Many businesses have decided to outsource their marketing. By outsourcing your marketing, you’re benefiting from the expertise of professionals in the field. You can’t be expected to do everything, which is why outsourcing makes sense… for a while at least.
As your business grows, your needs will change. You might find you have more complex marketing needs, as well as the capacity to grow your headcount. Once your company starts expanding, it could be more cost-effective to bring your marketing in-house.
Think you’re ready to bring your marketing in-house? Give the following a read first.
Reasons to bring your marketing in-house
Cost
When marketing is only a small element of your business, it makes sense to outsource or to give the work to a freelancer – especially if it’s not full-time work. However, when your company grows, your marketing efforts should too. Instead of one dedicated person, the marketing efforts can now require several team members to take over. Social media, design, copywriting, etc. efforts will need to increase. This will most likely lead to higher fees from an external agency, which could be better spent in-house.
Keep knowledge and data in-house
Outsourcing marketing involves trusting your business’ details with others. They will also have a great deal of analytical information, from social media, sales, trends, etc. As your business grows, so does the risk of this information falling into the wrong hands. They can also be selective as to what information they choose to share with you.
By bringing your marketing in-house, you can have a better grasp of your own data and analyze it to help you make better decisions going forward. There are some amazing social media analytics tools that can help you get to know your customers, making it easier for you to plan campaigns that are truly tailored to your business’ needs. By developing an in-house team, you’ll help them to become experts on your customers developing strategies for continued business growth.
Higher volume of output
When you work with an external marketing agency, it can take longer to accomplish specific tasks. There could be multiple sign-offs needed to approve work, and with the back and forth, you may find things aren’t as instant as you might have liked. By bringing your marketing activity in-house, you’ll stand a better chance of handling a higher volume of output. Getting instant decisions and being able to add tweaks where needed will help make processes faster and simpler. It will help you take better ownership of your marketing activities.
Establishing an in-house marketing team
Work out what you need
Different businesses have different requirements when it comes to their marketing teams. Yours will be very unique to your own business. There are essential positions your marketing department will need, including a marketing manager, campaign executives, contributors, analytics specialists, and others. Among the people you may want on your content team are graphic designers, video producers, and copywriters. You could find that many of the people you hire are multi-skilled, which could help bring many interesting skills and talents to your company.
Hire the right people
Your marketing team needs to be a well-gelled, well-oiled machine that is capable of delivering ambitious and creative campaigns. It’s not always easy to find a team that works well together, but with the right recruitment plan, you can make it happen. Hiring your marketing dream team should involve looking for various skills and experience – you’ll want a mixture of people with experience in the industry, as well as up and coming talent who are passionate and enthusiastic. If you’re looking for a team that works well together, you might want to consider group interviews, especially if you’re looking at multiple hires at once.
Get the right equipment
For your team to do their best work, they’re going to need the right equipment. To make sure they have the right tech/software, talk to your team to see what they need to succeed. There are many things that are beneficial to have in-house, including high-spec printers to carry out large print jobs for posters, banners, etc. For example, consider a vinyl machine from vinylcuttingmachineguide.com. They can be useful for printing signage for all kinds of events and marketing purposes. Equipment will be an added expense to your budget, but it’s one that will be necessary for your team to get the job done.
Develop a training plan
The marketing industry is constantly changing as different trends emerge and develop. It’s important you continue to upskill your team, making sure they have the skills and knowledge necessary to make an impact. Training and development is important for any business. By providing your team with regular training and development opportunities, you’ll enable them to progress in their careers and continue doing some excellent work on behalf of the company. Remember to ask them where their interests lie. You never know what talents you might uncover that could be a vital asset to your team.
Making your in-house marketing a success
Establish a strategy
Behind an excellent marketing team is an amazing marketing strategy. Having a marketing strategy will keep the team in alignment with the overall mission and provide guidance and direction. Building an effective marketing strategy should include several elements, such as establishing your unique selling proposition (USP), creating a content plan, assigning budgets, and working out who your targets are.
A marketing strategy should be ongoing and reviewed regularly. Your strategy will change and develop. As you work to launch different products and services, different markets and new customers, you’ll need to adjust your strategy. Marketers are creative individuals, so include your team when developing the strategy.
Promote communication
Marketing and communication go hand in hand, but a lack of internal communication can signal a big problem for your team. There are multiple ways you can improve your workplace communication to help you engage better with your team and make sure that everyone feels involved and informed.
Developing a communications strategy is important, especially when it comes to managing marketing projects. Providing your team with a platform to share ideas, get feedback and updates is important. In doing so the team will work more cohesively to achieve goals. If you want your team to work well together, strong communication policies and processes need to be in place from the start.
Give time and space for creative thinking
Marketing professionals are creative thinkers. If you want them to come up with wide-ranging, impactful campaigns, they’re going to need to work in an environment that allows for this. Many modern companies are designing their offices to be creative workplaces with breakout areas, hot-desking and plenty of meeting space to allow employees to share ideas and bounce off each other.
It also helps to get your marketing team out of the office. Staying up to date on the latest marketing trends and practices is essential for staying ahead of the game. You’ll want to send them out to experience as much as possible. From shadowing other companies to attending conferences and events, this knowledge-sharing should be welcomed and encouraged.
Evaluate
To determine whether or not your team’s efforts have been successful, you should have an evaluation process. Busy teams, in particular, can find it difficult to evaluate their work, as they’re already looking ahead to the next project. However, the right evaluation toolkit could help ensure that campaigns are analyzed in detail, with ideas on how to make things bigger and better.
In addition to evaluation, employees should be rewarded for delivering excellent results. Marketing teams work hard to pull off campaigns at every level, and they should be recognized and rewarded for their achievements. Recognition and reward can help to create engaged and happy employees. This is important for ensuring low staff turnover and helping your employees do their best work for the company. Even an acknowledgment via email or in a meeting can help to make employees feel appreciated. Consider the various ways you can thank your team for a job well done and don’t forget to actually do them.
Marketing is at the heart of your business, helping to drive it forward, generating leads that could turn into profits. By bringing your marketing in-house, you’ll have greater control over output and content. You’ll be able to develop a world-class team that truly understands the business’ mission. Whether you hire a small team or a larger team, you’ll soon experience the significant impact in-house marketing can have on your business. Here’s to YOUR success!
Carolyn R. Owens has over 25 years of proven experience and serves as a Career Strategist, Executive and Leadership Coach. She is the President of Infinity Coaching, Inc. where she can help you up-level your skills, so you can up-level your income, career, business or life. Infinity Coaching, Inc. provides coaching, organizational training, personality assessments, and a signature program, the Infinity Coaching Inner Circle. Carolyn is certified to give both The Energy Leadership Index Assessment and Myers Briggs Type Indicator Assessment. You can find out more about both assessments and other products and services at https://infinitycoaching.net.
