Creating and sustaining a strong brand is essential for the success of any organization, but many companies do not have the in-house staff necessary to accomplish that. Outsourcing your marketing services to a trusted, talented team is a natural and inevitable step in a company’s growth.
Hiring outside will enable you to leverage the skills and knowledge of that team, expand your capabilities and increase your impact. The team will not only make your marketing efforts more effective, they will also make them more efficient.
The team’s experience in the marketing realm means they can be highly productive in executing and completing the initiatives you set, letting you achieve your goals more quickly. As with any job, hiring successful, experienced people will ensure the job is done well.
How Do You Find Your Ideal Marketing Team?
Start by defining your goals. Brand strategy, graphic design, digital marketing, content creation, or social media management are all areas that a good marketing team will help you strengthen and grow, but it is helpful if you can delineate where you would like their focus to be. This will give you a better way to discern a creative team that can address those particular goals.
Look for a team with relevant expertise and a track record of success that aligns with your goals. The right team will understand your target audience, your business sector, and associated market trends. It is beneficial, but not necessary, that they have experience in your sector. For example, if you are a service-based business and they have done other services they could be a good fit, whereas if they do mostly consumer packaged goods, they may not be the right team for your needs.
Do you like their work? As you view their portfolio or case studies, you should see things that you want to implement or that you admire.
Does the company have several long-standing clients? If so, this is a testament to good working relationships and strong results. Trillion takes great pride in having many long-standing, mutually beneficial and successful relationships with our clients.
Consider the Specifics of How You Will Work with an Outsourced Marketing Team
Who will be the point person in your organization interacting with the marketing team? If you have a marketing person on staff, think about how the team will be integrated to work with them. At Trillion, we often work with marketers to augment and enhance their efforts. It would be counterproductive if we were seen as a threat of some kind. We strive for a good balance: perhaps the person has strong marketing skills but needs help with the design and other creative components that we are well-equipped to deliver. These scenarios create significant benefits.
How much involvement do you want to have with your outsourced team’s operations? Do you want to be advised of the general status of projects as they unfold, or do you prefer to just learn about the results?
What Should You Ask a Potential Marketing Team?
Of course, you will discuss the implementation of your marketing goals and plans, but it is also practical to discuss the daily details of how you will work together. How often will you be in contact? How will you communicate with each other? At Trillion, we communicate with our clients on the platforms they use. One of our clients uses Basecamp, and they simply added us to their group as their preferred way to keep in touch. Our other clients might just use email or Google platforms, so we use those. We want to become integrated and place importance on making things easier for our clients.
- Ask about the specifics of their team and capabilities:
- Can they generate digital content?
- Do they have excellent designers on staff?
- Can they conceptualize and produce video?
- Do they design and build websites?
- Evaluate their scope of services to ensure they are well-positioned to help you reach your goals now and as you grow over several years.
How Do You Know It’s a Good Fit?
Choosing your marketing team is a big commitment. If you’re feeling hesitant, consider a trial period. Instead of embarking on a multi-year agreement, you could try an introductory three to six-month trial period, after which either party could exit easily—but you can use this time to better define the level of support you need. You could also try a paid sample project.
You could also ask for references relating to specific portfolio samples on their website; for example, if you liked a product launch they worked on, you could ask to be put in touch with that particular client. The more information you can gather, the more confident you can be in your decision.
Evaluating the Cost of an Outsourced Marketing Team
Of course, you must have a clear understanding of all the budget and pricing aspects, but keep in mind that having a marketing team and its resources at your disposal is far less expensive than an in-house team would be–and can be far more effective. Outsourcing provides you with experienced personnel and a diverse bank of talent that would be exponentially more expensive to create in-house.
An outside team can also be readily responsive to your changing needs since they have the staff or contacts to implement a wide variety of services. You may be using their print and direct mail services one month, and then use their UX designers to update your website the next.
The right team will afford you many benefits and opportunities. Paired with defined, attainable goals, outsourcing your marketing will be a very beneficial investment.
What are Your Marketing Needs?
At Trillion, we have had the good fortune to work with many varieties of organizations to help them achieve their marketing goals. Our talented team of creative professionals, marketers, writers, and designers gives us the flexibility and expertise to provide our clients with a full range of services. We’d love to help you succeed! If you are wondering if an outsourced marketing team is the right choice for your organization, reach out to Trillion. Give us a call at 908.219.4703 or complete our contact form.
