How could your business benefit from an outsourced Marketing director?

This month we have a Guest Blogger!

Nicole from Pinpoint Marketing kindly shares her thoughts on why your small business needs an outsourced Marketing Manager!

How much time do you spend managing your business and its marketing whether this is time spent planning and strategising, or delivering hands on campaigns and implementation?

And how much does this take you away from running your business and doing what is it that you love? Being a B2B owner can be lonely and it can be a juggle with a small team to look after, the business to run, clients to keep happy as well as doing everything else marketing, admin, HR and finance wise.

Outsourcing areas of your business, including your marketing strategy and tactical plan, can save you and your small business money and time in the long run. After the initial investment of time and budget has been made, which is nearly always heavy upfront when it comes to marketing, your business will start to get a process together, gain consistency, see results and then implementing repetitive campaigns. Outsourcing can also mean flexibility, experience and extra resource for a small business.

If you onboarded an outsourced Marketing Director, how could he or she help and support you? How could your business benefit from such a resource?

• They can be someone to bounce ideas off and be an extra pair of ears and eyes
• They can be a confidante to you as the business owner
• They can be a cheerleader for you, the business, the team and the services offered
• They can get to know you and the business and then become a referrer/source of referrals
• They can be someone to brainstorm with and to inspire you, like one of the team
• They can train your team on marketing processes, ways to things, and the reasons why
• They can keep you accountable and on track
• And much more including your business getting expertise at a high level as well receiving bespoke advice and support …

An outsourced Marketing Director should be all of these things at all times and at different times, and they should be flexible in their role, to enable you the business owner to thrive and achieve. Of course with outsourcing there isn’t the financial tie in or need to pay holiday or sick pay and so on. You can use your director as and when you, they and the business decides and dictates. The time needed may be more initially as the relationship is bedded in, then any support can be lessened as routines and processes and training gets underway. A positive open mind is the key.

What do you outsource in your business? And if you had budget to, what else would you outsource?

Why does your small business need marketing?

What is marketing really about? And what is it not?

When you study marketing, you are taught about the four P’s. These are price, product, place and promotion, the pillars or foundations if you like for any small business either embarking on marketing or reviewing and assessing the marketing they are already doing to make changes and improvement. The 4 P’s are a great grounding as everything a small business does addresses one of these areas. However, because of the way of the world, the variety of markets and industries, and the set-up of each of our small businesses, there isn’t a set formula for marketing. Although it’s not rocket science, marketing is also not an exact science, which means small business owners feel nervous of taking even the initial simple steps. These tips and pieces of advice will hopefully help you understand the why of marketing and the benefits of marketing.

Marketing isn’t a tick box exercise

Don’t try and cover all the channels and do everything at once because you won’t sustain this level of activity and because not all channels or routes to market are suitable for all businesses. You need to know your audience and your messaging and your goals/reasons why before selecting the channel and implementing any marketing. Do your homework and research first. Yes it will take longer but it will be worth it in the end.

Stop the overwhelm and take action

Marketing is for the long term, and you are in it for the long haul. It can be overwhelming to start marketing your small business, but with a strategy and a plan, the overwhelm can be dissipated by breaking down the tasks that fall under “marketing” into step by step actions all with the same purpose in mind. A plan will also help you and your business to get organised and to manage your resource and budget in a staged and ongoing consistent way. Small businesses do not have endless time or pots of money, so we need to ensure what we do has a purpose and that it is as impactful as possible.

What is the ROI?

And once any marketing has been implemented to your ideal clients and audience, measure it! Know your ROI, follow up and understand what is working and what isn’t. Then repeat your successes and divert budget and time away from what isn’t working. Measuring helps avoid guess work and leaving things to chance.

So to summarise, the reasons why small businesses need marketing is to get your service out there to the right people at the right time and engage them to take action and make a purchase.