Why Online Marketing Must Be Done In-House
Why Online Marketing Must Be Done In-House
Not surprisingly, marketing departments in cutting-edge companies are beginning to build their own online marketing staff rather than partnering with ad agencies for all of their marketing campaign needs. Using a contractor, staff augmentation solution allows companies flexibility to ramp the team up or down as demand warrants. Keeping online marketing in-house lowers labor costs, speeds up campaign execution, and maintains consistency. Yet, why are some corporate marketing departments continuing to rely on outside vendors, like ad agencies, when they’d be better served by an in-house flexible staff?
While using an ad agency is an important and necessary function of your marketing strategy, it should not be the only solution to creating and launching effective campaigns. If an ad agency is hired to execute your online strategy, it is likely causing multiple problems you may not have considered.
Since ad agencies typically work off-site, the speed at which your marketing department can work is hampered. You can’t just walk down the hall and get a few questions answered by a team member. Instead, you type an email to your ad agency contact, click send, and wait. Or you call and leave a message on their voicemail. You may get an answer in 24 minutes or 24 hours. Waiting for feedback and answers from the ad agency team hinders your ability to test and retest online ads, copy, and content; slowing down all the processes of the campaigns in your marketing department. While this may seem like a minor inconvenience, if your competitors are speeding past you, your marketing results are crippled before your campaign even begins.
Another factor to consider is that with ad agencies, you introduce a new type of competition—with your own company! One crucial component to your marketing strategy is targeted keywords for your campaigns. What happens when these valuable keywords are being sought after by your internal marketing staff, your business-to-business ad agency, and your business-to-consumer ad agency? That’s right—your company’s cost for these keywords goes through the roof unnecessarily!
Online ad buys are more expensive too. Ad agencies, just like everyone else, need to make a profit. One way they accomplish this is by marking up your online ad buys. Bringing this function in-house can save a minimum of 15% - possibly much more.
Perhaps the single most important reason to bring online marketing in-house is so that you have complete control over your digital brand. Seamless branding is a must in today’s marketplace. You, of course, want to have brand guidelines for your online marketing just as you do in your offline marketing, but even with them, if you have an outside ad agency (or more than one) working on your online marketing, are they going to match what you’re doing exactly or even what each other is doing? Your digital branding is just too important to outsource to people not as familiar with your company’s vision and branding strategy.
Rather than using outside ad agencies to work on your online marketing campaigns, create your own marketing staff by building a quality team, this can be accomplished on a contract, contract-to-hire or direct placement basis. It will speed up your response time, save you money and enable you to produce a consistent quality campaign—blowing your competition out of the water. .
Bob Van Rossum is the President of MarketPro – The Best Marketing Talent. Faster. (www.marketproinc.com), the United States’ leading marketing recruiter for experienced marketing, advertising, interactive, e-commerce and creative professionals to fill contract, direct-hire, and contract-to-hire positions. For more information, email Bob(at)marketproinc(dot)com.
How to Get Retweeted
How to Get RetweetedPosted using
ShareThis
Best Free E-Book
What is the best kind of E-book? A free one, and John
Delavera offers you exactly that! "The Best Free E-book" is
a collection of not one, not two, not three, but eighty-two
free E-books that you can brand for your own use for your
website and your customers!
www.tmzed.com/bestsellerebookAlmost all of the links listed inside "The Best Free
E-book" are affiliate links, which means you make money
every time someone clicks and buys. "The Best Free E-book"
Everyone loves getting something for free, and when you
people start downloading your E-book, they will either give
it away to someone else, or brand it for their own use.
Either way, more distribution through more people means
more money for you!
When you order "The Best Free E-book", you also get:
* Immediate customization rights - customize the E-book for
your use, with your name, email address, website, etc.
* 61 different pay scale sources, including - Turboziner,
Blog-Times.com, Software4Profit.com, and many more!
* 9 different pay per month resources for monthly residual
income for you
* Your own 4 different links to - one residual monthly
program of your choice; one affiliate program for a hosting
company of your choice; one affiliate program that you
suggest; and one suggested website
* 5 suggested personal resources
You also get the master rights to the E-book, that lets you
redistribute the file you receive, plus you get all the
marketing materials you need to re-sell the E-book. The
best part of this E-book is that it comes in PDF format,
which means ANY computer is able to read the E-book using a
totally free program called Adobe Acrobat Reader. Everyone
being able to read it means more chances for you to
generate income!
www.tmzed.com/bestsellerebookOrder today! With a 90 day money back guarantee, there’s
nothing to lose…go on, what are you waiting for? Start
bringing in your income today!
www.tmzed.com/bestsellerebook
Spotlight: Management Consulting by Allan Hoffman
by Allan Hoffman
In today's globally competitive market, corporate strategy is often intertwined with technology solutions. To respond to customer needs, management consulting firms increasingly seek tech professionals with business know-how to help their clients.
"The vast majority of what is considered consulting these days is technical in nature," says Tom Rodenhauser, president of Columbus, Ohio-based Consulting Information Services. "That trend will continue. The future bodes well for the techies."
Management consulting firms frequently specialize. Some are information technology shops like IBM, while others are strategy specialists like McKinsey. But all consulting companies, from major players to niche firms, expect most employees will have solid IT knowledge, if not in-depth tech expertise, according to experts. "The demand has moved toward people who have the business experience coupled with the technology experience," says Eileen Raymond, director of talent acquisition and management at McLean, Virginia-based BearingPoint.
Rodenhauser puts it this way: "Understanding technology and how it affects business processes is fundamental to both sides."
Breaking In
Both techies and IT majors who think their technical skills are the ticket to a management consulting job offer will likely be disappointed. Consulting companies, especially those specializing in strategy, seek candidates with top-notch educational credentials, a record of achievement and excellent communication skills. They want smart people who are quick learners.
The candidate interview process at many consulting firms reflects this -- they want to assess a candidate's analytical skills. Kurt Salmon Associates, a global consulting firm specializing in the consumer product, retail and healthcare industries, uses a business case set in an IT environment to get a sense of how a person thinks, rather than her specific technical expertise. "It's not so much did they get the right answer, but how did they get there," says Lori Cox, the company's manager of recruiting.
Looking for Ms. or Mr. Well-Rounded
For BearingPoint, Raymond says she looks for well-rounded candidates who have proven their leadership through internships and other activities. Because consultants work with a variety of clients, being able to work on a team, write well and handle presentations is crucial.
"We have found that you can train a smart person to fix a widget, but it's more difficult to train someone in people skills," says Dena Rafte, president and CEO of Rafte & Co., a consulting company in Houston specializing in legal technology.
Solid academic credentials are crucial. Major strategic consulting firms continue to seek consultants from the Harvards and Stanfords of the world, notes Rodenhauser. Other firms look for candidates who are among the top students at their schools.
Blending Technology and Business
IT-specific consulting firms are more likely to value tech experience over an academic pedigree. But even positions emphasizing technical expertise require an outlook that extends beyond .NET and Java.
"We look for people who have an understanding of business, an appreciation of the finer points of office culture, a focus on people and process rather than simply hardware and infrastructure," says Rafte.
Rodenhauser suggests consulting firms focusing on strategy may "be pushed to a think tank-like niche" in the future. "It behooves people to look beyond narrow technical applications and understand the underlying business problems that must be solved."
Consider the Lifestyle
Consulting firms readily concede the consulting life is not for everyone. Consultants often travel three or four days per week, says Cox. "It's a difficult life to adjust to," she says. "It's something you really have to want."
Consultants may work on multiple projects for a variety of clients, requiring them to switch gears without much notice. And while an in-house staffer might see an initiative through several phases, consultants often leave projects behind for others to implement.
These considerations are among the reasons why it is difficult to break into consulting from another industry unless you are bringing in-demand industry expertise. Even so, consulting firms will want to be sure you can cut it.
"You are working for clients," says Cox. "You are not the end-all decision maker. Sometimes the transition from being a decision maker to being a consultant is difficult."
