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Not many small businesses have the resources – or time – to do their marketing in-house. Well, some try to do it regardless, and end up not doing a very good job of it.
However, outsourcing your marketing can be a blessing or a nightmare – for you and/or the people you outsource it to.
Over the years, we have worked with all types of clients, and we have spoken to many of our peers…
We have seen some patterns emerge – and here are a few that stand out:
The facts about outsourcing your marketing.
1. Most so-called “marketing agencies” out there are one-person operations.
You are hiring a consultant, planner, content creator and task executor all in one.
It’s not really a bad thing. In most cases, that one person is quite capable – and sometimes very capable indeed – of delivering on what you need and agreed upon.
You also have the added benefit of dealing directly with the person who does the job, and not with someone in charge who delegates (to someone whose competence level you cannot determine).
However, it also comes with some limitations, and your interaction with them can have side effects.
For starters, they can only handle a few clients at any given time. Many marketing tasks are tedious and time consuming, and require attention to detail.
Many of those can only be done at certain times of the day (think social interaction, which is best done when your target audience is active – and that differs between platforms too).
Then there is the continuous quest for learning and keeping up to date on new developments, and of course, if one of those clients drops off, the somewhat frantic search to find a replacement.
The bottom line is that:
a. Your marketing “agent” is often spread quite thin. They work long hours just to make everything happen at the right time – so you can derive the maximum benefit off what they do.
b. One person can only handle so much – physically and mentally.
2. Additional time demands can destroy their lives.
Depending on the nature of your marketing services agreement, it is likely that your outsourced marketer will be spending a few hours per day on the tasks dedicated to growing your business.
If you are the type of person who likes to engage in constant communications, be aware that it places additional demands on their – already limited) time.
Fair enough, if something needs to be said and sorted out, then it needs to be done. But if it is a pattern…
The additional time you demand has to come from somewhere. It has to come from their personal time, which can destroy relationships and cause mental health issues, or it has to come out of their sleep allocation, which can in turn impact their ability to do their jobs, or it has to come off another client’s time allocation…
Which is likely to result in that client leaving, and the outsourced marketer losing a chunk of their income due to your demands on their time.
And no, they won’t tell you. They will just suck it up and do the best they can.
By the way, that is why we don’t hand out WhatsApp numbers. While we do the best we can to be available, we do have boundaries.
(we are not a one person operation, but we don’t have cheap labor for the menial tasks either)
3. Don’t expect their commitment if you don’t commit.
Commitment is a two-way street. If you are the kind of person who only outsources some of their marketing tasks, and do so infrequently, or in volumes so small that it will not improve your exposure…
Do not expect priority treatment when you do send a batch of tasks. They will be looking after their steady clients first – as they should.
4. In most industries, marketing takes time. Don’t expect results in a month.
Yes, there are some industries where it is possible to generate lots of eyeballs on your content right off the bat, but in most cases, it takes time to build an audience and rack up the numbers. Not to mention that SEO takes quite a bit of time too, especially when it comes to the point where you need to do link building.
Depending on the industry sector you operate in, be prepared to spend anything from three to six months before you seen any real results.
Side note: If you think that paid advertising is a faster alternative, you may want to hold on to your money for now. In today’s highly competitive advertising landscape, it takes time to find the right targeting, and get the costs down. Most media buyers expect their clients to commit to three months to allow them to be able to do that.
Unless, of course, you have deep pockets to accelerate the process – in which case you probably wouldn’t mind paying for the three to six months it would take to generate organic traffic (so you can do both, and eventually have access to very cheap, steady traffic
5. If you don’t trust them to do the job, don’t hire them.
This may sound off, but it’s a brutal truth. Many owners and managers struggle to delegate, and turn to micromanaging their employees and outsourced workers in order to maintain control.
If someone offers their services as a professional marketer or marketing agency, they are not like your other employees. They have their own small business.
If you choose to micromanage them, it is usually incredibly demotivating. In fact, the more competent the person is, the more demotivating it is for them.
Aside from placing additional demands on their time, which can wreak havoc on their lives and income, it also signals a lack of trust in their capabilities.
Considering the fact that it takes up to six months to see real results…
You being on their case every single day doesn’t exactly allow them the time they need to prove themselves.
So, if you don’t trust them to get the job done, and don’t trust them to do it the way you want it done…
Don’t hire them.
Otherwise, agree on a set of content- and operational parameters, and let them get on with the job. If you don’t, everybody loses in the end.
6. The rate you pay determines your attitude:
Yes, you read that correctly. We have seen it over and over again over the years. Clients fight to get the rates down – and once they have them down to where they want them, they treat you like any employee working for that hourly rate.
We lack the psychological background to know whether it is due to the fact that “it is cheap”, or whether it is a matter of “price anchoring” (to that of a lower level employee), or whether there is something else at play.
We have, however, noted the pattern.
The problem is that, if you treat someone as if they are on a lower level than they are…
The results they produce will probably be what you should expect from someone on that level, and not the results they COULD have brought you.
This, again, leads to demotivation, and – just like micromanagement – everybody loses in the end.
There is an old expression saying that “what you pay for is what you get”.
When you bully your marketing agent into working for a lower rate…
Don’t expect them to do their absolute best.
This is why most marketing agencies charge several thousand dollars per month – because (a) that is what they are worth) and (b) so they can afford to spend the necessary time to generate the results you want.
If you pay someone what they are worth, it shows that you respect their expertise and capabilities. Not to mention it is fair.
7. Don’t expect your marketing agency to work miracles if you don’t know what you are doing:
Over the years, we have come across several businesses that didn’t have a business plan – not even a basic one. We have come across many that had NO idea who they were marketing to.
If you don’t know what you are aiming for, how can you expect someone else to achieve it for you?
There have been instances when companies wanted us to draw up a business plan – as if it were something you do in ten minutes.
Fair enough, with AI the tools available today you could probably do it.
But having a business plan generated by AI doesn’t mean that it…
a. Will work for YOU.
b. Will contain any specific strategic positioning.
c. Will align with your values.
d. Will be a plan you are willing to stick to.
And if you don’t stick to the business plan, it means that your marketing agency is flying blind.
The bottom line is this:
Your marketing agency is not a business consulting firm. And yes, those firms charge more than marketing agencies.
But if you cannot figure out your whole business plan yourself, you need to get help to do it.
Because if you don’t know where you are going, or how to get there…
How can you expect someone else – who knows nothing about your business – to get you there?