How to Grow Your Marketing Without Taking On the Expense of a Team

Let’s face it; marketing can be expensive.

 

The ad budgets alone can be challenging to swallow, especially in a time of financial uncertainty. But, business leaders know that without marketing, steady growth is not reliable. And, to get that marketing done, there is a broad range of skill sets needed to make a vibrant and effective campaign a reality. The task of adding marketing into your mix can be daunting. So, what’s a growing company to do? We’ve outlined some options in this article.

 

For mid-sized companies with one or two marketing roles in the org chart, that person can’t get everything done. Much less expect them to know how to be a graphic designer, a social media expert, a web designer, a project manager, an event coordinator, a PR liaison, an advertising buyer, and more. So here are a few solutions we see that work, without spending half a mill hiring a whole marketing team.

 

Marketing Agency

Well, of course, we are going to suggest this because it’s what we do! But, it truly is the best solution if your company doesn’t have the resources to hire a team. Companies like ours can plug-in and become your marketing department relatively quickly. Retainers can be set up with agencies that can fit inside most reasonable budgets. They allow you to set certain services to happen each month automatically, add services when the goals shift, give you access to the brain trust of a variety of talent, and level your marketing spend.

 

Fractional CMO

This one leans a little more toward the higher end of the hiring spectrum, but if a company has no marketing role at all and is ready to tackle growth that way, this is a good option. Scour Linkedin, and you’ll spot quite a few people and companies offering this. However, be warned, ensure your candidate has experience in this role before signing a deal because they can be expensive. And, you’ll still need to invest in a team for them to get the work done. But, a good leader is worth their weight in gold.

 

Contractors

We do this ourselves, and expanding the team with contractors is a viable option. Contractors are often ex-corporate or ex-business owners. The great thing about this option, is they are 1099 employees, so you can plug them in when you need them, and then if work gets thin or you decide to go a different direction, you can unplug and then call them back for the next project if they worked out. You can also build your team this way. The disadvantages to contractors are they need to be managed carefully, can have higher rates, tend to overbook, and they can also simply vanish if they get a full-time job or a large project that pays better. Think of them as the mercenaries of the marketing world. Highly skilled, expensive, and elusive.

 

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to take on marketing, even if your company has no clue how to approach it. There’s no time like the present to try and grab market share. Hire experts, and let them guide you.

 

Call us today if you need advice on any of this.

 

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash