Marketing is an important part of any business; without it how can you expect anyone to know who you are or why they should buy from you? But as important as it is, marketing can be a daunting thing to execute. It takes specific types of skills, many of which won’t overlap with the average businessman or salesman. So, which is better for you – a do it yourself (DIY) marketing strategy or a done for you (DFY) one? Sure, you can save money doing it in-house but what is the most effective for the price? Let’s find out.
One of the biggest reasons you might option for a DIY strategy is that outsourcing your marketing costs money. It’s tough to spend your limited pool of cash in the right places and maximise your profits. You might think, then, that it’s better to do your marketing yourself and save money for elsewhere. It’s tough however, if you don’t have the resources and experience, to approach marketing strategically and convincingly.
If you’re going for the DFY approach, however, you might need to shop around for a good price and marketers. You’ll need to spend money, sure, but with the right firm it can be an investment that you’ll ultimately profit from much more than if you hadn’t spent it. Like in any situation, taking the initial risk of outsourcing your marketing strategy will result in a greater reward than doing it yourself.
A drawback to the DIY strategy is that it takes a lot of time to set your marketing up properly. Even if you can schedule your social media posts or email campaigns, you still need to design them in the first place. This can eat up valuable time you could spend applying your skills elsewhere. It can especially become a problem if marketing is a secondary priority for people occupied by other tasks. It’s all too easy to forget to do it, making your marketing strategy completely lose momentum.
This is a clear strength to DFY marketing; for the most part you won’t have to be thinking about your ongoing campaign. A good DFY firm will keep you in the loop with updates and be receptive to your feedback however. So, you’ll still be dedicating some of your time to your marketing, but not nearly as much as if you DIY. By outsourcing you can free up important time you can dedicate to the aspects of business that you have the most expertise.
Some companies are lucky enough to have a designer on staff, but for many it is understandably not a priority. The same goes for someone with marketing or social media experience; especially for smaller businesses it may be better to focus your money elsewhere. When going for the DIY route, this can result in a strategy that doesn’t quite represent your brand as much as you’d like it to. It’s tough to craft a marketing campaign on par with your competitors when they have access to professionals that you don’t.
A DFY firm will likely have experience with a variety of clientele, and can pull ideas from everywhere to make an effective strategy. A good DFY team will put your marketing on par with other companies, keeping it competitive. They should know how the psychology of the public works, and use it to the advantage of your business. The specific expertise offered by a DFY also allows them to work more efficiently than someone simply doing marketing on the side of their main job. This puts a DFY marketing strategy at a clear advantage to that of a DIY one.
There are limits to the types of content a DFY strategy can create for you, however. It’s much more difficult for a DFY firm to be spontaneous. They also can’t create behind-the-scenes content for social media, which can help your brand feel more real and personable. With your input they can create content that’s similar, at the cost of more time investment from yourself.
The content they do create however, will be of the same professional standard to the rest of the market. They will also be able to produce more consistently and maintain the momentum a marketing strategy needs to succeed. So the limits of the content they can make is ultimately offset by the rest of the services they offer. While a DFY strategy can potentially lack the spontaneity you might have yourself, they will likely create a more consistent quality of content.
While a DFY marketing strategy is clearly more of an initial investment than a DIY one, it has a much greater potential to succeed. With a more professional standard of content and applied expertise, it gives you the time to focus on what your best at while your marketing does what it needs to.
If you’re in need of a DFY marketing strategy then get in touch. We’d be happy to help you out!