Having trouble juggling all the different facets of your business? Want to set up something in a new market, but none of your employees have the required expertise? What you need might just be a marketing technology team.
Outsourcing your company’s marketing technology tasks to a Marketing Technology Team might just be the answer you’ve been looking for. It could be the thing that lets your business break into new markets, tap into new technologies and gain an edge in terms of knowledge and expertise.
In the following, we’re going to talk about everything you need to know right away to decide if bringing such a team on board is the way to go for your business, including possible challenges and ways to overcome them, how to get started, and ways to make the process as efficient as possible.
Here is a breakdown of the article, in case you wish to jump around.
- What is a Marketing Technology Team?
- Top benefits
- Possible risks and how to minimize them
- How to get started & Best practices
What is a Marketing Technology Team?
A Marketing Technology Team is a group consisting of professional experts in the fields of marketing and IT. They can help a brick-and-mortar business set up shop in the vast online landscape. When you hire someone with martech skill sets, you can finally update old tech, systems and processes that have been set up over a decade ago, making the business dance to the tune of the march of progress. Sometimes, they simply take on the workload that your employees are too busy to get to, or just out of their range of expertise.
Takeaway #1 – Outsourcing has traditionally been a thing reserved for big companies, but now companies of any size and from any field can take advantage of it and get paired up with the right experts from all over the world.
Top benefits
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Take on bigger projects. If parts of your company’s activity are done, for example, by a digital agency, that allows you to focus on your own part to play in different projects. As a result, you can combine your work with that of a marketing team like jigsaw pieces, to achieve goals you wouldn’t have dreamed of when you were holding just one piece of the puzzle.
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Increased flexibility. If the need arises, you will be able to meet it by relying on professionals in digital marketing, even if your company has no relation to the field by itself. This way, you can capitalize on opportunities when they present themselves, instead of letting them pass you by.
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Time-Saving. Time is a valuable resource, and the faster you complete a project or task, the faster you can get to the next, keeping all processes in a flow state, progressing efficiently towards success.
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Improve focus. You’re probably spinning quite a few plates already. Any juggler knows there comes a point where they can’t handle another ball in the air, for fear of dropping all the others. Don’t get bogged down with all the aspects of your operation. Your priority should be the big picture. You should set the course and bring your input on things like the appropriate marketing strategy for your company, but let the digital marketing experts implement it.
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Gain access to specialized knowledge and technology. A professional marketing team can bring to the table not only the know-how and skill, acquired through years of training and experience of on-the-job problem solving but also their cutting-edge tools that they know like the back of their hand.
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Get a fresh take on how things are going. Putting a new set of eyes on your ongoing projects can give you an out-of-the-box solution, or catch mistakes everyone else missed. Tackling matters from a new angle could reinvigorate your business and offer a new perspective on how the operation should proceed.
Possible risks and how to minimize them
Handing over control of the process.
In some cases, with outsourced marketing, you talk over with the digital agency about your wishes but along the way to the finished product, they have to make decisions by themselves, without consulting you, to keep things going and meet their deadlines.
The Solution: Be absolutely clear and concise about what you want the final product to be like, and know that this marketing team is made up of professionals, so trust in their judgement and ability to deliver great work.
Putting your data security and intellectual property in danger.
When outsourcing your marketing, you will have to to brief people on the specifics of your operation. This puts things like trade secrets and business plans at risk of leaking to competitors.
The Solution: Both parties involved can sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), to legally bind them to secrecy. Moreover, you should only work with reputable experts in digital marketing who have a proven track record.
Communication issues.
Sometimes, after agreeing on what the end result should be, the third party goes away, radio silence sets in, and calls back only to deliver the finished product.
The Solution: You can set up a draft system, to check in on the progress every now and then and make necessary adjustments.
Takeaway #2 – Every new venture comes with risks, and marketing outsourcing is no different. However, knowing what you’re getting into can show you common pitfalls in time for you to avoid them.
How to get started & Best practices to get the most out of outsourcing
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Identify the problem. Are customers finding your product but not finishing a purchase? Are they not even on your landing page to begin with? Let the symptoms lead you to the root cause of the issue.
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Decide what you need. Do you want a website redesign, a landing page? An email campaign? All of them and more? Identify your needs first, before looking for the solution.
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Establish a budget. Look at your current resources and decide how much you want to invest. Take a look at the market to get a hint of an appropriate budget.
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Do your homework. Check out what the team’s previous clients are saying about them. A long list of success stories on their site might be a good sign. Also check if the team has members trained in the fields you require, like Affiliate Tracking, Membership Site or Sales Funnel experts.
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Collaborate Smartly. Set up a clear plan. Give specific instructions, work with the outsourced marketing technology team to create specific deliverables, and make sure you communicate your wishes and needs properly. This way, they can work with you to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
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Keep an eye on the progress. Make sure you stay in the loop!
Takeaway #3 – The outsourced marketing tech professionals will build your vision to your exact specifications, but they need the plans first, so be as clear and detailed about what your needs and wishes are.
Remember that a Marketing Technology Team can take what you already have and bring it to new heights, never before thought possible. It can help you maximize your profits by making sure you don’t miss out on all the potential customers that could discover your products or services through a well-crafted and designed marketing campaign.
If you think that outsourcing some processes regarding web development and marketing is the right move for your business, you can schedule a call with us right here to discuss your needs and how to best serve them in a timely and efficient manner.