Growing a business requires an immense amount of time, effort and resources. It’s challenging to know where to spend your time and money the most effectively. Building marketing into your company so it is a department from day one may seem like an unnecessary expenditure. However, having your own marketing department will save you more money and time in the long run. Here are some benefits to building your own marketing department instead of outsourcing or contracting it out on a regular basis:
Define and Maintain Brand Identity
First and foremost, your company needs to have a defined brand identity. The sooner you establish this, the sooner your customers will associate your brand with a certain type of product or service. Your marketing department will be responsible for creating marketing strategies and campaigns that support your brand. This way, you can maintain the brand identity you’ve created for your company. If you’re outsourcing or contracting out the majority of your marketing, it’s unlikely that whoever is doing it will take as much care in building your brand as your own marketing department would.
Internal versus external hires
When you build your marketing department, trying to determine if you hire your own team members versus outsourcing a specific campaign can be an overwhelming decision. External hires are great for special projects and short-term contracts, or for exploring how best to approach new work streams, but they don’t foster any long-lasting relationships or partnerships. The key is to strike that great balance between what skillsets you have in the group already and where you need to fill the gaps. Internal marketing hires will work directly with you and your team members to build on-going relationships and partnerships. This helps you maintain consistency in your marketing strategies and campaigns and allows you to build long-term partnerships with other marketing departments. This can be extremely beneficial if you ever need to scale up your marketing efforts. You can easily tap into your in-house team members who already have an understanding of your company and brand. External hires may not have the same level of knowledge or trust with your brand, but they do offer the ability to explore filling skill gaps and not overburden your existing staff.
Learn From Your Mistakes
Your marketing department will, of course, make mistakes along the way. Instead of seeing these setbacks as catastrophic and costly, use them as learning experiences that will help you avoid similar mistakes in the future. Create an environment that allows these mistakes and keeps the focus on being better and improving. Take careful notes of what didn’t work, why it didn’t work, and what you plan on doing differently next time. If you’re outsourcing or contracting out the majority of your marketing, it’s unlikely you’ll have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes in the same way. External partners who are contracted for a specific project have their own mistakes to learn from, and are unlikely to share those mistakes with you.
Grow Your Talent Pool
When you build your marketing department, you have the opportunity to hire the best and brightest marketing talent you can find. There is often an impulse to focus on roles and finding a diamond to hire. We have found that a focus on what the goals are and the skillsets you have already, highlights what additional support is actually needed. This approach will help you usher your marketing team members through the learning curve much quicker than if you were to contract out all of your marketing. Helping you grow your talent pool as your marketing needs change and evolve.
Track ROI on Marketing Investments
It’s tempting to just throw money at every marketing campaign you see. However, this is an unwise strategy that can lead to financial ruin. Instead, when you build your marketing department, you will likely have a budget set aside for marketing expenses. This will help you track your marketing investments and make sure that your marketing campaigns have the right ROI. If you are outsourcing or contracting out the majority of your marketing, there is a good chance you won’t have a budget set aside for marketing expenses. While it’s important to track your marketing investments, these types of arrangements may be unmonitored and unmeasurable.
What It Means Building a Marketing Department
The marketing department you build for your company will be a strategic partner for your business. It will help you save time, money and effort by creating consistent, effective marketing campaigns that support your brand. This can be beneficial for two reasons: It will save you money and time, and it will allow you to focus your efforts on other areas of your business. Finding the right partners to help you navigate that balance in building your department for success can be difficult. Metolius prides itself understanding your needs and working alongside you to develop the bespoke structure that your company needs to succeed. Marketing is an important function of your business that can help you save money and time in the long run when built correctly. We would love to help you get there.
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