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You have a great and innovative product which is doing well in the market, and its loyal users have spread goodwill about it through word of mouth and their online network without you ever using SEO or social media management.
But just as Paul Graham accurately predicts this period in the life of every start-up as the “Trough of Sorrow,” you will need to put together some marketing efforts to save your business through the use of social media management and SEO.
The Internet has grown huge in last few decades, and it has created vast opportunities to reach out to your specific target audience. You as a VP Marketing, have to make sure that you do not miss this opportunity.
There is a phenomenal rise in e-commerce business and cloud-based services around the world which is encouraging young adults to choose digital marketing as a career option.
It has spurred the demand for professionals in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media management, Software development, Data Analytics and Application development.
In the year 2011, the stats for digital marketing revealed that the net worth of advertisements via mobile devices and tablets was $2 billion while in 2012 it rose 200% to reach $6 billion.
The International Journal of Advanced Research Foundation stated that India is witnessing the golden period of the growth of the Internet sector between the years 2013-2018 with stunning growth opportunities in E-Commerce, Social media. Internet Advertising, Search, Online Content and Digital marketing.
According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI, 2008), there were about 286 million social media accounts in 2008 in India. IAMAI rightly projected it would be 500 million by 2010 and according to TRAI the total mobile subscribers in India grew to 980.81 million users in the year 2015.
It is a plethora of opportunities to explore regarding marketing. You just need to be careful while making these critical decisions. One of the most critical decisions that you need to take is to whether go for an in-house digital marketing team or outsource the digital marketing services.
Let’s evaluate in-house vs. outsourcing digital marketing company pros and cons:-
To get about on your Startup marketing strategy, you must hire an in-house team to handle all your email marketing, ad placement, web designing, social media management, SEO and blog management.
For an in-house marketing team, you must hire a Marketing Manager, Content writer, SEO and Analytics expert and Social Media Manager to assist you on your Startup Marketing Strategy. They should be experienced professionals who would help you to gather customer information, run test campaigns and give you pointers on buyer personas.
Pros | Cons |
Access to routine daily discussions on the performance of the company | Increases the overall marketing cost |
They know the business in and out. | Hiring wrong people is always an issue. |
You can communicate and share marketing strategies at any time you want | If the results aren’t satisfactory, you cannot just fire the entire staff. |
Relatively lesser co-ordination problem | You need to invest in the tools and equipment, which again adds to the cost |
Pros | Cons |
They have the accessibility of wide range of marketing tools to perform specific tasks | They don’t have access to all your business details. That’s why they don’t understand your business as much as you do |
They understand the market trends, changes and the requirements accordingly | Co-ordination problem. Sometimes they can take a longer time to respond |
You can get the right people with right skill set according to your requirement | |
You always have a choice to replace, if you aren’t satisfied with the result |
An in-house marketing team will benefit you as all the team members are around you in the office. Choosing an agency takes a lot of effort from you, as you will have to have put in a lot of coordinating efforts to make sure the ad agency, content writing agency and all other places you outsourced to are all aligned together.
If you’re thinking to outsource marketing to an external agency to cut costs, you need to outsource it to a digital outsource service which is good at outbound marketing.
An in-house marketing team will find it harder to execute Marketing automation more efficiently as they do not have the expertise and knowledge required to implement it.
The Benefits of outsourcing digital marketing to an external agency, which has worked on Growth Hacking techniques before, will be massive for you and ideal to achieve more significant collaboration.
If you outsource online marketing to an external agency, it would give you access to a much better and more advanced Growth Hacking strategy.
When Facebook had launched Facebook ads, it wasn’t difficult to get ten time the returns for a regularly paid search ad. But now this platform has become very competitive. However, there are newer forums and new targeting options like Gmail Sponsored Promotions which are new and can get you better returns here.
Before you partner with an agency, it is important to know what you are stepping into. This checklist will help you evaluate the agency form every angle and give clarity in your marketing path.
Hiring an In-House Digital Marketing team or outsourcing to an external agency is one of the most crucial decisions to make in your marketing strategy.
Frankly, you should have the best of both worlds. With a combination of in-house knowledge and experienced industry expertise depending on your requirements.
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