Business owners recognize that marketing is an important part of business growth. Once you’ve realized that outsourcing marketing responsibilities is more time and cost efficient, there are four important actions that will help you maximize results.
1. Allocate an Appropriate Budget
The adage you have to spend money to make money has some truth to it! When you reached out to marketing firms for proposals, you probably received a wide range of proposed costs, from $500 to $15,000 and more. Only you can decide what you are comfortable with, but at a minimum you should expect to pay $2500/month for targeted marketing services. You and your new marketing firm can discuss the best way to allocate your dollars and prioritize initiatives to fit your cost parameters. It’s important to be on the same page from the beginning.
2. Outline Expectations
Once you have chosen a firm, be sure your written contract outlines the firm’s services, fees and responsibilities, as well as the expectations of your business. While many services are self-explanatory, make sure you understand when additional fees may be charged, what approval process should be implemented for new or extended work and the communications commitment from the agency to your point of contact. Open communication can help avoid almost all misunderstandings.
3. Narrow Your Focus
When you initially hire a marketing firm, the first instinct may be to tackle every part of your outreach plan. A word of advice: take a breath! When you started your business, you couldn’t expect to tackle everything all at once. The same is true in marketing. Take the time to identify immediate and short-term and marketing goals. For example:
- IMMEDIATE (within two months): Establishing a social media presence.
- SHORT-TERM (within six months): Develop a lead generation campaign to capture contact information and regularly communicate with potential customers.
These will lead to measurable long-term results, such as increasing website visits by 100% or adding 500 subscribers to your email pipeline.
Your goals will change along your marketing journey, but having a general idea of where you want to start allows your business to gain a foothold in a certain area before moving on to more complicated marketing efforts.
4. Be Involved
Finally, be an active participant in the marketing efforts. There is no one that knows your business better than you. While your new marketing partner will suggest strategies and tools to communicate more effectively what you do, YOU are the best way to get your story out to potential customers. Working as a true partner will allow initiatives to be implemented more quickly and successfully.
Remember, you hired a marketing firm to help you identify the best way to promote your business and then execute the plan. Trust them!
This post is courtesy of MMC Account Manager Melissa Holder.