If you feel like your business growth has hit a wall, this article might be for you.
Mid-sized businesses are typically caught between trying to operate with the agility of a leaner team and aiming to compete with larger companies. The challenge of balancing both can get tricky real quick. A lot of mid-sized companies overcome this hurdle by offshoring some of their business processes to optimize the use of all their resources. Others innovate to find new creative solutions, but most simply plateau.
They are the middle children of the business world. While they have grown and earned enough to expand their operations and recruitment, they still do not have the breadth of resources corporations have.
Growing a startup from 0 to 200 employees or $10 million revenue is surely no small feat. But as a mid-sized enterprise managing larger teams and more complex operations, you will be faced with twice the workload. To overcome these challenges, medium-sized business owners will have to shift from startup practices that no longer serve their needs and make strategic investments to level up and get into the big leagues.
As a mid-sized business consultant, Robert Sher mentioned in Forbes:
“Mid-sized businesses with the practices of a startup cannot thrive. Even firms with solid products and services often feel they can continue growing without much change in the process because of past successes. But my experience and research shows they will hit a plateau at some point — operations will melt down, quality will suffer, or the sales activities needed to drive growth will fail — and then it will be difficult to regain momentum.”
So how can business owners continuously grow in a competitive industry to reach the levels of success that multinational businesses enjoy?
The first obstacle mid-sized businesses face is getting more eyeballs on their offerings. They need to fight with established businesses that get most of the attention and startups that have the novelty working for them.
Marketing for mid-sized businesses should not be limited to one or two people anymore and neither should business leaders take it on themselves. While that might have worked in a small business setting, it will do more harm than good on a growing business. A strong digital marketing team fit for medium-sized businesses is the key to competing with the big boys.
Marketing Hassles for Medium-Sized Businesses (yes, there’s more)
We touched on the marketing pain points that startups usually encounter in our guide to a small business’ digital marketing team. These are obstacles to growth and success that startups must solve before they can start expanding. Some of these challenges do not ever go away – they just evolve depending on how big or complex your operations are.
For digital marketing, the problems are along the lines of sustainability. The financial and creative limits might no longer be barriers, but staying flexible enough to remain on top of your industry could be a challenge. Here are a few problems that every medium-sized business could encounter on the road to growth and success.
Employee Hiring and Retention
2 in 5 mid-sized business owners are concerned they do not have the tools for effective talent management. Most startups tend to limit their marketing team to 1-2 people. But as soon as your business blooms into the medium territory, onboarding more marketers should be your top priority. Why? Digital marketing can help super boost your growth so getting more specialists on board can help multiply your returns quicker. However, because of the success and subsequent demand for expert digital marketers, retaining these hires will also take extra work and investment both in engagement efforts and employee packages. This can significantly increase expenses, which is why businesses should look into strategic hiring options.
Lack of Long-term Marketing Plan and Advanced Tools
Even if medium-sized businesses grow their marketing team, it still might not make much of a difference if they do not invest in building a long-term marketing strategy that supports sustained growth. On top of that, businesses should also invest in the latest marketing tools like CRM/CMS software, Google Analytics, and email marketing applications. These play critical roles in attracting, nurturing, and retaining customers, so it would be good to begin setting them up in preparation for even bigger digital marketing operations in the future.
Lack of Marketing Direction
Small businesses often have the owners act as the marketing manager, but that has to change when they expand. Hiring a leader does not only let you clear marketing concerns off of your plate. It also allows a more experienced individual to take over and create direction for the digital marketing team’s efforts.
Customer Attraction
Regardless of size, businesses will always be competing for customer attention. Unfortunately, medium-sized enterprises lack the established reputation of large companies and the unique offering of startups. As a result, medium-sized businesses find themselves stuck in an unfavorable situation in terms of profit. Changing tactics according to marketing trends might be necessary to keep up with the competition.
Lack of High-Quality Content
Startups usually enjoy the benefits of having to start from scratch, with so many creative marketing ideas to attempt. After years of reaching out to customers, the marketing team might run out of impactful ideas and strategies. High-quality content becomes challenging to produce when the business relies only on a few people.
Medium-sized businesses might overcome a few marketing pain points that startups encounter. Still, it doesn’t mean there aren’t more to tackle as the venture grows. Solving those issues requires a growing digital marketing team fit for the tasks so business owners and leaders are free to focus on pushing the business to greater heights.
The Lineup for the Medium-sized Business Digital Marketing Dream Team in 2021
No business gets past the startup level without a digital marketing team in today’s world. The department’s relevance is incomparable, but a limited budget forces SMBs to hire just one to two marketers. Once your company expands, adding more people becomes inevitable. For the digital marketing team, it means transformation starting from the top.
Chief Marketing Officer
Entrepreneurs often have to take on multiple roles for startups because of limited finances. Marketing fits into that situation because business owners know and understand their ideal target audience. The objectives for marketing strategies come from them, so getting involved with the digital marketing team comes as no surprise.
Business expansion, however, requires owners to focus more on core operations. Digital marketing does not fall under that category. As a result, medium-sized businesses must prioritize filling up the leadership position vacated by the owner. They need someone with the same dedication to the field so they can contribute the needed experience, expertise, and direction for the digital marketing team.
Business owners must hand over the digital marketing responsibilities to a C-level executive that facilitates the entire digital marketing team while creating a comprehensive marketing plan to increase sales. The transition allows your marketing team to grow significantly, outgrowing startup ways and developing fully into a medium-sized corporation.
Creative Team
Financial flexibility allows medium-sized businesses to dedicate more personnel to digital marketing strategies. Growth enables exploration, allowing the marketing team to find the most effective and efficient campaigns and content through trial and testing. Unfortunately, that is overwhelming for one digital marketer to accomplish.
In pursuit of multiple strategies to attract customers, hiring a creative team should be the top priority. This team is responsible for representing the brand and maintaining visibility on online platforms. It must consist of diverse marketers specializing in three technical components: design, branding, and optimization.
Here are a few marketers you might need for your medium-sized business’ creative digital marketing team:
- Web Designer
- Graphic Designer
- Videographer
- Creative Director
- Video Editor
With these specialists on board, medium-sized businesses can attempt a variety of marketing strategies and create a solid online presence, making the creative team a vital part of the expansion.
Content Team
Maintaining visibility and brand representation are critical components to effective marketing strategies. But how will you direct people to your business website when you have nothing to show for it? High-quality content drives awareness, creates demand, and convinces potential customers to see what you have to offer, making it a top priority for a medium-sized business. The digital world is a competitive space, forcing you to go head to head with startups and established companies for customers that also get bombarded with other competitor content.
Content creators of the digital marketing team must create high-quality multimedia assets like blog posts, eBooks, videos, podcasts, email campaigns, and the like. These resources can be used not just in marketing but across the whole customer journey as well, even in sales and client services.
It can be challenging to create a successful digital marketing team without these specialists in the digital age:
- Content Writer
- Copywriter
- Content Manager
- Email Marketing Specialists
- Project Manager
Web Content Specialist
Producing high-quality content is the primary goal for the content team. They also play a vital role in making the company visible to potential customers. Creating a solid online presence means showing up on the top pages of search engines and social media feeds. SEO specialists are integral to the team as they ensure that your company’s content continues to rank up. Since SEO can be accomplished purely on a digital landscape, most businesses turn to offshoring their SEO work to more cost-effective destinations.
Who Else Do You Need for Your Marketing Team?
Growing into a medium-sized business is a massive achievement, especially when you’ve felt stuck for years. However, by no means are you out of the woods. Fast-growing companies must take initiatives to continue along the path to success. Filling up the digital marketing team with essential staff allows you to accomplish that. Still, you might need more than just the creative and content units. If six to eight people are not enough, try to identify who else you need to create the ideal digital marketing team for medium-sized businesses in 2021.
Why Offshore instead of Hire In-house?
Regardless of the business size, reducing costs remains an integral part of the operations. Unfortunately, the wiggle room for medium-sized corporations might not be enough to strengthen the digital marketing team. Hiring in-house remains a costly venture, especially when you encounter bad hires and experience high employee turnover rates. Medium-sized enterprises need not be trigger-happy. Digitalization paved the way to prevent financial constraints from standing in the path to growth and development. Offshoring allows businesses to hire remote digital marketing teams for significantly lower costs.
SMBs can utilize offshore teams to pursue marketing growth strategies and continue dedicating funds to core operations. However, it is essential to plan and research ahead. The Philippines is an outsourcing giant that provides digital marketing experts perfect for medium-sized corporations. The professionals in the country possess the qualities of the best remote employees. The BPO industry in the Philippines also receives outstanding government support, giving foreign business owners more reasons to offshore to the Philippines.
Want to Build Your Digital Marketing Team Now?
Medium-sized businesses are at a crossroads. They are no longer startups that benefit from trends. They are also not industry giants that have established rapport with customers. Outgrowing startup ways is a massive accomplishment, but medium-sized enterprises still have a long journey to massive success. Creating a digital marketing team that is up for the challenge is step one.
If you’re worried about the costs of hiring multiple people at once, offshoring with iSupport Worldwide is an easy, safe, and accessible option. Our services extend beyond digital marketing, filling up other necessary positions for your company’s expansion plans. Book a free meeting with us to discuss your medium-sized company’s strategy for a tailor-fit remote digital marketing team this 2021.