Outsourcing can be defined as assigning tasks, duties, services, and/or activities, typically on an as-needed basis, to experts, specialists, and agencies. The reason for outsourcing is, in part, to free up time from the non-core actions of a business, save money across departments, gain valued insight and expertise into a given skilled niche, in hopes of ultimately triggering continued growth in the business.
Whether big or small, important or incidental, tedious or needle-moving, outsourcing tasks and services is an effective and oftentimes necessary action that businesses must take to reach the next phase of growth.
Outsourcing Tasks & Services as a Small Business
When you’re in startup mode, you likely handle as much as you can on your own.
However, there will come a point, inevitably, that the tasks currently taking up your time and energy and as a result stunt your business growth. Maybe it’s creating social media posts or writing blog posts; maybe it’s editing your video content or building your marketing funnel.
Whatever the case, outsourcing can be an incredible tool to employ and can be the difference-maker between exponential growth, stagnancy, or business failure. If you try to do everything yourself, you will end up with mediocre results, missed deadlines, and potentially missed opportunities. Let’s see how you can prevent that.
Here are 10 Services that Every Small Business Should Consider Outsourcing:
- Social Media Writer
- Social Media Marketing
- Blog Writer
- E-mail Marketing
- Website Maintenance
- Graphic Design
- Paid Ads
- SEO
- Marketing Funnel
- Video Editing
Social Media Writer
If you’ve ever heard of writer’s block or the more broadly termed creator’s block, you know how timely and exhausting it can be. When it comes to social media copy, it’s no different.
As a small business, it might be more cost-efficient to outsource your social media content to one individual. If possible, find someone with experience creating content in your industry or for your target audience.
Writers, and in this case social media copywriters, often need very little information to get started. This means that as a small business owner, you can delegate and forget. The ultimate advantage to doing so is that it allows you to focus on more important tasks that will move the needle in your business.
Once you find a writer you love, you can see if they have experience with other forms of content, such as website copy, blogs, ad copy, and more! Not all writers are experienced in all forms of content but some are so it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Social Media Marketing
Even for the most knowledgeable and experienced of small business owners, marketing has proven to be one of the hardest disciplines to stay on top of. With the rise of social media and its 24/7 need for attention, gone are the days of set it and forget it.
In the digital world that we now operate in, marketing duties, though automated to some degree, require perpetual monitoring, updating, adjusting, and so on.
Social media, in particular, requires timely engagement, optimally scheduled posting, up-to-date research on the latest trends, and the cycle repeats…That’s where outsourcing becomes extremely valuable to small businesses.
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Blog Writer
Similar to the advantage of outsourcing a social media writer, so too goes for outsourcing your blog content. Your blogs are longer forms of content and require more research. If you’re using your blog as part of an SEO campaign, that’s a different skillset than other forms of short content.
The value in outsourcing a blog writer, in particular, is to help improve your business’s online presence and industry authority through SEO. As you may already know, blogs are not only an incredible source of valuable information for your loyal customers, but it also acts as an incredible tool for ranking in the search engines when there is opportunity to do so.
For a small business, this can mean increased traffic, both locally and nationally, or even on an international scale. Plus, opportunities for more conversions, and ultimately, an increase to the bottom line. It also doesn’t hurt to have valuable content to provide your audience, whether promotional, informative, or otherwise.
Email Marketing
Though many hold the false notion that email is dead, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Both small and large businesses alike benefit greatly from email marketing, whether it’s to promote their product/service, share regular, valuable information, or grow their audience list.
The problem for small businesses lies with time. While email marketing is extremely effective, it can also be extremely time-consuming. Additionally, once the strategy is in place, the tasks involved with email marketing are quite tedious, not a good use of energy for a small business with few employees.
The solution? Outsourcing, of course! From email strategy, content curation, scheduling, automation, copy, customer service, and more, email marketing is a business service surely to be beneficial to small businesses who outsource it.
Website Maintenance
As a small business, you want to do everything you can to save time, money, and unnecessary headaches. One important business service worth outsourcing to accomplish the above is website maintenance.
Not only does website maintenance require technical knowledge and skill but it can also become quite exhaustive if it’s your responsibility to upkeep. Heck, even if you as the CEO of a small business have a background in IT and/or website development, it shouldn’t be where you focus your energy.
If you have a website (you should…), maintenance is all but guaranteed to be required throughout the lifecycle of your business. Having a reliable, trusted contractor that you can outsource web tasks to on an as-needed basis will not only save your website but will also save YOU time, money, and headaches.
Websites are the backbone of today’s businesses. Failure to maintain and improve its functionality will only result in bad news for your business’s growth and success.
Graphic Design
While it’s not uncommon for large businesses, brands, and organizations to have in-house graphic designers, creative directors, and/or an entire team of creatives, it’s likely not feasible for a small business to do the same. Why? Not only is there not enough demand for most small businesses to need a full-time creative in-house, but it’s a discipline that can be accomplished completely remote without the need to take up additional office space.
In any case, graphic design is an all but necessary skill in today’s digital ecosystem. From social media content, web content, ad content, or email content, graphic design is the most desirable skill for the task.
The question of whether or not you need a graphic designer at all is an entirely different conversation. The likelihood, however, is high. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that you DO need a graphic designer…
Outsourcing graphic design work on an as-needed basis is the most efficient and effective way to receive the content needed. Simply vet for talent, skill, quality, price, and turnaround time, provide them with the necessary instructions they need to successfully accomplish the task, and take your hands off the wheel!
Paid Ads
Paid media is an integral part of an effective digital marketing strategy for businesses small and large, proven to be extremely effective at increasing traffic, boosting brand awareness, increasing conversion rates, and improving SEO scores on search engines like Google.
Outsourcing paid ads, however, might not seem like a great idea at first glance. After all, wouldn’t you want to be in control of your finances instead of a proclaimed “expert” that you know nothing about?!
On the contrary…Outsourcing paid media, especially as a small business, can be the difference between exponential growth or wasted marketing dollars if you get it wrong. If you can afford a reputable agency to do the job, it’s the optimal choice.
Allowing a third-party, outside expert to take responsibility for your paid media strategy has umpteen advantages, from competitor insights, emerging trends, and access to state-of-the-art tech, to saving time and money (the money you’d likely lose from making uneducated advertising investments).
SEO
If you want to grow your business, which as a small business you likely do, then SEO, both onsite and offsite, is needed for your digital growth strategy. The challenge for most small businesses, is that they lack the expertise, necessary to develop a comprehensive SEO strategy. Even if you do boast the expertise, the time required to do an effective job will inevitably lack, ultimately making it necessary to outsource the task.
When outsourcing SEO, there are a few things that you as a small business will need to initially monitor to ensure that the SEO “expert” knows what they are doing. For those with extensive experience, these considerations shouldn’t be an issue. Nevertheless, it’s better to continue to oversee during the beginning of the relationship to make things run smoothly.
Keep in mind there are several components for a successful SEO campaign. From onsite elements such as load time, user experience, and optimized content to offsite campaigns for quality backlinks and content sharing. You may find you need more than one person for your onsite and offsite SEO. Just make sure to ask about their knowledge and experience.
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Marketing Funnel
Marketing (sales) funnels are an extremely effective marketing strategy for capturing leads, increasing conversions, and building relationships with your ideal audience. Unfortunately, they can be extremely time-consuming to create, implement, and execute.
As a small business owner, you need all the time you can get to focus on running your business and your own expertise. While some would argue that a marketing funnel is a must-have in this digital age, it’s the tedious tasks required to create it that gets in the way.
“Work on your business, not in it…” This, in a nutshell, is the benefit of outsourcing!
While it might be scary at first to relinquish control of your precious marketing strategy and allow an outside party to come in and manage the marketing funnel, it will prove to be worth it in the end, not only for its cost savings but for its inevitable results, both direct and indirect to your business’s growth.
Video Editing
Finally, as a small business that uses video as a part of its marketing strategy (and you should be), outsourcing the video editing aspect of the creative can help you produce a polished video that gets result. It’d a specialized skill that takes time and energy, and when done right, it can lead to great results. The last thing you want is to spend a boatload of time only to have a video of little to no value. Outsourcing your video production and video marketing is hugely beneficial since there are so many components with this strategy.
There are plenty of other tasks and projects you can outsource as well. This list should be a good place to start.
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