By Ryan Robinson
As a business owner, there are a growing number of time-consuming tasks involved in pulling off a successful marketing campaign in today’s competitive landscape, so strategically outsourcing some of the work that goes into getting it off the ground can be one of the best business decisions you make. By bringing on a few domain expert freelancers or contractors who can help instead of doing everything yourself, you’ll get higher quality work and more of your time back to run your business.
Here are a few steps to outsourcing your marketing:
- Establish your campaign goals: For your campaign to be successful, you need to clearly outline your goals. Write down your objectives and the steps you need to take to get there. Your goals should be as specific as possible and keep the end game in mind. Let’s say you want to hit a certain sales number by generating more leads to your website. How many visitors and leads will you need to bring in to close a sale and attain the sales number you’re aiming for? Whether you’re scaling your current marketing or launching a new campaign, track specific metrics to evaluate your success.
- Determine which tasks to outsource: To help decide which elements of your marketing campaign you should outsource first, ask yourself what your core competencies are. The more you’re able to focus on doing what you do best within your business, the more effective your campaigns will be. For example, do you have experience writing and promoting blog content? It might be a good idea to handle your own content marketing for your upcoming campaign. Consider outsourcing the rest so you can maximize your content quality.
- Source and hire qualified freelancers: Hiring the right freelancers can make your campaign run a lot smoother, but hiring the wrong ones can have the opposite effect. To make sure you’re onboarding the best people for the jobs you want to outsource, you should first see if anyone in your network can provide you with a good referral. If not, in your search for candidates, thoroughly check their references to determine if they’re a fit. Lastly, if you really want a feel for how someone will perform on the job, assign them a trial-run project, and observe how they handle it.
- Brief them on your expectations and measures for success: It’s critical to be on the same page with your freelancers about what you expect from them and what defines success. Provide them with clear information around responsibilities, guidelines and deadlines. Ensure that any contracts and payment schedules are in place before they begin work. You should also review their work incrementally as the project progresses so there are no surprises in the end.
Here’s how you can outsource a few core marketing campaign components to free up more of your time:
Content Marketing
Today, content marketing is one of the best ways to educate your readers and convert them into customers by providing value in the form of blog posts, how-to videos, images, illustrations, infographics and other content.
To determine the kind of topics you should create content about, ask yourself the following question: “What problem does the product or service I’m marketing solve for my customers?” The answer will tell you exactly what topics to focus on in your marketing campaign. If you’re launching a campaign to promote your new line of nutrition supplements, you’ll want to hire a freelance content marketing writer on a platform like LinkedIn ProFinder or CloudPeeps to write a series of posts about specific micro topics within the nutrition supplement space.
Organic and Paid Social Media
Like it or not, chances are high that your customers spend a good amount of time on social media. Before investing in social media, you need to know which network will be the most effective, as each has a unique audience. If you’re not sure which to focus on, ask 10 of your existing customers which social networks they use most.
Already have an engaged following on one or more social networks? Keep them active by bringing on a freelance social media manager through a platform like Growth Geeks. Use them to help you run contests, host giveaways, boost high-performing posts and share exciting visual content. If your main objective is to continue building your social presence throughout your campaign, hire a social media writer on a platform like Upwork or PeoplePerHour to multiply your output and scale the number and frequency of updates you’re sharing to reach a wider audience.
Press Coverage
One positive story in the right publication, trade magazine or industry blog can send hundreds, even thousands of potential new customers to check out your new product. To make the most of outsourcing PR, identify the top 10–25 media outlets you want to get your product featured in. Then, come up with an interesting angle that will convince staff writers at your target websites that your story is worthy of coverage.
To find a PR freelancer that can pitch on your behalf, turn to a platform like Freelancer or call local public relations agencies. Be sure to ask the freelancers you’re evaluating if they have prior experience working with your industry and if they have existing media relationships to leverage immediately.
To ensure the greatest success in outsourcing your campaign, keep in constant touch with your team of freelancers so you can track all the moving parts and current results. Then, your marketing campaign will run efficiently and you’ll have more time to focus on what you do best.
Ryan Robinson is a successful entrepreneur and writer for Vistaprint.com. Read about scaling your business’ marketing and other marketing tips on Vistaprint’s Ideas & Advice hub. Check out Ryan’s work on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider and his blog, ryrob.com, where he covers topics like launching a profitable side business. @TheRyanRobinson
