Outsourcing vs. In-House Digital Marketing

Small businesses often face a tough choice: try to do all of their digital marketing in house or find a suitable external resource to outsource work to. While digital marketing service providers have exploded over the last few years, it can be hard to find a company or a freelancer that is the right fit for your brand. Not just financially, but understanding of customers, industry knowledge, services/product familiarity, etc.

On the other hand, doing things in-house seems to be more cost effective, but if you do not have the right technical or marketing knowledge, you risk of doing more harm than good in the long-run. Plus time used on building your brand is time that would have been allocated elsewhere.

So, how do you know which route is best?

Like many areas of running a small business, it depends. I have previously put together an infographic covering the differences of hiring an employee vs. a freelancer. Further to that infographic; below are key factors you should consider before making a decision.

Cost 

Most often the first concern of any small business owner: how much will it cost me?

Outsource Option

Depending on the amount of work required, costs can vary. Generally digital marketing consultants and freelancers charge anywhere from $50-$200/hour depending on experience levels, technicality, etc. Projects can also be agreed upon for a one-time fee, or a regular monthly fee. These two options vary greatly depending on how demanding the work is.

Example: if you're looking to build a responsive website with common contact forms, email sign ups, graphics and such the cost may range from $2,000-$6,000. Price will go up with the amount of copy-writing and design necessary to finalize the website. However, a more complex website that includes a CMS (content management system), e-commerce functionalities or databases can cost anywhere from $6,000-$25,000 depending on the features.

In-house Option

Fortunately for the do-it-yourself small businesses, there are numerous website builder services that can help create entire websites from scratch. Popular service providers like Wix offer free (basic feature) website builders and premium services ranging from $12-$25/month (US dollars) on an annual subscription, or $23-$40 US dollars on a monthly plan. While they provide pre-set templates that can be customized, there are hidden costs with these services: your employees time spent on customizing the template, ongoing maintenance, creating updates, imagery and copy creation, training materials/courses, etc.

For someone who may not be familiar with web or graphic design these tasks can be quite time consuming and take away focus from other functions. Unless your small business has a designated web and/or marketing role, it may be beneficial to outsource work. The above example covers only web design, similar cost comparisons can be made for social media management, graphic design, etc.

Skills & Experience

Scheduling social media posts is easy, we do it on our personal profiles. But utilizing social media as a branding or lead generating tool takes someone with a trained skill set in social media marketing.

Looking at the cost numbers mentioned above, most small businesses would opt to do in-house work as the initial numbers favour the do it yourself approach. While this may be true for certain things, other may better left be outsourced. Why?

Certain aspects of digital marketing require proper training or knowledge in order to yield results. One such marketing function, which is constantly evolving, is search engine optimization. SEO requires ongoing training and knowledge in order to properly climb the ranking ladder AND not to get penalized by major search engines. Google regularly penalizes websites which purposely use unfavourable tactics to raise their rankings.

Services such as SEO, graphic design, any complex coding which are usually crucial elements of marketing efforts, should not be left up to chance. Having an already trained employee in these efforts is hard to find, usually employees narrow their focus to their strengths: visual designers, coders, etc.

As an example: if you're looking to initiate an email marketing program but do not have an in-house colleague who is familiar with CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation) or best practices, it could result in tarnished relationships with customers and potential legal troubles. You do not want to leave your company's brand perception in the hands of inexperience because it could be detrimental in the long run. If costs seem high initially, nothing could be more costly than a dwindling customer base and lack of business!

Timeliness & Knowledge

This is where, in my opinion, the in-house approach may have an advantage over outsourcing. No one is familiar with the products and services as the people who are working with them each day. Certain industries don't require specialized knowledge but if your small business provides software solutions or high-tech products, a freelancer or external agency may have to take the time to get familiar with you and your industry before being able to produce content on your behalf.

Secondly, depending on the type of freelancer, consultant or company you're working with - timeliness may not be their strong suit. Freelancers often work with multiple clients and have simultaneous projects happening which can sometimes lead to prolonged of response times and small projects not receiving the attention they need.

If you have ideas or projects that require time-sensitive work, you should do some research before working with an external organization or individual. Try to get in touch with current or past clients, talk to them about deadlines, etc.

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While there are more factors to consider, I find these to be the most common and crucial ones. If you've come across something yourself feel free to share in the comment section!

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Unknown Wednesday, March 16, 2016  

How to Spot Spam Email Proposals for Online Marketing Services: Dissecting Actual Examples

If you have a website or a social media presence with any sort of contact information (especially a publicly published email) you have, or still do, probably received some sort of email marketing indicating that your website rankings are below the first page of Google. Similarly, the same proposal indicates how the sender can work special online marketing magic at an affordable rate - getting your company visible across social media, Google search, etc. Most of these emails are spam, and spotting real vs. spam is sometimes difficult.

However, there are ways to spot a worth-while email proposal from it's spammy counterpart. Below we take a look at each type of email and it's features that help set them apart:

Spam Email Proposal

Alright, lets start with each of the highlighted sections above:

No Visible Web Presence & Unsupported Self Boasting

The email indicates that this is a "leading firm" in online marketing - which is a fairly bold claim considering I have yet to hear or read anything about "extendyourteam.net" being mentioned within the digital marketing community world wide. Speaking of which, after attempting to open that URL I was unable to load any type of website - meaning that although this email preaches following best-practices and claiming to be a leading firm; it does not have a website of it's own.

How are people supposed to see more information? Perhaps examples of previous work? Other than the information provided in the email, there is no trace of this company on the web. Usually a sign of spam.

Unsupported False Claims Used as a Bait Tactic

If you look at the introduction it simply says "hi" - it is not personalized directly to either the business name or addressed specifically to me as the recipient (keep in mind my name and contact information are accessible across my website, blog and multiple social media websites).

Similarly the paragraph highlighted in blue indicates that my website is not ranked on the first page of Google search results and that the business is no where to be found on social media. There are a number of factors to consider here:

What keywords is the website not ranked on the first page for?
If someone is searching: "digital marketing agency" of course none of the web pages will appear on the first page because that is not the keyword or key-term that is the focus of any of them. Lack of details and vague terminology give this part away.

Who are the competitors "outdoing" me?
Not a single competitor name or detail is included in there - if this was true they would point out that for search term A, competitor A is on the first page while my web pages are not. Is this mentioned anywhere in the email? Absolutely not - simply used as a persuasion attempt to take action.

Which social media websites did you look for, and what were you looking for?
Interestingly enough if I type my business name not only into the different social media platform search options, but in a general Google search, all of my social media profiles come up. More false claims:

1st page results for "nr digital branding" search.

Indicating Spam Intent & Highlighting Outdated Spam Laws

The first sentence of the email indicates that this is a "cold outreach" attempt, in other words spam!It only uses an apology to seem genuine so that the recipient would continue to read further.

Additionally, the inclusion of CAN-Spam Act of 2003 fine print after the signature is another sneaky way of masking legitimacy. Unfortunately most people will get confused by this trick as it gives the perception of following guidelines set out by the Canadian government. The Can-Spam Act of 2003 is no longer valid, it has been replaced by CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation) in 2014 and has been in full effect since last year!

Inconsistent Details

In the body of the email the person indicates their position as "search engine marketing strategist" while in the signature of the email the title of "offshoring coordinator" is used. If you come across discrepancies such as these it could very well be that your email was simply picked up online, put into a large list of recipients and mass blasted in an attempt to elicit some sort of response.

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Luckily, companies providing actual services and following set guidelines are doing a much more appropriate job. Let's take a look below.

Appropriate Email Proposal

Personal Communication & Reason Email Was Received

Unlike the example above, this legitimate email includes personal information in the subject line and as the first greeting message. What a difference it makes to hear an email sent to a person versus "I apologize for this cold outreach" copy & paste spiel.

In addition to the personal messaging, notice that at the bottom of the email further supports the reason as to why specifically the email was sent to me: I am an existing customer. And as an existing customer of an email marketing service, they are offering me free newsletter templates for Valentine's Day. The message and the focus is spot on - everything aligns.

Plus, did you notice the easy unsubscribe option with no SPAM fine-print? Under the new Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, that is the appropriate way to provide a communication termination option.

Credibility Through Online Presence & Branding

Send Blaster's URL and logo are both easily searchable. If I go to their website I can clearly see that the logo in the email matches their website. The URL that the email came from works just fine and has further information on the company - giving it credibility as an email marketing solutions provider.

Clear Purpose & Indicated Action in Body of Email

The body of the email is kept short and to the point; it did not talk about how my email designs are bad (like the first email indicating that my website is suffering in SEO rankings), nor how I need to improve my email templates. Why? Because I do not send emails to Send Blaster - they do not know what my emails look like, all they do is provide the means for me to send emails. They are simply offering additional free resources on top of the one I subscribed to. Now that is providing customer value!

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Although these emails do differ in some ways - there are a few similarities which make it hard to distinguish legitimacy of communication.

Similarities That Cause Confusion

1. Adherence to Spam Regulations

The spam email may seem as the more legitimate one due to its fine print of the CAN-SPAM regulations, but in reality this law has been replaced with a new legislation. It is important to point out that emails DO NOT require any fine print of regulations - they need to indicate the following;

• who the sender is
• what software or service they are using to send the email (if not their own)
• a clear unsubscribe option directly in the email

While not part of marketing communication legislation, good email messages will also indicate why you are receiving the email much like Send Blaster in the example above (signed up for newsletter, existing customer, etc.).

2. Credibility via Email Signatures or Branding

Notice that the first email seems perhaps a little more credible because the signature contains an "actual name"? While in most cases true, it is not always a good indication of legitimacy. Send Blaster may not have an actual person's signature but it does have other aspects which make it credible: reason as to why the message was receive, clear cut privacy policy, refers to actual name of recipient in copy, etc.

Many spam emails will place "personas" or make-believe signatures to make them seem real. While we cannot for sure say if the person in the example above is real or not, it sure does not give me confidence knowing that they did not have matching titles (what they indicate in the opening paragraph of the email vs. their actual title in the signature) or any sort of web presence.

3. Personalization of Subject Lines to Encourage Open Rate

One email includes "Re:" as if it were replying to a previous email while the other has the recipient's name. Which one is more legitimate? This would depend; I have never had previous communication with anyone from that first email. Therefore including the "Re:" is clearly a bait tactic to get me to open the message. The second email has my name, which is also a marketing tactic used to make the email look as if it was sent personally to me (not such a bad thing after all).

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Hopefully this will help you distinguish between spam and regular marketing service proposals. We all known even the best filters will let through a few junk emails. The better you are prepared to recognize them in your inbox, the less time you will waste managing proposals.

Now I would love to hear any spam-like communication stories you may have come across from? Feel free to share below in the comment section to help others be more prepared.

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Unknown Wednesday, March 18, 2015  

Lead Generation: You're Ready to Sell, They're Not Ready to Buy. What Now?

Lead generation is what it's all about at the end of the day: all business owners and marketing professionals essentially want to increase leads or opportunities for creating repeat customers or new business.

However, what happens when you are ready to sell the product and/or service but the lead (potential/returning customer) is not ready to make a purchase just yet? I recently had unpleasant experiences both offline and online with organizations forcing sales when I wasn't ready to purchase. It was these experiences which motivated me to dig deep into this topic by writing this post, hopefully shedding light on the new lead nurturing etiquette which seems to be gaining higher relevancy in our ever evolving B2B, B2C and P2P (person to person) interactions.

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A Bit of Context

In-Store XP
About a month or so ago, I visited a furniture retail store with my girlfriend to look at potential pieces for my long-overdue transition into home ownership. As soon we stepped into the store we were greeted by a sales associate - asking if we required any assistance, informing us of the current sales promotions and to come see him should we have any questions. Great - we had a person for all my answers. We thanked him for the introduction and told him that at this point we are just looking around and getting ideas, not purchasing anything.

Unfortunately, as we began to walk through the furniture show room we noticed that we were being shadowed by that same person - every section we went to, he was creepily walking behind us. When we would look over our shoulder he would pretend to be looking at, or fixing up the arrangement of some nearby furniture products. As I began to have discussions with my girlfriend about what would look good - he would jump in our personal conversations and try to tell us what would work.

As we were leaving the store, the sales associate told us that if we left a deposit NOW we could get it back even if we change our mind later on. No thank you - our response. Yet, he kept selling: if we left our deposit now he would try to get free shipping if we spent $450 or more dollars. No thank you - our response yet again. Both of us left the store feeling creeped out, uncomfortable and unsatisfied.

As a matter of fact we found dinning furniture which we thought would work - but decided later on to buy from another store with a similar style that actually cost more in price. Why? Their sales associate's introduced themselves - let us figure out what we want, and essentially we came back to them to make the purchase. They did not try to force it on us, they were there when they needed to be...and gave us space when we needed it. As a matter of fact, we tried to get free shipping or a price discount - which were pleasantly denied by the furniture store. We still bought the furniture!

Online Store XP
Free stuff - who doesn't like to receive it? Particularly when its downloading stock photography, for 7 days. That's right - there was an offer to download ANY of the images of a certain stock image website for 7 days, at absolutely no cost. Great sales tool - I sign up, give my personal information and join there lead funnel...I on the other hand, get to check out their photography, try it out on a trial period and see if it would work as a long-term solution. Sounds like a match made in heaven right? Not so much...

After the 2nd day, I found that the images were decent - but not exactly up to par of some of the other popular stock photography websites. I downloaded images for about 2 days and decided to unsubscribe and remove myself not only from the free offer, but from the email promotions and newsletters which they started to send me. To my surprise, the emails still kept coming - I unsubscribed again and went to my "online profile" where I removed myself from ALL email communications. Yet the emails kept coming. I had to block the address in my email account, yet again that was not the end of it!

A day after blocking the messages, I had a sales associate email me directly asking if I would take a 75% discount on an annual membership...a "special offer" just for me. I blocked that email address as well. My inbox was full of spam messages and I have been completely turned off from downloading any images from their web store - whether free or at a significant discount.

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Sell Smarter: Help, Inform and Educate

So, what does any of this actually have to do with this lead generation? Everything. These are not just rants of an unsatisfied prospect; these experiences are far too common in the age of personalized communication, customer knowledge and social interactions.

Having the right tools or interactions at a specific time in the buyer process will be the determining factor in actualizing a transaction (or whatever the ultimate goal may be). As someone who has unsubscribed from a FREE offer and the email communication, would I have really fit the criteria of a qualified sales prospect? I have indicated my lack of interest - which should eliminate me from the funnel, helping the company focus on other leads which exhibit higher potential.

Here are alternative options that can and should be utilized as opposed to forcing promotions and hard sales offers down prospect's attention span:

Newsletter Sign Up

If done correctly (example of what NOT to do illustrated in the story above), email newsletters can be a great way to keep potential leads informed and engaged while they build up to a purchase. If a prospect willingly opts into your email communications it means that they are interested in learning more - keep your newsletters informative with customer reviews, success stories, newest developments, etc. Going beyond just promotional pricing and discount specials can increase the level of engagement. The more you teach the prospect, the more likely they are to stick with your brand.

Download Our _______________ for Free

How I would have preferred for the furniture sales associate to suggest downloading a "Design Guide" based on their latest furniture items instead of trying to force discounts to close the sale. Much, much more!

The blank can be filled in with any educational or informative materials useful to the prospect:
- Customer Success Stories
- Guides
- Infographics
- EBooks (like this one we've created for improving small business SEO)
- Whitepapers
- Presentations
- Checklists

Depending what your organization specializes in and what prospect interests are, these downloadable materials can vary. Could consist of a combination of more than one, an in-depth ebook or even a simple template to make their decision process easier.

Encourage Event Participation

Majority of the world is in some way active on social media - they can be connected to your brand if you give them reason to do so. Are you currently running a contest? Giveaway? Do you reward people who actively engage with your social media outlets?

How awesome would it be if users got perks for sharing stuff on a brand's Facebook page? Not only would the engagement increase for the brand, but the audience would be more connected, increasing the likelihood of achieving set goals...and most importantly establishing long-term interactions. Again, the difference is centered around the user experience NOT sales rep salesmanship.

Have Fun

This is a hard one for small business owners who are not comfortable with social interactions and newer ways of interacting with prospects. I was recently working on a social media overview webinar with a small business marketer and after mentioning that social media should be fun, even in B2B organizations their response was surprising: "That scares me - I always think of men and women in business suites at a meeting table. How do you have have fun when you're trying to close business?"

Easy: how do you have fun outside of work? Post funny stuff, center your campaigns around humorous content, instead of pricing promotions - include funny content as part of your email communications. Believe it or not, business owners or "upper management" are people too. They enjoy the same types of laughs as the rest of the world - of course you have to be careful not to step over the line with certain material. Keep it friendly, fun and share-able! Good example below from Stone Temple Consulting using cats for their SEO round-up news called "Caturday" on Google+ (cats, puns and SEO information = great combo):

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You may be asking yourself: that is a lot of effort to just nurture a lead that MIGHT buy something...is it really worth it? It absolutely is, the same argument can be made for sales associates: they are not guarantee to close a sale. Similarly, this content and new way of lead generation does not necessarily replaces a sales person - they can work together to provide the right assistance at the right time. This ensures that your brand is always present for the prospect, not in a sense of sales messages but informative engagement where they are learning something new, useful and helpful.

Shift the focus from TELLING someone why to buy and HELP them make a decision on their own. The landscape has already shifted to a customer-centric interactions, has your brand?

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Unknown Tuesday, August 05, 2014