Marketing is one of the most important responsibilities involved in running a successful business. If you're not promoting your products or services appropriately, you won't be able to bring in new customers and clients. Unfortunately, a full-fledged marketing department is often much too costly for small-to-medium sized businesses to keep in-house.
Many companies without the budget to take on full-time employees choose to outsource their lead generation instead. Through hiring an independent contractor or agency that specializes in content marketing, businesses can save time, money, and resources while still attracting better leads.
If you're considering whether or not to outsource your lead generation, read on. We'll take a look at a few of the potential benefits, and what they could mean for your business!
Hiring a new employee can be costly. Not only are you responsible for paying a salary, but you also need to provide a variety of benefits if you want to attract high-quality candidates. This can include everything from paid time off to health insurance, gym memberships, retirement fund contributions, and more. You're also responsible for paying taxes for that employee. All of this means you might not have it in your budget to hire a new full-time employee.
Outsourcing can help save you money, because you don't need to worry about these additional costs. An independent contractor or agency is not technically considered an employee of your business, so they do not have the same requirements or expectations as an in-house staff member would. For example, they're responsible for purchasing their own insurance, contributing to their own retirement funds, and paying their own taxes.
When deciding whether or not outsourcing is right for you, you want to consider how much work you need to be completed, and the hourly or per-project rate of the person you'd like to hire. While their rate may be higher than what you would consider paying an in-house employee, your total cost might still be less if you're only looking to have them do a few hours of work each week or month. However, if you need an independent contractor to work extended hours or provide quick turn-around times, it is going to cost you.
Before you hire any kind of help, consider the scope of the projects you'd like completed and the budget you've set aside for getting them done. If you have the money and you're in need of someone able to dedicate 40 or more hours a week to the job, consider hiring in-house. If you're only in need of a project or two each month or a few hours here and there, outsourcing can save you hundreds each month.
Hiring and training a new full-time employee can be exhausting. Between needing to sift through resume after resume and conducting multiple interviews to find the right fit, it can take months to fill one position. Once that person has accepted an offer and started the job, you also need to consider the time it will take for them to become properly trained and find their footing. This means you could end up waiting weeks or even months to get a project started.
Since marketing is crucial for the success and sustainability of your company, you probably can't put off implementing a new campaign you've created for that long. Fortunately, hiring an independent contractor or lead generation agency typically involves a much shorter hiring and training process. If you want to get started right away, you may want to consider outsourcing your work—especially if you're only in need of short-term help.
When outsourcing your project, your commitment to the individual or the agency you're working with is not as strong as when you hire an in-house employee. While you will want to spend the appropriate amount of time interviewing candidates and finding the right fit, the contract is usually short-term. This means you can easily end the relationship if it doesn't turn out to be what you were anticipating. It also lets you cut down on the amount of time you might have spent trying to find someone willing to accept an in-house temporary contract.
Although outsourcing can save you time during the hiring process, you do need to remember that you're not the only client an independent contractor or agency will have. Since you're unable to call them at a moment's notice to get a project started, you'll need to work around their schedule. While some contractors will allow you to pay higher rates for rush delivery, you want to be sure you're planning projects with ample time for both you and your outsourced team to do the necessary work.
Many companies try to offload their lead generation tasks onto a member of their marketing departments. However, pushing employees to take on the roles of too many different positions can cause them to stretch their skills thin and quickly burn out. If your team isn't operating at maximum potential, your marketing won't be as successful as you'd like.
When you decide to outsource your lead generation and content marketing, you can work directly with an expert who only focuses on completing that task for your company. This means they're not distracted with employee meetings, other projects, or managing employees. Instead, they're able to put all their energy into attracting the best leads for your business.
If you're going to outsource your lead generation work, you need to remember that you'll get what you pay for. If you're hoping to attract high-quality leads ready to purchase, you'll need to be willing to invest in the process. However, outsourcing your work to an expert can pay off by attracting more leads than you could have gathered on your own.
Consider in what ways you'd like an independent contractor or agency to attract new leads. Since lead generation can involve a variety of tactics and techniques, you'll want to hire someone with a diverse skill set. The stronger your outsourced team is at different lead generation strategies, such as social media marketing or email promotion, the higher-quality leads you'll be able to attract.
Lead generation plays a major role in many business' promotional plans. However, the person in charge of this task doesn't necessarily need to be in your office. In order to get the best leads from the content you're putting online, you may want to consider outsourcing that specific part of your marketing strategy.
Let's recap the three reasons you may want to outsource your lead generation:
How do you think outsourcing will improve your lead generation? Let us know in the comments section below!
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