Written byCraig McBreenPosted on
October 15, 2024
“Should I hire someone in-house for marketing or continue to seek outside help through contract work?” Chances are, if you are a small business owner, this question is coming up more often as you continue to seek and experience new growth.
Unfortunately, so many small business owners don’t know when to hire an internal marketing employee or if they even should.
Where do you start? At what point do you take on the risk of investing in a full-time hire for marketing?
What are the pros and cons of either keeping your marketing in the hands of an outside consultant or using a daily employee to manage your marketing needs?
Here’s some help in answering all of these questions.
The importance of owning marketing as an asset
It’s common to delegate what you can as a small business owner, and marketing often gets delegated. But when delegation becomes abdication and you lose control, this is when you have a major issue.
Businesses often have an outside person “look after their marketing.” But way too often, the reasoning behind this is less about having someone execute a marketing plan and more about having a convenient check box to mark off a weighty undertaking — giving the business owner a sense of relief so they can move on to something else.
When you’ve “surrendered” the management of your business’ marketing to someone else, it shows. And your business isn’t developing a long-term internal asset that can continue to bring returns for years to come, an asset that can continue to evolve as the business grows.
New and evolving digital channels add complexity to small business marketing
With so many digital channels available today, managing them all is incredibly difficult. It’s nearly impossible for a business owner to do it all solo.
Any marketing strategy is going to include the channels best suited to your industry, and someone will need to create continual strategies around each.
Many times, these different web-based channels require feedback in real time and need daily supervision. They take their fair share of regular attention and time to be executed proficiently and meaningfully.
Most small business owners need help with marketing, but often, they don’t see the benefit of hiring an internal marketing professional to help them do the job.
Why do many small business owners shy away from hiring someone for marketing?
Business owners are often skeptical about someone coming in to manage their marketing — whether it’s an outside consultant or someone in-house.
They don’t hire marketing people for some of these reasons…
- They don’t prioritize marketing as a foundational component to growth. Marketing needs to be a priority because effective marketing creates business growth. While great marketing can deliver serious benefits, many new business owners don’t want to spend their time (or money) on it because they haven’t seen the financial returns from investing in a marketing strategy.
- They can’t justify the expense. Hiring someone is a commitment with an upfront cost, the ROI isn’t instantaneous, and many business owners have limited resources. But your investment should pay for itself quickly if you hire the right person.
- They’ve been taken advantage of. Many times, small businesses have had a bad experience with a marketing agency or consultant. They may have hired someone who sold them on one specific area of marketing. Maybe they mastered social media, but what the business needed was a broader marketing strategy and they didn’t get it.
- They don’t know how to hire, let alone train, the right person. Most business owners are not marketers. They often don’t know what marketing strategies their business needs or where to find quality people. It can feel overwhelming and time-consuming to get someone up to speed successfully.
But, with marketing, a small business owner can only do so much on their own or even through contract work. There comes a point when even the doubters need to reexamine their priorities and consider hiring someone if they want to continue to see growth.
You need to stop “renting” marketing and own it internally.
What’s the difference between renting and owning marketing?
When you RENT your marketing you’re looking for help from a consultant or an agency to market your business.
Marketing consultants should operate as strategic partners. They can help you develop a high-level strategy — things like defining your ideal customer, optimizing your website, writing unique copy to help you stand out, improving your business identity, or overseeing your content marketing.
If you OWN your marketing you hire an internal marketing coordinator to handle routine things like managing social media marketing, writing blog posts, getting online reviews for your business, working on referral programs, PR, and more.
There’s a time and place for both. And there’s a sweet spot right in the middle where “owning” and “renting” will work together.
But here’s the thing — A marketing consultant can’t be your entire marketing department. They can only do so much, and they won’t understand the nuts and bolts of your business quite as an internal marketing person would. This is why building an internal team is essential to move the need in your business.
How hiring an internal marketing person (or team) produces business growth
When a business matures, growth can stall, and sales may slow down.
This is when your business needs to explore a new perspective on growth. There is a certain point where you can only grow so much. You can’t do it all and you are probably overextending yourself daily.
This is why, if you want to ratchet up growth, having an internal marketing team is essential.
If your growth has stalled, improving your marketing game is step #1. Whether it’s trying to improve your search engine rankings, looking to reach new audiences, or building a referral network, your business needs fresh growth in the marketplace. Focused marketing with an internal person to guide the ship can get you there.
Get help but plan to make marketing an asset
With a consultant as your entire outsourced marketing department, your business will only reach a certain level of growth.
Earlier I mentioned that there’s a sweet spot right in the middle where “owning” and “renting” marketing work amazingly well together.
You can really find meaningful growth when you connect an internal marketing hire with your strategic partner (your outside consultant)!
A marketing consultant will help you with the strategic components of a marketing strategy…
- A marketing plan
- The operations and components of your plan
- Data analysis and retooling to get results
- And more
Overall, a consultant is there to ensure the business marketing strategy remains on track and working towards your larger goals.
Your internal marketing hire quickly learns the nitty-gritty details of your business. And they can be directed by your outside marketing strategist. Your employee is responsible for executing the marketing plan and crafting content that aligns with your plan.
This is how you get the best of both worlds.
When you bring in an internal marketing person, you’re building an asset for your business. You invest in a professional who will eventually have expertise in your business as well as expertise in marketing, and they will seamlessly blend the two to do the work that will provide extended, long-term growth.
Ready to Grow Your Business with the Right Marketing Hire?
Hiring an internal marketing manager is a game-changer for small businesses. Not only does your new hire quickly learn the ins and outs of your business, but they also work closely with an outside marketing strategist to execute a targeted, results-driven marketing plan.
This partnership ensures your marketing is aligned with your vision and fully optimized for long-term growth.
Our Solution:
We can help you find, hire, and train the right internal marketing manager.
- We’ll guide your team in building and running a custom marketing system that evolves as your business grows.
- We can also manage the entire hiring process to ensure you bring on a marketing manager or coordinator who fits your specific needs.
Need help coordinating between your new marketing hire and an external consultant? We’ve got you covered.
Let’s Get Started!
Whether you need expert marketing consulting or help hiring and training your internal marketing manager, we’re here to assist. Reach out to learn more and take your marketing to the next level!
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