Many small businesses seem to think of marketing as something of an afterthought or don’t know how important marketing truly is, but it’s no longer enough to just put an ad in the Yellow Pages and expect to get business. Far from it. These days Digital Marketing (also called Internet and Online Marketing) is so important. Most people are doing searches for services and products they need and if your business isn’t showing up where they search, you’re missing out on potential clients.
There are several issues that small and mid-size businesses face that make outsourcing Digital Marketing a necessity for a successful outcome.
#1: LACK OF EXPERTISE
To be able to successfully implement any Digital Marketing campaign it is important to be knowledgeable in many areas, including (many of these overlap each other):
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- SEM (Search Engine Marketing, encompasses most of these listed)
- Keyword Research (not as simple as it sounds)
- SEO Copywriting
- Google Analytics
- Pay-Per-Click (Google Adwords)
- Retargeting
- Online Directory Listings
- Online Reputation Management
- Content Marketing (includes blogging)
- SMM (Social Media Marketing)
- Email Marketing (including e-newsletters)
- Evaluation of efforts
- and more.
It’s also not enough to be knowledgeable in these areas, it’s very important to keep up with current best practices, which change frequently, such as with algorithm updates to Google. Last year’s best practices may not be current best practices. Also, more than just having the ability to write well, you need to be able to put it all together effectively. For instance, to do one blog post, I would use keyword research, SEO, and specific marketing principles for format, word usage and order, and crafting an effective call to action).
#2 LACK OF TIME
Malcolm Gladwell says in one of his books, I think it was Outliers, that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at almost everything. This is only partly true when it comes to Digital Marketing. By this standard of 10,000 hours, it would take almost five years of working full-time in Digital Marketing to become an expert and that’s not counting all the time it takes to stay up-to-date with all of the changes. Of course, it’s totally possible for you to learn everything you need to know for successful Digital Marketing, but it takes a lot of time to learn and then implement and evaluate. Time that you could be doing something else. It may sound cliche, but Outsourcing Digital Marketing allows you to focus on what you do best.
#3 NOT READY TO HIRE A NEW EMPLOYEE
There are many common reasons for not wanting to hire a new employee. Among those are lack of space in the office for a new employee and that it’s often more expensive to hire a new employee than it is to pay to have the function outsourced. Marketing professionals, especially those with experience, don’t come cheap. Some businesses with small budgets end up hiring marketers with little to no experience and end up paying for their learning curve. Even worse is having another employee, such as an administrative assistant, perform marketing functions. Marketing materials look unprofessional and the branding gets out of alignment with inconsistent messages and colors being sent out. When it comes to Digital Marketing, some mistakes that I still see too much of in non-experts are spammy and outdated practices such as hidden text on web pages, keyword stuffing, using too many links on blog posts, and not paying attention to keywords when creating blog titles and descriptions.
CHOOSE Delphinium
Expeditions is a WV company providing affordable and quality Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, and Web Design and Development services to Charleston, St. Albans, and nearby cities in WV and across the U.S. Contact Delphinium Marketing today for a free consultation.