There are two reasons to handle a project yourself…
1. You have the knowledge and ample time, so it doesn’t make sense to pay someone else…
2. You can’t afford to pay someone else to do it for you, so you gotta do it yourself (DIY till you DIE!).
Now, in my last post, I outlined the tools you need in your handy dandy Big Red Marketing Toolkit to handle marketing essentials. But those that’s when you’re operating your biz in DIY mode…
What happens when your business (hopefully) grows to the point where you can no longer DIY?

A Small Business’s Most Valuable Commodity: Time or Cash?

When you’re first starting out, time is plentiful, while money is generally in SHORT supply. But as your biz grows and evolves, time often becomes a far more precious commodity. That’s not to say achieving a measure of success means you’ve managed to cultivate an ever-blooming money tree in the backyard.
But it does reframe your perspective a bit. Eventually, it dawns on you that… “Hey, if I could focus more on doing what I do, I’d be able to do more and better work for a better class of clients.”
That’s why growing businesses hire help. Even for tasks they may be able to handle in-house.

When Outsourcing Just Makes More Sense…

And when it comes to marketing, outsourcing not only frees up time and makes your business more efficient, it also gives your biz a more professional air. Sure, you could handle many marketing tasks yourself. But the quality of the work produced by specialized professionals will FAR exceed what you can manage under you own steam.

Developing a Roster of Quality Marketing Pros

So how do give yourself more time AND improve the quality of your marketing? you need to develop a roster of qualified marketing professionals.
Picking up the thread of my last post – covering essential marketing tools – here’s a list of marketing professionals that DEFINITELY should be on your vendor list…

Web Designer (WordPress Specialist)

As I revealed in my last post, I’m a HUUUUUGE proponent of WordPress. And that’s mostly because it’s designed to be a user-friendly DIY tool. It’s suuuuuper easy to launch a WordPress site all by yourself. And it’s simple to manage the basics without outside support once your site is up and running.
But as your business grows, a “basic” website just doesn’t cut it anymore. Here again, WordPress is still a great tool. There are countless templates and themes that can make your site look like a million bucks.
Most of the themes, however (especially the emerging “fully responsive” infinite scroll variety), require customization and some fine tuning to achieve the full “million bucks” effect. That means you need to hire a WordPress specialist.
And I stress WordPress Specialist here. Designers NOT versed in WordPress often try and reinvent the wheel in designing or even upgrading WordPress sites. Meanwhile, the platform is designed to expedite site construction. And all the superfluous coding non-WordPress pros add just causes problems down the road when it’s time to update your site.

Graphic Designer

As also I mentioned in my last post, there will come a time in your business when you need… A flyer, poster, direct mail postcard or package, brochure, or some other piece of formatted print media.
The DIY solutions I offered in my last post are fine when you’re starting out. But legit design is must as your business grows. Polished print media is a key factor in projecting a poised and professional image.

Copywriter

Now, copywriting doesn’t directly correlate to any of the DIY marketing tools I referenced in my last post. And lots of businesses write their own marketing material.
Writing, however, is basically the foundation of all marketing… Persuasive writing in sales messaging captures sales … keyword driven writing improves your website’s SEO (which is instrumental in increasing your Google search ranking) … engagingly written blog posts and compelling social media updates generate referral traffic… And writing this content in a way that engages prospects and converts them into paying customers requires a specialized skillset.
Those skills are also EXACTLY what a competent copywriter brings to the table. So if you want to improve sales conversions, increase search ranking, and gain more social media referral traffic, a good copywriter is a worthwhile investment.

Virtual Assistant (VA)

Here again, a VA also doesn’t directly correlate to any of the DIY marketing tools I referenced in my last post. But there are MANY marketing related tasks…
== > Formatting + scheduling marketing emails
== > Formatting + scheduling blog posts
== > Formatting + scheduling social media updates in Hootsuite or Buffer
== > Managing marketing collateral (flyers, brochures, mailers)
== > Responding to request for additional info (mailing out brochures + form letters)
== > Responding to email inquiries (generated by your website, social media referrals or email marketing campaigns)
…Are all tasks (among many others) a VA can handle. So rather than sap your precious time, or heap more work on your full-time employees, you can assign such tasks to a part-time VA – A handy guy or gal you keep on retainer for 1-5 hours per week.

Marketing Vendor Referral Resources

Now that you know who you need on your roster, where do you find these wonderful, time-saving ladies and gents? Well…
Ask for referrals – Fellow business owners, collea, ues and professional associates are always a good resource. Just ask who they use for web design, graphic design, copywriting, etc… And if they’d recommend their vendor for your project.
Google search – Hop on Google and do a search for vendors in your area. Thanks to Google My Business, there are not only local listings, but also helpful Yelp-style reviews rating vendors in your area
Upwork (formerly elance) – You post your project description on the site (free of charge), and various freelancers bid on your job.
A word of caution here, this approach seems to have mixed results… Some users I’m acquainted with have reported great success. Others, however, have shared some horror stories.
But ultimately, using Upwork isn’t much different than running a Google search for local vendors. In the end, it all boils down to how well you vet to vendor you select.
99designs – This is a site primarily focused on graphic design, but they do offer web design services, too.
99designs works similarly to Upword. You post your project description and freelancer designers bid on your job.
For design work, I’ve only heard positive reviews. But I don’t know anyone who’s solicited website design here, so I can’t speak to that aspect of their services.

Who’s on Your Marketing Vendor Roster?

Are there any marketing services vendors on which you rely? Any critical services I missed? By all means, please swing by my Google+ page and share!