Is it smarter to try to do advertising yourself or hire an advertising expert?
I was wondering how other businesses are doing advertising. What tools do you use in advertising your business? Do you find that you have been able to advertise well enough on your own or would you suggest hiring a business expert in advertising?
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Jun 17, 2016
Great question. I also have a low budget and wonder if it is worth hiring an expert in advertising or trying to do some gorilla marketing myself first. Thanks for asking, the responses are super helpful!
Jan 13, 2015
This depends on the quality of ad you can create and the venues you can access to push those ads through.
Jan 9, 2015
Even if you do not choose to outsource, I would highly recommend hiring someone in specifically for the organization and deployment of your marketing/advertising strategies. Including the tasks for the advertising budget under someone else's already loaded SOW is an added burden that will affect your advertising effectiveness.
Jan 7, 2015
If you want to do self advertising, this is a great tool. Inexpensive, high quality, heartfelt. Great for relationship marketing. I can help you with Sendoutcards.
Jan 6, 2015
One of great thing about communication is that anyone believe it is easy, obvious, and non technical to do an advertising. Simply put : it is not.
If you want to inform about what you do, your are the best person to do so. If you want to do some advertising, then please turn toward a professional, like you do for all the other aspects of your business (legal, accounting...)
Jan 5, 2015
Hello! My suggestion to you is advertising with Google Ads. Local marketing is extremely hot right now and while there are many options, this has proven to be the best ROI. Your goal is always to get the most return for every dollar spent. Small companies do not have the money to make the trial and errors of large corporations. Therefore it is best to hire someone that is very knowledgeable with Google Ad campaigns to make sure you are targeting the right market, using the right keywords and so forth. Yes, I would hire a business expert.
Jan 5, 2015
Just do it for awhile if it has a poor KPI then outsource it to the expert either way you'll have the chances of both.
Jan 5, 2015
It depends entirely on the business and market you are trying to reach. If you are product oriented utilizing social media site such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are great. However, be aware of the way these sites are changing their advertising capabilities. For example, if you had 3,000 followers/likes that you built up yourself on your Facebook page, if you were to post anything it would only reach about 2-3% of your total population. Facebook does this for a very good reason, to make money. You can increase your overall awareness and reach by paying for Facebook advertising. I believe it starts at about $5 a day and can be useful for huge sales or if you need a big push for a particular event or product.
If you are a self-employed, entrepreneurial, family owned or smaller than a 10 person team a lot of advertising can be done internally. It will still cost money if you do it yourself but you can strategize your target market and initiatives more efficiently and cost effectively. If you live in a smaller or very involved community reach out to local businesses or sponsored events. Consider partnering up with other businesses that align with you but are not competition, cross promotional advertising is a great way to build connections and draw in more people.
We live in an age of accessibility, where free information is all around. Look at your competitors and see what they are doing and how they are doing it. You don't always have to drop big bucks for things like social media, marketing, websites, blogs and advertising, you just have to look in different places for the available opportunities.
Jan 5, 2015
I work as an extension of my client's marketing team. When you are ready, I would be happy to put together a direct marketing campaign to help you target your audience. We would work together to build postal, email and/or telemarketing campaigns to yield and measure results. Please feel free to reach out to me directly to begin a discussion.
Jan 5, 2015
If you can afford an expert, do so. Check their capabilities or what they have done in the past. You may not be able to check their references, as often companies don't identify who they use or if they use advertising experts at all. Get a proposal and see if that makes sense to you and if you like the approach proposed.
Many years ago I was CEO of the U.S. division of a Chinese giftware manufacturer. We sought advertising agencies, and got the same ol', same ol' boring stuff. One very small (5 member) company came to us with very unique ideas that generated unbelievable results. We were selling products associated with boxing legends Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Roberto Duran and Gerry Cooney.. They suggested we rent a suite in NYC, erect a boxing ring, have the four boxers present and invite the press to the "Main Event." We had 350 members of the press in attendance!
Why did we select this group? The owner started when the Titanic movie was in theaters. He spent his last couple of thousand dollars for t-shirts on which he had printed "It Sank - Get Over It" He stood at Times Square in NYC and completely sold out in a a day or two. That unique thinking convinced us to use them.
Since then, my firm has been using similar unique ideas in consulting with clients. It's the only way to get the word out at a reasonable price.
Jan 5, 2015
If you can afford it, outsource your advertising. You can always continue social marketing and such, but having a knowledgeable person or company helping you, you will go faster than doing it alone.
Jan 4, 2015
My first approach would be to see if the advertising is based on a sound brand brief. Most companies have not pinned down their brand's map. No positioning, no clarity on the brand's communication, no impact = wasted advertising.
Only if it is clear why you exist as a brand (what itch are you scratching?), your ability to service that reason, your specific differentiation which results in your brand persona and subsequent communication style, only then can/should you attempt to advertise at all. All builds up on the previous step, ideally from insight gathering onward but usually companies are trying to fix something without going to the root cause.
If all this is mumbo-jumbo to the company's ears, then probably they will not know what they do not know and why experts should do it.
Jan 4, 2015
It could be both ways, if you have a good budget, cast/actors and video equipment/software you could do it yourself.
In the other hand, if you want to invest an ad commercial with a local Advertising company, be sure to have storyboards, script and a budget ready.
P.S. It they want to change your plan, have a cup a coffee with them and talk about it. Don't be closed minded.
Jan 4, 2015
What a lovely conversation, I do love all your thoughts. I will apply all your thoughts and make an amazing advertising move for my business. You are all awesome in your own ways. Highly appreciate it all, thanks :)
Jan 4, 2015
This is a very general question that has a lot of variations involved. It depends on your business, what you are wanting to achieve and of course your budget. When outsourcing your marketing always have a trial in place and a exit clause in the contract. Don't go signing up for a 12mth contract or anything until you are sure that what they do fits with your business and is producing results.
Jan 4, 2015
It's a classic buy vs build mentality. If you are an advertising agency then it makes sense to do it yourself. If you have an in-house agency that makes sense too. If you are a lawyer then you should be doing what makes you money - serving clients, writing briefs, and spending time in the courtroom.
Jan 4, 2015
It depends on the degree of professionality you want. I prefer an expert.
Jan 3, 2015
If you don't consider advertising and marketing a core strength and feel you have a strong understanding of how to execute it, it's a very costly mistake to make if you try and do it yourself and get it wrong. Not only would it be expensive, but it could set your company back significantly in achieving your business goals. So finding a truly capable person or team to bring in house or contract out to an agency would be the way to go unless you're willing and able to invest the time to become an expert at it.