Acquire an FTE (Full Time Employee)
The question isn’t IF a good online marketing employee will help increase revenue. If they are good they will. But there is a question as to if the cost of this person will exceed the revenue they bring in. For example: $100,000/year salary and benefits for a good online marketer is a good deal. If this employee helps you bring in an incremental $200,000/year in revenue this is a no brainer. If the market will only let them bring you in $50,000/year there is probably a problem.
Acquire PTE (Part Time Employee)
A part time employee may also be considered and may cut the salary requirement in half. You may also reduce the quality of the person you are seeking. You are probably seeking (or at least hoping for) Organic Search, Paid Search, Display, E-mail, and Social Media marketing skills in one person. Your chances of finding all these skills in one person are slim in the first place. This effort is further hampered when you only have a part time position to offer. Two reason for this: 1) you screen out the best people and 2) you limit the time they have to devote to doing a complete job each month.
Hire an Agency
Acquiring a GOOD agency will address the problem of expertise. They will most likely have expertise in Organic, Paid, Display, E-mail, and Social Media. Unlike your perfect employee they will most likely be multiple individuals who focus on their core competencies. The problem with this scenario is you will probably go from $100,000/year salary and benefits for a full time employee to $200,000/year to engage a good agency. You may also find you will not have an employer/employee type relationship. As hard as they may try not to do so they will probably come across as a bunch of arrogant know-it-alls that will insist on doing everything their way with little input from you. This may be justified in some cases but will be unacceptable in many situations.
Hire a Virtual Agency
This is the best of both worlds and more. You have a) at your disposal expertise in Organic, Paid, Display, E-mail, and Social Media, b) part time “virtual” employees while maintaining the quality and coverage of a Full Time Employee, and c) a cost that is closer to the cost of the part time employee. The expertise gained by engaging this virtual agency is further enhanced with years of contacts, available online marketing tools and techniques at their disposal, and economies of scales that simply can’t be enjoyed by companies that don’t have online marketing as their primary business.
What You Should Expect From A Virtual Agency
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A written online marketing strategy that is agreed upon and understood by all parties.
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Specific online marketing goals agreed upon by you and the virtual agency.
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A specific time schedule with benchmarks for reaching these goals.
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A specific/permanent team assigned to your company (this may be two or three individuals but should address the expertise required by the strategy).
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Mutual agreed upon status meetings with the virtual team to gauge the campaign effectiveness and to gain your industry expertise.
Virtual Agencies are usually smaller than the traditional online agency and will restrict the number of clients that they service at one time. They purposely remain small to maintain control and that personal relationship with the owners. They limit the client load to ensure that the quality remains in each relationship.
Contact Steve Thompson at 816-587-8880 or e-mail him at steve.thompson@siteedgeagency.com if you would like additional information on the Virtual Agency program offered by siteEDGE Agency.
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