What Is It Really Like To Have An External Marketing Department?

Picture this...

You answer the phone. The person on the other end is someone looking to book your services. Hmm. Sorry, nothing available for the next month. That's okay, they'll wait. They saw your other work on your website, read your reviews, and they were pleased that they could find the info they needed without being lead through an extensive and unnecessary sales pitch.

You're booked solid for the next 5 weeks. Looks like it's time to think about raising your prices.

First It Gets Good

When you finally do make the decision to hire a full-service digital marketing agency, you'll likely get the same feeling you had when you bought your first car. Except imagine walking 14 kms to the dealership and then driving away. You're exhausted. You're sweaty. And then...

The freedom. The excitement.

When you step on the gas, you feel your body being grabbed and yanked forward, and then a surge of adrenaline coursing through your veins. Woo! That feels good.

Same thing when you partner up with an external marketing agency.

You've spent the last 2 years trying to wear all these different hats, and only getting partial results from anything. You've tried to build a website. You've tried to do Facebook Ads and posts. You've tried to go after a few keywords with Google Ads, and had some good results, only to have your rank drop for no apparent reason.

So you decide to let someone else handle it.

"Doesn't that cost a lot of money?" Your partner asks.

If you're thinking about hiring a full-time marketing manager, then you can expect to pay about the same price for a whole team of experts who batch process the work. So, not a huge deal. But just to prepare you.

You sign the contract, shake some hands, and exhale.

First the logo design options come. One looks not bad. Another is very nice, but not really what you want your brand direction to be. You reiterate that, and the next day, they send you a few more samples.

There it is. Exactly. Wow. This is perfect!

Then comes the web development. You explain in detail what you want done, and the PM translates that to the developers. You take a look at the work. So far, so good.

Now, to drive traffic.

The website looks sweet, but getting people to look at it is a whole other kettle of fish. Enter again our hero, the external marketing department.

First, they get you on about 10 online directories you never even knew existed. Then, they start creating original articles about your industry and why you're a leader in it. They even get the content on other online publications.

Backlinks abound, your site is finally getting the traffic it deserves. Then, the phone calls start coming in.

"Can I get a quote for..."

"I heard you guys do...and I'm just wondering if you also..."

"I've got this project..."

Life is grand. You put your feet up on the desk and smile to yourself proudly.

Then It Gets Better

Just when you thought things were perfect...something goes wrong.

Horribly wrong.

One of your employees that you just hired lost his temper at a client.

The client decides to write a scathing Google review. Ouch.

But wait! You have a team!!

Within 6 hours, your external marketing department has responded with a brilliant comment to the unhappy customer's complaint, and you've instructed the temperamental staff to apologize in person. The customer decides that because of your quick response and the heartfelt sorry, they're going to remove the bad review. In fact, they're so impressed with it that they recommend you to one of their very wealthy friends.

Huh. An RFP from the referral. Look at that.

You're Competition Starts Scrambling...

They can't keep it together. You see their ads on Google. You see their billboards on the side of the road. They even try personally writing a few blogs.

You'd think their big ad campaigns would slow your phone down, but no change at all. All those back-links and your snappy site, people see you as the industry leader, not your competition.

All is well for you, but you cannot see the same future for your competition. Too bad.

Now You Can Stop Worrying About Getting People's Attention, And Worry About Giving People Your Attention

All your efforts in the past have been so unfruitful and took up so much of your time. But now, you have the space to start building genuine relationships with your best clients.

Start focusing on how to best triage all the phone calls and emails you're getting. Start focusing on how to best treat customers with the attention they deserve.

Remove yourself as a bottleneck to the process, and relax....

Now you've delegated all the 'importantest' bits of the customer journey, and things are running smoothly. Sit back and sip on a cool glass of "Life Is Good".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to talk more about how having an external marketing department can totally revolutionize the way you do business, get in touch with me. I'd love to help!