If your business is considering outsourcing marketing, you’re in good company. And it’s a worthwhile consideration because the best marketing can’t be done in a vacuum.
A great way to ensure you achieve your goals is to outsource, ideally to marketing professionals with a proven track record, published in case studies.
Is this you?
- Your business has grown quicker than you anticipated (congrats!) and it’s become impossible to keep up with your vision for email workflow.
- Customers tend to arrive through word of mouth but you know there’s untapped potential in audience demographics you haven’t considered.
- You’ve been struggling to scale, you want to urge more people along that buyer’s journey to a decision, and you need fresh ideas.
Good marketing is hard to do for yourself when your customers come first, and internal marketing efforts are often deprioritized until businesses have taken a hit. Even if you find the time, it can be difficult to see yourself clearly and identify your own strengths and weaknesses. An external marketer will make the time for you; their mission is to understand you. They’ll embody curiosity with deep-dive questions, gather audience feedback and implement testing to make an improvement plan based on your goals.
Possible Roadblocks to a Successful Marketing Partnership
You may be concerned about outsourcing your marketing for a number of reasons.
Perhaps you fear that an external marketer won’t have a firm grasp on the nuances of your business. That’s fair. But an experienced marketing professional has a plan for getting to know you. And at EVOLVE, we have weekly (but flexible to your schedule) check ins to continuously iron out those nuances.
You might also think that you can’t afford an agency. Depending on your situation, you may be right. But we’re there when you need it. And we’re a full-service agency that can switch from content marketing to strategy to SEO to website design and back… all on a retainer that could cost you less than one in-house marketing specialist.
Making the Best Choice in a Marketing Partner
Finding success when you outsource your marketing depends a lot on who you choose.
A crucial part of their research should be getting to know you, your needs, and your goals. Perhaps you’ve got an incredibly thoughtful and well-researched marketing plan documented, but you simply don’t have the time to execute.
The kind of questions a good marketer should ask you:
- What does success look like for this project?
- What does your current marketing strategy look like and where does our project fit into this plan?
- What do you feel are your biggest roadblocks to achieving these goals?
- What’s not on your website, but is documented internally?
- What metrics do you report to key decision-makers, and how have these trends evolved over the past two years?
- How can our team be a more effective marketing partner to you?
Behind all good marketing is time spent on research. And good marketing research means starting from the beginning with you. The right marketing partner will get to know you first, before honing in on your brand voice and translating that into a message that works. They’ll discover your assumptions and do the research to validate them. They’ll learn about your goals and review alignment with what you’re putting out into the world.
It’s about getting in touch with our humanness, and it’s also about getting technical.
Tip: Something to ask a marketing professional before signing them: How do you measure success?
…Or, when do you think I’ll see a return on this investment?
A Marketing Process for Success
At EVOLVE, we’ll let YOU tell us what YOUR goals are, but we’re also more than happy to help you brainstorm. You don’t need to know what to do OR do it. We’ll reverse engineer what your goals are, hear about your daily work, highlight the value-add pieces that you may not even notice you’re doing. We’ll also challenge you to try new things and create a story that reflects the value that you do. Basically, we’re wizards with questions and we won’t give up until we’ve gotten in touch with what you and your target customers actually care about.
We’re flexible and we’ll fill in the gap, whatever that is. Perhaps your team has the capacity and capability to innovate, but execution isn’t a strong suit, or the conversation simply continues to get tabled. Whatever you need, we’re here so you can focus on running your business knowing that we’re backing you, bringing you insights and helping you grow.
As a marketing agency, it’s our job to continuously dig deep, stay in touch with industry trends and innovate with marketing delivery. A strong marketing plan from EVOLVE will take into consideration every stage of the buyer’s journey and take ownership of the roadmap we create, to get you where you want to go.
For example, when we teamed up with Rebellious Unicorns, we knew they wanted to drive ticket sales for their in-person events and boost sales through their online merch shop. We strategized and executed a brand redesign, advanced targeting of PPC campaigns, strategy optimization for social media content, website management, and more. And when all was said and done, we were able to return to them boasting a 112% increase in marketing attributed sales!
When we partnered with Vernon Pride, the goal was to create a new, cohesive brand identity and website that would attract volunteers and sponsors and improve user’s eCommerce experience. Thanks to the rush job done just in time to promote Vernon Pride Week, their social media engagement rates reached peak highs, with a 10% increase in followers, 17% increase in conversion rates, and more success.
An external marketing partner might have the ability to take you more seriously than you yourself do, and as you can see, this can have some incredibly fruitful results.
The extent to which good marketing can help you achieve your goals is not to be underestimated. Some would even say that outsourcing your marketing is the key to scaling your business.
Outsourcing means you can keep a laser focus on delivering the highest quality products and services and let us marketing professionals bring you key insights to keep you going and growing.
If you’re considering outsourcing some or all of your marketing, reach out to our team at EVOLVE!
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