How big does your company need to be before you use marketing professionals?

For brands who are growing  and becoming profitable there comes a time when you choose to professionalise your marketing.  Many businesses decide at this point that they have two choices: to hire a staffer or to buy in expertise from an agency.

Why you need better marketing

The needs are clear – you want more traction with your marketing, you suspect that there are better ways of doing promotion and marketing to get inbound leads and you can afford a budget just for marketing.  These are good signs.

You have identified clearly that your brand has a need and the possible shortcomings of your current set-up.

Hire versus buy: the dilemma

There are advantages and disadvantages – the internal member of staff will need to have well-rounded skills in a range of marketing disciplines (web, advertising, PR, copywriting, print design) and therefore a senior hire with this range of skills is more expensive than a junior.

Using an agency also requires decisions about their skills and area of expertise compared with the type of marketing and communications activity your brand has done in the past or plans to do in the future.

Costs are usually the determining factor

It may be less costly to hire external advisers compared to the cost of a senior member of staff – compare the full cost of hiring and paying (including office costs) a new senior marketer with the price an agency would charge you.

Have a couple of ‘chemistry’ or getting-to-know-you meetings with local marketing agencies and ask their advice.  Also ask to speak to a couple of their recent clients to see if they also made the same transition.

A third option worth reviewing is using a freelancer.  You don’t have the full hire costs of a full time person but can often get very experienced people at lower fee rates.  Check out the freelance hire websites like eLance.com and Freelance.com, Freelancer.com and guru.com.  I’ve successfully hired people for my agency and for clients using eLance.

Creative Agency Secrets has two current clients who use us for mentoring work.  They hired a junior marketer and we speak weekly to review their work, priorities and give guidance.  Could this work for you?  Give us a call – we always offer a free 20 minute first call.

In the meanwhile here are a few other articles that may help you figure out what to do

• Advertising – do it yourself or hire
• Hire a PR firm or do it yourself?
• Do it yourself internet marketing, or hire
• Hubspot offers inbound marketing tutorials for people using its website / content marketing system.
• Read Creative Agency Secrets’ assessment of Hubspot and how to do it yourself
• SEO do it yourself or hire a professional
• Small Business marketing – DIY or hire a pro?
• Web design – do it yourself or hire someone
• DIY or hire a market research company?

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There's hype and then there's the reality of a true step-change in the way we live and do business. 

The language of conversations in business are now real and happening.

Already companies that speak the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show are no longer speaking to anyone.

That was written 10, yes TEN years ago.  It's numver 17 in the Cluetrain Manifesto .

I was re-reading it (helpfully scribed into a slide show by Micheal Specht thanks!) 

And here are some of the others that resonate

27.  Public Relations does not relate to the public.  Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.

 41.  Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die.

54.  There are two conversations going on.  One inside the company.  One with the market.

75.  We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.

96.  We are waking up and linking to each other.  We are watching.  But we are not waiting.

And some with a recessionary theme

32.  Networked markets can change suppliers overnight.  Networked knowledge workers can change employers over lunch. YOur own "downsizing initiatives" taught us to ask the question: "Loyalty? What's that?"

72.   Your tired notions of "the market" make our eyes glaze over.  We don't recognise ourselves in your projections – maybe because we know we are already elsewhere.

77.  We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for.  Got a minute?

Nuff said, really.  But please do reappraise your own company website and other media.  How good are you at joining the conversation?  As I posted before,"If they don't do it themselves, chances are they aren't as knowledgeable about it as they should".  Would you hire an agency to do social media for you if they weren't active in social media themselves?  How about public relations, or direct marketing? 

There are new agencies being founded on this principle.  Check out We Are Social, Brando Digital and The Conversation Group.

and Flourish are using 'the art of conversation' as branding

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