The last few weeks, we have been discussing the need for small businesses to not only be online, but how to be visible to their target audience. We uncovered ways to make a site ‘search engine friendly’ through SEO strategies, so naturally the next step is to actively drive traffic to your site through online advertising. Now that we know it’s imperative to incorporate online advertising, the only question is..should you hire someone in house or out source a company that specializes?
Start by asking yourself: Who can do a better job considering time, knowledge, budget and tools?
Time: Any type of search engine marketing initiative is never a ‘set it and forget it’ fix. Online efforts require constant care and time to guarantee that you are doing it correctly and your campaign is working properly. Considering search engine algorithms are continuously changing, it’s best to make sure the person in charge understands the shifts of online.
Knowledge: As stated above, search engine marketing is constantly changing and also a highly competitive market. Expertise is non-negotiable with your online marketing efforts. So the questions here are, can you find someone with the knowledge necessary in order to successfully maintain a campaign? Do you know what knowledge is necessary to hire this person? Whether you use a company or hire someone internally, they need to specialize in online marketing.
Budget: Obviously it’s a no brainer that you need to calculate cost, so start by comparing the cost of one or two full time employees, plus benefits, along with all of the other miscellaneous costs of employment, and the monthly marketing budget. Also think about the longevity of an employee versus a no contract SEM firm. Although SEM firms have set up fees (usually one time only) and management fees, it’s included in the monthly budget and taps into how your money is being spent to the penny with complete transparency.
Tools: Your in house expert can use different platforms, such as Google AdWords to track and report how well your campaign is doing. However, this goes back to the ability (knowledge) of using the tools provided and interpreting what it means, because you can’t really pick up the phone and ask Google. SEM firms work on platforms with real time reporting, call recording capabilities, and keep track of what you deem a call to action (web events, calls, contact us forms etc.), and they know the in’s and out’s of the system. If you outsource, you will still be able to check up on the performance if you wish.
If you do decide to outsource a company to take care of your online marketing efforts, make sure they have the credentials, expertise and proven results first.