Whether you are just getting your business off the ground, or you are in a spot where your business needs to change, it’s important to think about how to best market your business.
For many small businesses, marketing is often pushed aside in favor of more tangible things like production and customer service. However, as you grow, you’ll find that marketing is something that you need to consider, and then the question becomes whether you should consider training your own or hiring out to an agency.
Time Investment
The most important thing to consider is your time. One thing every small business entrepreneur learns is that his time is precious. While you may be able to understand the broad strokes of marketing and what it is meant to do, you might not be in a great place when it comes to understanding the intricacies of what needs to be done and when. It is possible for you to get that kind of training, and it is possible for you to learn more about it, but at the end of the day, it takes time that you may need to be spending elsewhere.
Control
Another thing for you to consider is control. If you train your own marketing personnel, you will have complete control over it. On the other hand, a marketing agency that you hire is going to be something that you do not directly control, and they will operate much more independently in the long run. Consider where you are when it comes to matters of control, and how much control you need to feel good about your marketing. In many cases, it is a good idea to step back and to allow your marketing to run independently while you take care of other things.
Personnel
If you are thinking about marketing and what it could do for you company, you’ll find that you should also think about the marketing personnel you are able to find. Good marketing professionals are expensive—and they should be. They use their skills to bring people to your business, and they form an essential piece of your company. If you want to hire marketers and train them, you will be paying a premium for good people. This is why so many companies end up with unpaid interns. While interns do work for free, you also get what you pay for!
When you hire a marketing agency, you’ll find that you are in a perfect spot to get the personnel you need at a reduced cost. You will be billed a certain number of hours as any other contractor would, and you will not need to pay things like health insurance costs or unemployment insurance. Instead, you will find that marketing agencies do a great deal to act independently and to make sure you only deal with the things that are strictly necessary.
Company Growth
As your company is growing, you need to think about what growth pattern works best. While some companies make it a point to outsource everything, others always want to keep their departments in-house. Chances are good that your own strategy will be a mix of the two, and when it comes to marketing, it is really up to you.
Consider what your company needs and where it is going. Any growing company, regardless of the stage of its growth, needs a marketing department. A marketing department makes a company visible to prospective clients, and it also ensures that it will able to get the kind of results that it needs. If you are thinking about a marketing department, consider how you want to move forward with care!
