Why Hire a Marketing Professional

Please Don’t Hire Your Cousin to Do Your Marketing!

Reasons to hire professional marketing help and be glad you did

Every small business needs marketing to be successful, agreed? And, you need a consistent and strategic mix of marketing activities across web, social, email, referrals, and advertising to make it work, right? But how do you actually accomplish that?

You’ve built a business you’re good at. A business you love and look forward to every day. And it’s working. Then someone says, “Hey, you need a Facebook Page, a Website, a Google My Business Page, an Instagram account and a monthly e-newsletter to succeed.” Wait, what?

You’ve already got your hands full (plus some) running a business doing what you love…why would you even WANT to try to do the job of a professional marketer on top of that? Most people say they don’t.

But they end up doing it anyway.

Why not let a professional do it for you?

Most marketing entrepreneurs (like you) that I know are in the business because they’re passionate about helping others and they’ve built their marketing careers up with more than 20 years of learning and hands-on experience. Being a marketing entrepreneur is just as scary as owning a storefront business – except people don’t really understand what marketing is or why they need help.

Here are some of the reasons I regularly get from clients for not hiring professional marketing help:

1. It’s too expensive.
2. I don’t need social media.
3. We don’t have anything to market; we’re a small business.
4. My (nearest relative) is studying marketing so they can do it.
5. How hard can it be? I’ll ask the office manager to do it.
6. I don’t run ads on Facebook.
7. I don’t need any more customers right now. (What? Send them my way then!)
8. The boss doesn’t see a return on investment for marketing.
9. We don’t want others in the industry to know our secrets (what we’re up to).
10. We don’t have any company news to share.

OK then. Have a good time with that! Check back with me in 2-3 months when you’ve discovered your business is RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS, not responding to 35 comments on a trending social media post every day of the week!

Do you REALLY want to take on marketing in addition to all you do now? Marketing a business of any size is, at best, a part-time job, and depending on the scope of the business, it can be a full-time-plus-overtime job!

A professional marketer isn’t too hard to find nowadays. We hail from many backgrounds (it’s a learned skill for sure) but most frequently our experience lies not only in marketing, but in communication, advertising, public relations, business management, graphic design, print production, strategic thinking, conflict resolution, teaching, writing/editing, human resources, office management, and the list goes on and on.

Many marketing consultants possess advanced degrees in their fields as well, including yours truly with a B.A. in Business Administration, and an M.A. in Interpersonal Communication. (Who woulda thought, back in the ‘90s, that interpersonal communication would merge into marketing so well?) Because of this, we also have the knowledge to tell you when something you’re considering is NOT such a good idea…

For example, I had a beloved client who wanted to start emailing potential buyers for her product – without buying a list or asking people if she could email them her news. We began collecting the emails of all of her legitimate contacts, email address books, LinkedIn, personal contacts, etc. and categorizing them in anticipation of targeted messaging campaigns. All this was fine and good prep work; it’s what she wanted to do next that required a professional intervention.

She approached me with a desire to send an email blast…to all of the emails we’d just collected (over 900). A professional marketer will tell you why this is wrong on so many level, but let’s suffice it to say that because this client asked a professional she did NOT approach the task in this manner and therefore did not risk having a big red SPAMMER across her forehead (and every subsequent email blast). Professional marketers know better.

With that, here are some persuasive reasons for why I think you should hire a professional when you have marketing needs:

1. We’ll plan your marketing efforts, strategically, to avoid duplication of efforts and maximize your visibility.
2. We’ll shamelessly plug you. Everywhere. (You won’t; we know this.)
3. Your sister’s boyfriend’s uncle’s niece can “do” social media but do they really “understand” what’s behind an integrated marketing plan?
4. We’ll monitor and respond to comments, reviews, and applications for you so you don’t have to, and tell you what your results mean.
5. We’ve done it/seen it before and can most likely do it faster and better than you.
6. We’ve spent years honing our craft – and most of us spend hours weekly keeping up to date on technology and trends.
7. Most marketing professionals are excellent writers/editors for your needs: posts, blogs, articles, etc. and understand what a CTA is. It’s part of our job and we’re good at it.
8. We won’t let you throw money at ads that aren’t working (or aren’t going to work).
9. We’re not expensive and can prove it to you – IF you can measure your ROI and compared to what similarly credentialed staff person would cost you to hire.
10. You don’t know what you don’t know…but we do and that’s what makes us valuable.

Before we go, I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention the huge, daily technology challenges that face marketers in today’s competitive landscape. First it’s GOOD to have a checkmark next to your name on social…then it’s irrelevant? Likes…no Likes…who knows? How about Facebook TOS and Ad Standards…those are pretty standard, right? Who needs to read those??

We do. We read the rules.

We read them and we follow them because it’s our job to know and to know on your behalf and to protect you from Facebook jail or worse!

So the next time someone says, “Oooh, I know someone who does social media; I bet he/she could do your page for you,” run away. Just. Run. Away.

If nothing else, go ahead and bite the bullet and hire the dang professional for 6 months so you can see how it’s supposed to be done. You can bet your competitors are trying everything they can to get market share…but they aren’t marketing professionals either, so this is your chance to get ahead!

What are you waiting for? Call a professional today 269-341-3786 hannahgoldcommunications@gmail.com