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Global communication is still nascent, and I'm firmly convinced my grandchildren will titter at the notion of Twitter being online communication. As the space explodes, an in-house online marketer needs to do a brutally honest assessment of their own skills and their staff's skills. There are simply too many sub-disciplines with nuances that create success or cause failure if not properly addressed. In the last two months, I've hired two consultants for areas in which I thought my team was weak. I also approached a third I heard speak at SES and asked that person to take on a job. His response, similar to one I recently received from a well-known Gooruze member, was surprising. This person politely turned down the job because the company didn't specialize in that area. We're all online a lot. We know the basics of many different areas. Just like my general practitioner can see me for a variety of ailments, most of the people reading this have at least a fundamental knowledge of content, SEO, PPC, rich media, public relations and more. Like my doctor, however, we must learn when to say, "I understand this, but there are better people who can care for your needs." I remain impressed by those in our industry who remain true to their specialties and keep an active network of specialists who can help in other areas. Be Not Afraid One issue I've heard in talking with other in-house marketers is that they are concerned that management will push back on any consulting fees for online marketing. Don't you know all that web SE-whatever jazz? That is when your skills assessment comes in to play. You're going to have to slowly educate the boss. You may not know how site architecture relates to organic or the best ways to optimize social. And if you do know those things, you may be able to muddle through writing a press release, but not as well as a media relations person can -- especially if the target is an online audience. Let's agree to not even discuss usability since everyone on the planet is an instant usability expert the minute they see a web site. As someone building your company's profitability, you owe a fair assessment to all the stakeholders. That means knowing that you don't get design, but you're a PPC wizard. Or maybe you just want a second set of eyes on something. I've experienced both of those situations this quarter. In the first instance, I knew that a client's organic was not working as smoothly as the others. There were multiple issues, and I wasn't sure I could determine which ones were causing the drop. So I squared my shoulders and told two executives that it was time to spend some money. The results were interesting -- I had missed two things, which both contributed to the issue because I was so focused on the egregious problems I did find. In the second instance, I wanted a usability and landing pages expert to look over my shoulder. Two in-house already had done so, and they are good, but this was an important part of 2008's strategy. I wrote the person I heard at SES and received a lovely candid email saying, "We could do this, but it's not what we do well." Knowing What To Spend On The good old traditional SWOT analysis is a great assessment tool for an inhouse team. Figure out where you all rank well (pun intended) and where you have opportunity. Put your best number crunchers and strategists on the opportunities. Now the big issues -- figure out where your team is weak or faces a threat and ask some hard questions:
Go in to your meeting with management armed with a full cost-benefit analysis. Describe the issue and the solution. Look for a go/no-go. Maybe starting with a consultant before hiring is smart. Maybe it's just time to hire a critical need. If so, consider hiring the consultant to help you interview. The issue is to be confident. Lawyers specialize. Physicians specialize. Auto mechanics specialize. There is a good reason for online marketers to also specialize, and more importantly, not doing so could hurt you. | |||||||
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February 28th I really enjoyed read your article about ROI, and finally got some new infos from it, while at the first time i still do not know verywell what ROI is, but now, i know exactly what ROI is, thank you very much for this good review. Reply
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March 2009 Your message is clear and well presented. I think you are right on and it was enlightening to read it. I have but one comment which only adds to what you are saying. The difficult part of hiring OR using a consultant is finding the competent one. I think hiring a consultant to help with hire is brilliant, but then we are left with the competency question about the consultant. Experience is important (as a newbie would not know his own limitations or in what to specialize), but I have seen old dogs in professions that have somehow survived incompetence and they go right on being 'wrong.' Thus, I have learned that the 80-20 rule applies to professions and the trick is to find the one-in-five who, at least, know what they are doing. I think one good test is the 'explain-it-to-me' test. If the 'specialist' can explain what he/she does in language that you, the interviewer, can comprehend, then this is a good indication of competence. I realize more factors come in such as ambition, responsibility, etc. but it helps to know that the person knows his stuff so well that he/she can clarify it without using incomprehensible terminology. Then the 'specialist' should be able to help you 'sell' the job to the boss. You think? John Reply
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April 2009 That's an excellent addition, John, and also good advice. Now that I run my own agency, I still bring in folks as subcontractors. Because we have very close relationships with our clients, we are very upfront about our relationship with these other agencies. And the agency won't sell themselves hard, but help explain the fundamental premise here, which is "No one except the very largest agencies have the bandwidth or staff knowledge to handle it all." In our audit process, we conclude with recommendations. The client can then obviously retain us, but we often break the section down to: Items You Can Do InHouse Items We Can Help You Do Items Others Should Do In the latter category, we'll often include an attorney or an accountant or some other professional. When we talk about a marketing professional, we always note if we are working with the client that we will help screen and even bring on the other company. In some cases, I have no problem with the agency (if they have E&O insurance) acting as a subcontractor.
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March 2008 George,
exactly what I was thinking the other day, as i pondered how to further optimise my blog, as I was in the bowels of PHP code. I could do this. I know how to do it. But I'd rather not do it, I don't like doing it, it takes up too much of my time and there are plenty of other things I'd rather be doing. Same goes for SEO, usability etc at heart I'm a marketer (a creative) and I focus on what makes people do things (online or off) All the other stuff I'd rather give to a specialist. But as you've alluded to, this will cost my clients more money. (It will also save me a lot of headaches) As you've also touched on most clients only have a limited amount of knowledge (if any) about the intricacies of the online marketing world. Telling them they need other specialists is probably like selling them more voodoo. They have to have faith. And then where do you find real specialists.? I know enough about these areas to know that there are a lot of charlatans and half baked guru's around. It's not an easy task, but I totally agree with you. I guess one of the keys is that you have a sufficiently strong enough relationship with your clients (or boss) that even if they don't know what you're talking about they trust you to know. Great post Mark Reply
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April 2008 Hey there, Mark. What a thoughtful reply -- thanks. Glad to see I'm not alone wrestling what that problem. You said, " exactly what I was thinking the other day, as i pondered how to further optimise my blog, as I was in the bowels of PHP code.
I could do this. I know how to do it. But I'd rather not do it, I don't like doing it, it takes up too much of my time and there are plenty of other things I'd rather be doing." I had this discussion with our company's founder this weekend. Sure, the PHP template we were using was nice, but I would much rather have a GUI on top of it, drop in some automation, have a marketing assistant key anything necessary and let me mark it up. Instead, you're drilling through multiple pieces of code tracking something down instead of generating profit.... Love the voodoo comparison...rings very true! George Reply
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