Small to medium enterprises today are faced with the quandary of meeting the strategic and practical challenges of marketing their business. This raises questions like – how do we meet our marketing requirements in the most cost effective manner with the most optimal outcome? Do we really need to recruit a marketing professional, or can we meet these challenging demands by outsourcing to a marketing consultant or marketing agency?
The solution to these issues lies in knowing what roles you need filled, and then being smart about allocating them, i.e. do what you do best, and outsource the rest! Todays’ competitive marketing environment requires specialist knowledge for each marketing function, thus gone are the days of trying to fill these diverse tasks with a one size fits all marketing job description, and expecting a superhuman applicant to be able to do it all, although you may get many applicants claiming just that -the topic of how to recruit a real marketing professional and not get stuck with a ‘wannabe’ will be covered in the next few blogs.
Every day, businesses and recruiters are searching for Marketing Managers, Marketing Strategists, Marketing Co-Ordinators. Like Shakespeare, you may be wondering, does ‘a rose by any other name smell as sweet?’ Or are there notable differences in the functionality of these marketing roles. In reality, semantics are par for the course, both on the recruiter’s side and the job seekers side – what we are interested in, is adding value where it counts. We know that when it comes to marketing recruitment it’s not simply about the position description, rather it is the experience, passion and creativity of the people selected to work for or beside you that make the difference for your business to stand out.
Recruitment of a marketing professional as part of your business might well be necessary if your internal marketing function does not have adequate support in areas like product (or service) development. From concept development to market testing, are you confident that your product development process is comprehensive? What about pricing strategy, is your pricing reflective of the differing value segments in the market and how does the pricing of this component impact the rest of your portfolio? You will also need in-house management of distribution, someone who excels in familiarizing himself or herself with your target market and maximizes the opportunity of them accessing your product or service through a unique and convenient distribution channel.
Certain marketing functions such as media buying, web and social maintenance and updates, are well suited to be performed within your organization as are administrative and project management tasks. These functions lend themselves more easily to training, than the other more technical or creative marketing functions.
Many of the remaining marketing activities that were once trying to be captured in an overzealous Marketing Manager or Marketing Strategist role description can actually be completed by a talented marketing consultancy or an advertising agency. By choosing this option you will have access to a diverse range of individuals who are experts across all areas of marketing communication, ranging from integrated strategy to brand development, design and copy-writing and search engine marketing. Outsourcing has many benefits, the most powerful being the agency’s capacity to demonstrate a new perspective about a product or service that those inside the company do not have.
