Hiring A Marketing Firm? 5 Questions to Ask First
Bringing on external resources to help with your marketing sounds great. There’s even a term for it – Outsourced, or Pay-Per-Performance Marketing. According to Wikipedia: “Outsource marketing is the art of handing over the entire marketing demands of a company to a third party.” Sounds easy, right?
But how do you know you’re handing over part or all of your marketing to the right third party? There are five key ways outsourced marketing can be integral to the success of your business. And they each present pitfalls if you choose the wrong marketing firm.
1. Outsourced Marketing means a marketing program designed to fit your business – Will the Outsourced Marketing firm work with you to create a custom strategic marketing plan, identifying the resources needed to meet your business goals, with your budget in mind? If the firm presents you with a take-it-or-leave-it package, leave it.
2. Outsourced Marketing means you can stay focused on your core business – Will the Outsourced Marketing firm provide an experienced team to integrate, synchronize and manage dozens of marketing disciplines to execute that plan? Ask how they plan to create cross-discipline synergies. For example, will they be able to use content created for a blog, use it in a newsletter, support it with online advertising?
3. Outsourced Marketing means a more level playing field – While you focus on business innovation, will the Outsourced Marketing firm focus on proactive and responsive marketing to meets today’s ever-changing business environment? Check out the firm’s blog (yes, they should have a blog!) -are they pitching 2009-era SEO techniques (“we submit your website to thousands of online directories”)? Visit their website on a smartphone – do they ignore the fact that responsive websites (sites that are easily viewed on a smartphone) are the norm for 2014?
4. Outsourced Marketing means access to expertise in every discipline – Does the Outsourced Marketing firm have a large pool of vetted and approved experts? If they do, it means they can provide:
- Marketing, e-commerce & mobile websites
- Pay per Click advertising
- Print advertising
- Blogging & social media marketing
- Direct mail
- SEO/Search engine optimization
- Email & print newsletters
- Public Relations
- Trade shows& events
- Telemarketing
- Analytics
5. Outsourced marketing means you can expand your marketing programs without necessarily expanding your staff – But beware of marketing firms that charge you by the hour. Their economic interests may not naturally align with yours. Instead, look for firms that offer pay-per-performance services.
JointSourcing from Sales Renewal
Sales Renewal clients know that Outsourced Marketing with Sales Renewal works.
This is because our unique JointSourcing (“joint venture” + “outsourcing”) model – a comprehensive sales, marketing and technology solution – lets you outsource all the day-to-day marketing and technology work that increases your revenue – and demands so much of your time – to Sales Renewal, while we share with you the management, and a portion of the rewards and risks (similar to a joint venture).
Since our success is so closely tied to the success of your marketing:
1. We work closely with you during our Blueprint phase to create a custom strategic marketing plan. Together, we review this plan quarterly (or more often if requested) to be sure it continuously addresses your business needs.
2. We manage the many disciplines defined in your custom plan (our Sell phase). Since you know the programs, plan and budget in advance, we are able to work independently, consulting with you as needed for approvals and other input.
3. We stay abreast about new strategies, requirements, recommendations to be sure all the components of your plan are optimized for the ever-changing business environment. If we find an option that we believe will perform better, we’ll present you with an explanation of why we’d like to make a change or addition to your plan. If we feel something just isn’t working, we’ll make an alternative recommendation.
4. We act as a general contractor. We pull from an ever-growing, dependable group of experts and top-notch vendors in every discipline we offer. And we stay on top of them, too. For example, if an ad firm just isn’t producing the results we expect, we’ll work with them, and replace them if necessary.
5. We focus on the ROI of each marketing program, and the plan overall. Because our economic interests are closely aligned with yours, when we are able to optimize your profit, we are also optimizing ours.
If your company is considering an outsourced, pay-for-performance marketing solution, make sure you know who you’re handing your marketing over to! And if you’re interested in learning how Sales Renewal can help, contact us, and we’ll show you.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Bringing on external resources to help with your marketing sounds great. There’s even a term for it – Outsourced, or Pay-Per-Performance Marketing. According to Wikipedia: “Outsource marketing is the art of handing over the entire marketing demands of a company to a third party.” Sounds easy, right?
But how do you know you’re handing over some or all of your marketing to the right third party? There are five key ways outsourced marketing can be integral to the success of your business. And they each present pitfalls if you choose the wrong marketing firm.
