Make the Connection With In-house Agency Controls Vol. 5 Part 1

"When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things." -Joe Namath

I started my journey of building an in-house agency in early 2018 one day when my former CEO told me he wanted me to build one. So, I built one.

I began working closely with the accounting department, all of the management for all departments and took over managing the marketing/advertising budgets and accounting, and just went to town creating my new department. This was all in addition to the actual execution of strategy, creative oversight, media buying, planning, copywriting, monthly marketing activities, and managing my team.

In automotive retail, like many industries, you are hired for one role and then that role evolves and evolves into another role. That was exactly my experience. I had to learn by doing in real-time quickly.

?What I soon discovered is there are many ways that a business manages their marketing:

1.?????In-House – You do it all from organic to paid advertising, media buys, etc. Larger businesses tend to have an exclusive in-house agency team. There you may have a CMO, Vice President of Marketing, Creative Director, Content team, Analysts, Copy Writers, etc.

2.????In-House + Outsource – You have a marketing team or a person, but you hire outside contractors, consultants, or other businesses (agencies) to help with the execution and/or strategy of the marketing and advertising. This could mean hiring an agency, or just having select vendors to do different areas of advertising such as TV buys, Paid Search, Paid Social(Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.) or creative.

3.????Outsource – You have outside contractors, consultants, or other businesses help with the execution and strategy of the marketing, advertising, and events. This generally is handled by an outside agency.

?One of the most common questions I receive from prospective clients who contact me is how to make the daily, weekly, and monthly marketing and advertising processes internally more efficient so their team can focus on other areas to help the business. ?

With that being said, as your marketing advisor, there are 3 foundational areas that I would strongly recommend to a business owner to have a grasp on with any of the above scenarios.

#1 Content Library.

When I first stepped into my role for the auto group I worked for, there was no content library, so I created one. The reason you should have a content library is that it gives you, as the business owner,?full control of your content. This will keep you prepared in case of any unforeseen changes to your go-to-market advertising structure as well ( i.e.: changing marketing staff or agencies). Your content library is, in my opinion, the heartbeat of your content and marketing strategy. 9 times out of 10 when I speak to a business OR an executive who is looking to hire my business, they don’t have this and I work with them to create it.

Here is what you need to do to create your own content library:

Step 1.?Access all the business photos, videos, (commercials too), audio files, and creative graphics. if you work with an agency, they should (hopefully) have one for you from the past.

Step 2.?There are several sites you can use such as www.box.com or www.dropbox.com. If you have the Google Suite, you can use Drive as well.

Step 3.?Organize your library into 3 categories: 1. Creative Graphics( social, emails, banners), 2. Content (photos and videos) 3. Brand (logos, fonts, brand guide, brand book). You might also want a folder for Press where you will keep all of the media you and/or your business have been featured in.

#2 Team Project Management Tools.

When I was working in the in-house agency, I wasn’t aware of Asana. It has completely transformed my efficiency and, as a busy person who is constantly on calls, working on projects and running my kids to activities... having everything for my own clients organized in one place is really helpful. I use Asana with all of my clients now and it is an essential part of my business. You can use this with your team, your clients, or your vendors.

Prior to learning about the Asana platform, I used a good old trusty Google sheet. If you are on Outlook you can use Excel. I used to have a document with column headings that looked like this:

PRIORITY DEADLINE TASK NAME ASSIGNEE DESCRIPTION DELIVERABLE?

If you do not have a technology budget for your department, this works really well to keep track of everything you are working on with your team.

?#3 Websites to Make Life Easier.

?I like to joke around and say I learn by trial and terror. It is funny but also true! Kidding aside, one of the greatest advantages we ALL have is access to technology and I mean websites to help us become more efficient in our marketing efforts. Here is a list I have made over the last few years, organized by channel, of sites to help you, your marketing department or business:

Strategy:

www.shieldapp.ai/?- Stats and analytics for your personal brand on LinkedIn

www.keywordtool.io?– Research keywords across platforms

www.wordtracker.com?– New keywords for your market

www.spyfu.com?– Check out your competitors

www.Answerthepublic.com?– Learn what people are searching for in your space

www.builtwith.com?– Check out what your favorite websites are built with

Content:

www.Tango.us?– Step by step or how-to guides

www.Mixkit.co?– Video, music sound effects for free

www.Pixelhunter.io ?– Resize social media images for free ( you can also do this on Canva)

www.copy.ai – Ai driven copy in seconds for every single type of campaign

www.otter.ai – Transcribe your meetings or podcasts

Websites:

www.Jemi.so ?– Build a website in minutes

www.Beefree.io – Create beautiful email campaigns and landing pages

www.squarespace.com – Templated websites, very easy to use

?Video:

?www.Clipchamp.com ?– Video Editing

www.Scribehow.com ?– Screen recording – step by step videos

www.Veed.io ?– Video editing

Bottom Line: You have so many resources at your fingertips to help streamline your internal marketing efficiencies.

?I hope you enjoyed this newsletter today. If you want help building your brand or need help creating your own in-house agency, please visit my?website?to set up a call. Photo below taken at 101 Statesville Quarry Rd. Lafayette, NJ GSMLS #3752711

I am very excited to announce that the “Make the Connection” newsletter became a podcast. Make the Connection with Melanie Borden, is a weekly podcast featuring a curated network of global business leaders. We will connect you to marketing, business strategies, and trends that you can apply to your business. We are in the first season and I have had some unbelievable guests to help make the connection with strategies for your business.

Here are the top 2 downloaded episodes so far:

Parry Headrick - Founder of Crackle PR,

Heather Monahan - 2X Best-Selling Author, Top 50 Keynote Speaker in the World 2022,

You can listen to the first episode of me?here, and my recent episode talking through some other important agency controls you need for your business here.

Want to check out my other socials? You can also find me on?Twitter, Instagram,??YouTube, and?TikTok.?

Your Marketing Consultant,

Melanie