Problem: You want to include the staff on marketing decisions because you heard that it was healthy, but they do not have a marketing education.
Solution: Hire someone that can use the insider information. They can start training your staff, and accessing their potential for becoming part of an in-house marketing department. But keep them doing their main job, with their attention on indicators that will fit into a marketing campaign, or future strategies. To reach real growth, hire a proprietary marketing educated person or team to fully concentrate on your business.
Benefit: Business grows faster and healthier with more sustainable elements and strategies.
So many small businesses rely on their phone answering, project managers to vote on their marketing initiatives.
There is a huge problem with this. The staff is probably making just over minimum wage, or somewhere in the average zone of pay, and…. now you want them to think about building your company to $8 million/yr. Do you see the problem with this?
Unless they have marketing background, they will to throwing darts at whatever is shining and not understanding the infrastructure needed to turn real results. If you’ve seen someone in the company that has the capacity to help build the business, send them for marketing classes, because eventually the job will be over their skill set, if your goal is substantial growth.
The point of hiring a ‘marketing’ expert is not only the creation of mission statement, and supportive strategies with their broadcasting elements, but the tracking and the constant analysis of the results to keep the business on the path to growth. Using someone in the business whom also answers the phone, breeds uncertainty in the marketing ideas of last week, as they will be reacting to whatever issue the phone delivered that day.
A marketing individual will handle this by having the person bring the topic to a meeting in which a strategy will then be created encompassing the mission initiatives of the business. Keeping your eyes on the growth goals is hard enough for the marketing agents. It is a wispy cloud sometimes appearing sometimes not for the administrative manager also running parts of the business.
The administrative manager can provide information to help lend customer’s points-of-view to campaigns. They are a source of insider knowledge that can help a marketing team of leader. The point is that putting someone on the job as marketing, while they are allocating work orders for the projects, does not allow them time and background to fully think outside the box. If anything, they are too inside the box, and are influenced from that which too closely effects their primary job.
So, although you think you don’t have the budget, until you get serious and employ or hire a marketing agency to partner with and train your staff on growth strategies, you will struggle at reaching your goals.