There was a song released in the 1970s by Five Man Electric Band – and covered by Tesla in the early 1990s – called “Signs.” One of the best remembered lines from the song: “The sign says, ‘Long haired-freaky people need not apply.’”
A lot has changed since then, including the challenges of finding the right hire in today’s economy, but many business owners still hold the same attitude when looking for digital marketing and advertising talent.
They prefer to hire an internal team of employees to create, manage, and track digital advertising. There are several reasons to do so, including the level of focus and the ability to control the entire process.
Some don’t consider the alternative – outsourcing their digital marketing efforts to an outside agency or team of digital marketing and advertising professionals – as a viable strategy.
To them, outsourcing digital advertising would just attract “long-haired freaky people” that are not as emotionally invested on the brand (okay, maybe yesterday’s “long hair” is today’s “pink hair” or “mountain-man beard”). That is, people who don’t confine their service to traditional solutions and in-the-box thinking.
If you’ve been hesitant to trust an outside digital marketing agency for your business, or a white label agency for handling clients’ digital marketing needs, that’s perfectly understandable. You’ve probably heard stories about other business owners who have struggled to get results from freelancers and contractors. Maybe you’ve even been burned a time or two yourself.
Still, when you find the right digital marketing and advertising agency, working with the agency on a contract basis offers several advantages over hiring employees:
You can manage expenses and resources by hiring on a short-term or per-project basis.
Many business owners cringe when they see marketing employees taking long breaks, underperforming or putting off work, because they’re paying these employees for their time regardless of their productivity.
When you work with a contractor or digital advertising agency, on the other hand, you have greater control over the results you get for your money. You can outsource teams to take on specific projects and pay them based on completion of project milestones, instead of paying employees for a specific number of work hours. Companies like Trigger Digital will even agree to work on a pay-for-performance basis, meaning you pay for results instead of promises.
You can also bring in talent under a short-term contract – three- and six-month contracts are common in the digital marketing world. This allows you to evaluate a contractor or agency’s performance. If the results they generate exceed your standards, you can renew your contract for a longer period. If they generate substandard results and can’t make it right, you can part ways without the stress and expense of terminating employees.
You get access to industry experts who stay on top of digital advertising trends.
When you hire new marketing employees, they work hard for you and do their best to keep growing and learning. After the first few projects, though, many of these employees start to become complacent. They stop seeking out knowledge, questioning, researching, and testing.
From then on, they’re just giving you whatever worked in the past.
When you outsource digital advertising, though, you tap into a team of professionals who spend every day immersed in “what’s working now.” They put the time and effort into researching advertising trends, identifying new opportunities, and testing creative ads, week after week.
Why? Because they must. Otherwise, they couldn’t keep generating top-shelf results for their clients. They’d be lucky to even stay in business.
Outsourced professionals provide a wealth of narrow expertise and broad experience, giving your business the leverage to stand out in today’s crowded digital advertising world.
You can avoid many of the expenses of hiring and maintaining a team of digital advertising employees.
Many can relate to the expense of a hire, let alone a bad hire.
Not only can a digital agency save you money through increased efficiency, it lets you avoid many of the other expenses associated with hiring and maintaining employees. You are generally not responsible for withholding most payroll taxes. You also are not required to make available or contribute to a contractor’s healthcare, retirement, or worker’s compensation plan, or provide any other benefits that could drain your company’s profits.
And if you can be so lucky to find a pay for performance digital marketing team, then I invite you to think of it this way – Chances are they would have to deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for their fees to equal what you will pay an internal higher regardless of results.
If you’d like to know more about how working with a digital advertising agency can help your business succeed without the headaches and expenses of hiring an in-house team. We may just be the “long-haired freaky people” you’ve been looking for!
