Answer This Question In 5 Seconds Or Less: Who’s The Marketing Expert At Your Business?

If you can't answer that question in under 5 seconds, you don't have a marketing expert at your business. Don't freak out, most small to medium sized businesses don't have a real marketing expert on staff. Many business owners cobble together the 'marketing powers' of their sales people, and combine that with their own experiences to create what they consider a marketing strategy. But is that an effective approach?

Take an example from a small home improvement business that used their phone book advertising salesman as their marketing expert. Probably not a bad choice back in the 1980's, but what about today? The phone companies that once dominated the small business advertising world have all but disappeared, with many morphing into so called "online adverting agencies".

Marketing Strategies Change Fast

The marketing industry has changed dramatically in the past 5 years as the internet has become the main source of customer engagement. As a business owner, you need to ask yourself who your real marketing expert is, and decide whether or not you need a professional online marketing agency to manage your marketing strategies going forward.

The online marketing and advertising industry is vast, convoluted and expanding exponentially. What worked online just a few years ago either barely works today, or no longer works at all. The speed of change in online marketing is sometimes blinding, and you need to keep up with those changes, or your business may quickly be left behind.

The number of online marketing options increases every month. So much so, that no single person could possibly keep up with all the search engine algorithm changes, new social media connectivity, pay-per-click advertising management, monitoring of online mentions to keep track of reputation, the exploding mobile device phenomenon, and a host of other online marketing and advertising options. Keeping up with all these changes requires a group of people who work together to manage all of the digital assets your business needs today.

What Should A Business Owner Do?

So, what's a business owner to do? Well, you can hire enough people to create a digital marketing department in-house, or hire a marketing agency that specializes in online marketing. What you cannot do is continue kicking the issue down the road and hope something will change. It will change, but not to your advantage because every day you wait leaves your business lagging behind and vulnerable to your competition.

Perhaps this advice from Erik Huberman from Hawke Media will be helpful:

"When launching a business, it's critical to do what you are good at; sticking with your core competency is an absolute must."

So, whatever it is you are great at doing in your business, focus on it and have experts handle the rest. You're probably already doing some of this now.

Many business owners already outsource their accounting needs, customer service, janitorial services, and many other requirements of their business operations. The savings are realized in reduced overhead, smaller recruitment efforts, diminished training sessions, and less full-time employee expenses, while allowing the business owner to tap into experts without the associated expenses.

It's time to outsource your online marketing strategies so you can get back to doing what you do best. Hiring a digital marketing agency may be the single best investment you make in your business over the next 5 years.

Video created by Creative Conspiracy NV for bus company De Lijn. Audio enhancement by Sam Law. Foley, dialogue and walla were recorded at Harbourside Institute of Technology.