throughout the day, month, and year.
Collaboration With A Marketing Agency
Collaboration with an external marketing agency is a step which allows you and your employees to focus on your core activities- the things which they are supposed to be experts on. You probably hire an outside tax specialist to file your returns and wouldn’t make one of your employees spend months of time studying tax code just to be able to get a decent job done and say you take care of it in-house. It isn’t a sound decision from a financial or operative point of view, as your employee will probably never do as good a job as a tax specialist, and hours of his or her contribution to more fundamental activities would be lost.
Marketing in the digital age is a task of significant complexity. Consider the advantages of a collaboration with an outside agency for you, your employees and your business. You will be surprised to find that precisely the objectives you had in mind when you decided to handle the work on your own- cost-effectiveness and stability of message- are best achieved with an outside collaboration.
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About James Vanzo
James is a content marketer for SalesBlend. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT.