You’ve started your business with a lot of passion and enthusiasm, but it’s difficult to keep up the momentum. You do all the work yourself but feel like you haven’t seen any progress in months even though you put in long hours every day. What could be wrong?
Although you’re able to do some marketing on your own, it may be time to hire a professional marketing agency that can do for you what you cannot do alone. The following are three giveaways that this is the right move for you at this stage in your business’s development.
1) Your lack of results could be due to your lack of expertise.
2) Your lack of results could be due to your lack of time.
3) Your lack of results could be due to your lack of energy, physical strength and stamina.
If any or all three of these describe you, then marketing is something that should probably be left to the pros at this point because you’re not giving yourself the best shot at success.
There is a lot that goes into marketing, and if you aren’t completely confident in your abilities to promote your business, then it’s probably better for you to leave that part of your venture to someone who can give it 100 percent full-time attention. Your time should be spent focusing on running the business.
The only way you’ll ever know for sure is if you give it a try on your own, but there are some very strong clues that might convince you. For example, if you’ve tried marketing without any success, it’s time to consider hiring help. Or maybe all of the competition in your industry has left you behind because they’ve invested in marketing professionals. It could be that you’ve been so busy building a business by yourself, the last thing on your mind was whether or not you need to bring a marketing expert on board, but now it’s time for outside help.
The first step is determining if hiring a professional marketing agency will benefit your business at all. If you’re already doing the marketing side of the business on your own, then you know that it can be tough to find time for advertising and other promotion since it’s already taking up so much of your day. If this is the case, then there are some agencies out there that you can hire for shorter periods of time (usually monthly), depending on what you think you need.
It’s also possible that you have a marketing plan in place, but your results have been lackluster. In this case, it might be time to call someone who specializes in the type of marketing you’re doing and learn how their strategies could benefit your business. Or maybe your competition is far ahead of you because they’ve had professionals working on their marketing for months or even years, while you’re just getting started.
Another consideration is that your business might be too small to hire a full-time marketing professional, but it’s big enough that some occasional marketing expertise would benefit the company. There are also some agencies that offer consulting services instead of monthly retainers, which can help you if you’re trying to test the waters or just need a specific strategy implemented that could benefit your business.
So consider it for awhile then determine whether or not marketing support might be what your company needs to take things to the next level. If so, there are numerous options out there so don’t get overwhelmed by all of them. Instead, look for the agency that’s right for you, whether it’s a full-time marketing expert or just an occasional consultant.