Every entrepreneur needs to know a few business-marketing basics — especially the famous,“4 P’s of Marketing”:
● Product
● Price
● Place
● Promotion
But every business owner needs someone to handle the marketing. Is that you; the owner, a current staff member or a new hire? What about working with an outside marketing firm?
Effective marketing…A long To-Do list
The most important and relevant marketing happens when an entrepreneur invests time to develop a comprehensive plan. Plus, strategic execution and results tracking must be a priority.
Having the right person (or people) in charge of developing and executing your marketing plan is crucial. Competency, dedication, and accountability for following the 4 Ps brings the greatest success. The responsibilities include:
● Market research
● Competitive analysis
● Metrics and data mining
● Customer service evaluation
● Sales and acquisition
● Brand promotion and management
● Advertising and promotions
● Effective communications
● Sales collateral development
● Special events and social media networking
● Online presences and ranking
Can you handle all this yourself? Should you?
You may know your industry inside and out, and have the knowledge and skills needed to execute a marketing plan. Think about this honestly. Do you have the time? Is that the best and most profitable way to spend your time?
Even if you have the marketing know-how, your time should be spent running your business and focusing on industry challenges and the future. Adding marketing responsibilities to your plate — especially the time-consuming marketing tactics, can eat up your day.
You can delegate and have an expert (or experts) handle it! But who can you trust?
There are three options when delegating marketing responsibilities:
1. Train a current employee and hope for the best
2. Add a new hire with marketing knowledge and experience to your payroll or…
3. Retain a marketing firm that has the experience, staff, tools and resources to benefit you.
At first glance, most business owners think it’s better and more affordable to have (or add) someone from the internal team.
But it turns out that the true cost of having an internal staff member or a new hire can be 1 to 1½ times the base salary alone. Once all costs are factored into the equation, i.e., such as recruiting, training, equipment, software, employee benefits, and more, the numbers paint a different picture.
A qualified marketing person should be a master at all of the responsibilities listed above. That employee may be hard to find, not very affordable, and you might still end up outsourcing some of the responsibilities.
Let’s compare.
The tables below break down the numbers concerning this decision:
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COST ANALYSIS:
Hiring a Marketing Manager vs. Hiring a Marketing Firm
Please note: Figures are approximate and rounded to nearest thousand; taken from Salary.com profile for a Marketing Manager.
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The many benefits of hiring a marketing firm.
Although you can work with a firm on a project-by-project basis, many clients rely on lower-fee retainer deals to act as “agency of record.” Your business is then added to the marketing firm’s production schedule and services are performed on a regular basis.
A marketing firm can provide you with:
● Expertise with your market niche
● Experience in developing and executing marketing plans
● Cost savings, thanks to the firm’s experience and ability to meet your specific needs
● No employee training required
● Time saved, since a marketing firm can typically execute your plan immediately
● Avoid H.R. issues
● No additional overhead
● Tax deductions, not tax liability
● Efficiency for short-term and urgent projects
● Access to resources, tools and solutions that can be costly to you on your own
It’s up to you.
Naturally, you have to do what you believe is best for your business. Our advice — examine the situation. Do your best to delegate and not handle the marketing yourself. You have a business to run.
Don’t just throw someone in a marketing position or hire someone because it’s convenient and affordable. In many cases, it’s the opposite, especially if that person does not have the skills truly need, or leaves after you’ve made an investment in them. Starting over can be very frustrating and more costly.
So which is it for your company — train your office manager to do your marketing, hire a new marketing director, or partner with a marketing firm?
If you are still not sure, contact EnvisionWorksMarketing.com and evaluate all of your options.