The issue of whether your digital marketing should be handled in-house or outsourced is a complex one. A huge part of it is determined by the question of what is more efficient? This entirely depends on your ability to hire, train, equip and organize your own digital marketing team. Some people are truly able to compose an incredible on-spot marketing department, while for others, it’s safer to simply outsource their digital marketing altogether. In order to help you figure out which of these types is true in your case, here are five things you need to consider when structuring a digital marketing team.
Make a List of the Essential Personnel
The fact that you know all the people who should be a part of the digital marketing team doesn’t mean that you can afford to employ them all. For instance, while you need a project manager, a strategist, a content writer, a graphic designer, an SEO specialist, a front-end developer, a PPC (pay-per-click) manager, a social media manager and an email marketing specialist, you might not be able to afford to hire all of this people.
Then again, if the volume of your business is a bit more substantial you might even be in a need for more than one SEO specialist and email marketing specialist, not to mention content writers. Overall, you need to make a list of your digital marketing team in a best-case scenario and then prioritize until you get a realistic composition. After all, in 2018, an SEO specialist, a content writer and a graphic designer can make a huge splash on their own, even without a strategist (although a presence of one can drastically boost their effectiveness).
You Don’t Have to Hire Everyone Right Away
In the previous section, we went so far to discuss difficulties of not having a full team composition, however, this doesn’t have to remain the case for long. As your company grows and the number of free employee slots increases, you can bring in some additional members to the team. In fact, by hiring an SEO specialist early on, you can use their skills and expertise in order to train some of your other employees for this position. Keep in mind, however, that once you appoint someone as an instructor, you need to provide them with matching benefits.
Assistance with the Hiring Process
Another thing you need to consider is getting some help with your hiring process. For instance, keep in mind that hiring a digital marketing project manager may be a bit outside of your scope. In a situation where you have no previous knowledge in this field, how can you expect to recognize the right person for the job? Needless to say, this is why you might need some assistance, either in form of digital marketing experts or professional recruiters. Of course, this doesn’t mean that your own company won’t have a part in the recruitment process, especially your HR. For example, it’s their job to prepare employment letter templates in case you find the right person for your company.
Combining these Roles
The most important role in your digital marketing team is probably that of a manager. Without a proper leadership, it’s nearly impossible to get the necessary coordination or follow a certain strategy, however, you need to appoint the leader yourself. For instance, why would a social media manager be able to boss around your graphic designer? It doesn’t make any sense. With the leader onboard, you will create a clear and transparent hierarchical structure where everyone can find their place. Moreover, as your team grows and your digital marketing operations diversify, with the help of a project leader, you can also create an efficient team leader-based system.
Consider Outsourcing
Finally, a lot of people find the task of structuring a digital marketing team so overwhelming that they prefer to outsource their entire digital marketing. In the long run, cost-effectiveness might not be pro-outsourcing. Still, you don’t have to outsource your entire digital marketing. What you can do is merely outsource a single aspect of it, like SEO or something else that requires a high-level of technical expertise.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the complexity of this issue greatly depends on your ambition. Trying to do it all on your own without any previous experience is bound to result in a disaster. Furthermore, no matter how great you are at what you do, expecting that the efficiency of your team instantly matches that of a professional digital marketing agency is a preposterous notion. To make the long story short, entering this field with realistic expectations is the only way you can make it.
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A digital marketer from Sydney. Works as a blogger, Senior Editor for Bizzmark blog and a lecturer at Melbourne University. Tweets industry related articles.
