Why SME’s are struggling with their marketing

I have heard countless stories from SME’s about the challenges they are facing in building reliable marketing outcomes to get more customers and bring their brand to life.

The issues range from the usual suspects such as low marketing ROI to losing control over their marketing spend, people, agencies and systems. The proliferation and complexity of todays marketing environment has left SME’s feeling baffled at best and under risk at worst in structuring the best possible marketing capabilities internally to meet their precise needs.
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Some SME’s have resorted to outsourcing their marketing function completely to agencies, only to find they don’t have the people on-the-ground for the execution. The majority are disappointed that their agency promised a “full service” when in-fact most ended up being specialists in their field. On the other hand, those seeking support from multiple specialists had to juggle managing many external relationships while trying to run the business.

Given SME’s represent 33% of the Australian economy, addressing the associated risks with these resourcing dilemmas is important. They want greater control over their marketing function (and budgets) and it should be an industry mandate to address this issue. Simply calling a recruitment agency, scoping out a role (or two) and then going fishing for the right person is no longer a “go to” strategy in today’s complex marketing world.

Even if traditional recruitment is in place, SME’s are limited by the number of marketing people they can hire. Recruiting “a jack of all trades” does not exist anymore either. The Marketing Manager with a salary of say $70,000 per annum has a set of core competencies and leads areas such as; marketing planning, campaign management, media & creative briefing, financial tracking, project management, new product development, launches and events. At the next level more specialised skills are essential such as SEM, SEO, Website development, UX, media, design, PR, content, CRM software, video marketing and so on.

So here’s where the problem starts, while SME’s need all of the core and specialists skills it is virtually impossible for most businesses between $1 million-$5 million in revenue to justify hiring a team of 5 people internally on a full-time basis. Nor is it possible to rely on one marketing person to run all marketing activities for an SME.

It’s not all ‘doom and gloom’ because there are emerging resourcing solutions that innovative SME’s are benefiting from. One model is the on-demand flexible workforce that businesses large and small can tap into. The good news for SME’s is that they can create a competitive advantage by saving on headcount while improving their results. This impacts everything from lowering operating costs, improving productivity to better ROI. 
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For example, an engineering company, a property developer, online retail store, an NGO or local council can have marketing on-demand to support all their marketing functions - when they need and want.

A model case study
Consider the old model where a business hires a Marketing Manager for $75,000 p.a. and realizes more expenditure is required for special project or they have a resource gap when that person is on leave.

Alternatively, with the same budget a better solution might be to hire a Senior Marketer (3 days per week) who overseas strategy, planning and campaigns, an entry-level Digital Guru / Web Master (1 day per week), a Graphic Designer on-site (4-hours a week) and Content Manager (as needed).

Insourcing agencies like Marketing Temps recognize the possibilities with on-demand hiring and have saved SME’s on average $40,000 a year by combining flexible recruitment with outsourcing. They have built capabilities in tailoring hiring solutions to each of their clients according to the competency requirements at any given time. From strategy, planning, activation to tracking results, the business owner (their client) is in control because they can hire senior marketers part-time as well as tap into specialists or agencies when needed on a project by project basis.

​What’s unique about the Marketing Temps system is having a “Marketing Champion” overseeing the workflow and carefully advising the business owner the right options to meet their requirements at the right time. It is not a software platform where a request is initiated and ‘freelancers’ are sorted for the picking - which works brilliantly when you know exactly what you’re looking for.

“Our champions have 10+ years of experience in marketing themselves therefore quality is assured in the engagement process. Mentoring and training is available to both the client and sub-contractors as required. SME’s appreciate the human element”It’s clear there are many advantages to everybody within the on-demand flexible work ecosystem. Marketing Temp’s new approach guarantees success because talent is already pre-qualified using their proprietary competency based assessment tool. Their recruitment, engagement and on-boarding processes are streamlined so it’s very responsive; cost effective and simple to ‘stop-start’.

We want to put SME’s in control so they choose a hiring arrangement that suits them. For example sub-contractors can invoice or become PAYG if or when required. It’s also a win-win for senior marketers who choose to work permanent part-time or on a project basis to contribute to SME’s who may struggle to hire them on a full-time basis due to a premium for their experience. For entry-level or Gen Y marketers it’s a great opportunity to experience a wide range of industries before settling on full-time options or employers. There is also a great benefit for specialists’ boutique agencies that can be matched up properly with clients so their specific skills support the strategy and briefings.

So far, Marketing Temps has had a 100% success rate with its clients because its foundations are built on 30 years’ experience in marketing and proper skill assessment processes.

Kate Parker, CEO - YOUR TEA has first-hand experience with creative ways to resource her marketing team within a given budget…
  
“We were looking for a digital jack-of-all-trades and master-of-everything. Not surprisingly, we couldn't find what we were looking for. Marketing Tempshelped us break the problem down - recognising that we needed specialist SEO and Digital Campaign skills that were best split into two part-time roles.
For the same budget, we've been able to get much deeper SEO and digital marketing knowledge into the business and couldn't be happier.”

Most SME’s are excited and relieved when they see how others have benefited and they ask for this type of non-traditional way to build marketing capabilities and staffing solutions for their businesses. Every business is unique and building this process for them is done in consultation with the owner or management team and is a very important component of successful outcomes.

As a trial to new clients, Marketing Temps offers free marketing audits once a quarter and we are doing so in June 2017.

This includes an assessment by Marketing Temps to scope out marketing competencies needed and to map out tailored marketing resourcing solutions to meet the individual business’ goals.
If you are interested contact Kam on 0418 45 8889