This blog post outlines the six advantages for why a startup should hire a marketing contractor.
It is no secret that startup companies encounter significant hardships and setbacks when first launching their business. Between keeping ahead of the competition, maintaining a positive cash flow, and acquiring new customers, the list of challenges is seemingly endless. As a result, many businesses first focus on hiring top-tier talent to overcome these challenges and instead achieve success. For example, startup organizations commonly work with a marketing contractor to focus on the right goals and effectively gain momentum.
When the right marketing tactics are employed, your organization will obtain momentum and see more growth. How can you ensure hiring a marketing contractor is suitable for your company?
Experience is everything
First and foremost, look for a marketing contractor that is well-versed in all marketing areas. This includes someone who understands how to formulate a strategy and execute a plan based on your unique goals.
Are you interested in increasing brand awareness and acquiring new customers? Or do you need a professional who has experience in executing digital marketing strategies such as Google Ads? Perhaps it’s both! Regardless of your objectives and goals, make sure a marketing contractor has the skills and know-how to meet them successfully.
As an added bonus, it can be more beneficial to partner with a marketing contractor who has experience working in a startup environment. They have a great understanding of working with limited resources, budget, and time. Startup marketing is no easy feat. Partnering with a seasoned contractor is the best way to possess creative campaigns for short-term and long-term growth.
Keep Payroll Costs Down
According to the Entrepreneur, startup companies spend approximately 40% of their time on non-income generating activities such as hiring. Imagine the amount of time it would take to hire an entire in-house marketing department? Your time needs to be on new business development and product strategies.
There is also an excessive amount of costs associated with hiring new employees. This does not only include their salaries but benefits packages such as 401K and health insurance. Especially for startups, this line item can be detrimental to their return on investment.
By partnering with a marketing contractor, your business saves time and money. You can get back to focusing on income-generating tactics while a third-party is responsible for executing necessary marketing initiatives that have been on the back burner. More importantly, partnering with a marketing contractor is far more cost-effective than hiring a team of new employees.
A fresh perspective
Successful marketing requires a lot of creativity, especially for startup organizations. Traditional marketing initiatives taken by best-in-class brands such as Amazon or Walmart are not going to work for your business.
These companies have the budget, brand awareness, and customer retention rates that startups do not have. For this reason, the same marketing tactics are not going to result in the same success stories. To maximize the ROI of their marketing efforts, they must think outside of the box for brand awareness and customer acquisition.
This often starts with hiring a marketing contractor who offers their expertise and fresh perspective. They can identify blockage points of why target consumers are not converting, then create unique strategies to solve their concerns. Marketing contractors are well equipped to execute the creative and innovative tactics necessary to move someone from the awareness stage to a repeat customer.
Select the right marketing channels
There are numerous different marketing channels available to promote your brand, products, and services — however, just because they exist does not mean you must be active on all of them. For instance, there are seven major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest.
It is a significant misconception that new businesses must spend time creating content for each of these networks. By not allocating resources in the correct marketing channels, startups will fail to move the needle on any platform. It is the notion of working to be a jack of all trades but master of none.
On the contrary, a marketing contractor will assess your brand, voice, and customers. They will identify one or two platforms that are best to reach your target audience. They will focus their expertise and attention on growing your brand, where you are most likely to obtain new customers.
For example, if your target audience is software developers, does it make sense to create content on Pinterest? Highly unlikely. Marketing contractors will share their recommendations for what channels are working and which or not — or shed light on what channels you may have overlooked.
Navigating the marketing technology landscape
In recent years, the marketing technology landscape has been inundated with web analytics platforms and performance tools. These marketing technologies promise users that by using their platform, they are more likely to see higher traffic, leads, form fills, phone calls, etc.
Before paying hundreds of dollars a month in subscription feeds, startups need to take a step back to assess their goals and strategy. A marketing contractor will work with your team to understand what problems you are facing and share how they will work to fix them.
For instance, if you are struggling to increase website traffic, paying for a tool like Heap Analytics will not resolve this issue. By hiring a marketing contractor, they can write lead generating content and other website assets to gain more visits. Only then will Heap Analytics help identify what type of content is converting website traffic to leads.
A marketing campaign built on strategy is far superior to one built on third-party tools.
Flexibility and scalability
By now, you know the importance of flexibility. The same goes when working with a marketing contractor. They understand how to bend and twist when needed, all while working at your pace.
Also, when hiring a full-time staff member, they are expecting long-term employment with your business. A contractor is more flexible and understands their role may be more short-term. If, after working with a contractor for a few months, and they are not providing the expected results, you can terminate your partnership with no hard feelings.
Additionally, a marketing contractor allows your business to be more scalable. As you grow, a third-party can grow with you. They will likely have a well-established network of experienced professionals with a comprehensive skill set in social media marketing, inbound marketing, email marketing, digital marketing, and more.
When your startup has more money to spend, you can easily add these services to their job requirements. This will be completed much faster and cheaper than hiring qualified, in-house marketing professionals to meet your growing needs.
The best marketing contractors act as an extension of your team
Like with most businesses, a successful marketing strategy is not created overnight. It takes time, money, determination, and the right resources to reach new heights. For this reason, startup organizations hire a marketing contractor to support their goals. These professionals have years of experience to build and execute creative strategies that can put your startup on the map.
The best marketing contractors act as an extension of your team, regardless of being a full-time employee. It is vital to work with someone that can think out of the box to drive brand awareness, increase your lead pipeline, and convert users to repeat customers. Their success is based on your success.
