Whether you sell B2B or B2C, digital is a growing piece of your marketing pie. More than 81% of the B2C buyer’s journey and 94% of the B2B buyer’s journey includes some form of online research which means your digital presence plays a starring role. When it comes to turning your website into a lead machine, there can be a lot of levers to pull and often it can be helpful to have an extra hand knowing which levers to pull and when.

Whether you’re just getting started in your online marketing program or your well down the path, there are a few telltale signs that it might be time to outsource some, or all of your digital marketing.

Sign #1: Your Only Conversion Point is a ‘Contact Us’ Form

Making sure there is an easy way for your website visitors to get in touch with you is great! But more often than not – most website visitors aren’t ready for that level of commitment. The reality is around 98% of website visitors aren’t going to convert. Which means in order to make your website perform better, you need make it easier to become a lead. Sign up for an email newsletter, download a premium piece of content, get a discount. There are all sorts of low friction offers you can provide that lets your website visitor take baby steps on their way to becoming a customer.

Sign #2: Your Sales Team Thinks All Your Leads Suck

There have been volumes written about the battle between sales and marketing. You can read about this tortured relationship here, here and here if you’re inclined. But at the end of the day, sales and marketing need each other to be as successful as they can be and in return drive growth for the organization. At Lake One, we bridge the gap between these two functions with a  Sales and Marketing SLA – an agreement of what constitutes a lead, how they are handled by the two teams and what roles and expectations are in place for both functions in support of lead generation, nurturing and the close. In addition to the SLA, having regular sales & marketing feedback sessions on what’s coming in from sales and what marketing is working on can go a long way in getting the two teams to work together towards the same goal.

Sign #3: You’re Not Really Sure What to Track

If your reporting dashboard is a 15-page conglomeration of random metrics, it might be time to get an outside perspective. Setting SMART marketing goals that align with your business objectives is critical to setting the direction marketing should go. It defines the most important metrics to monitor but it also helps you focus your resources.

Sign #4: You Struggle to Quantify Marketing’s Impact

If you can’t identify the impact marketing is making on your organization, it can be easy to decide to just stop it all together. That’s risky business. Often, the inability to measure marketing’s impact is an effect of #3 above, a misunderstanding of what to measure. Once you have a marketing program aligned around your business goals with metrics that follow, it becomes much easier to see how marketing is contributing to the overall momentum of your organization.

Sign #5: You’re Budget is Basically a Shrug Emoji

When marketing budgets are a moving target, it’s often a result of not knowing where the biggest bang for the buck is going to come from. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 are all related. Bad metrics and goals lead to a lack of quantifying impact which leads to difficult budgeting cycles. If your organization isn’t able to identify the opportunity and allocate dollars, it might be time to get an outsider who can help you quantify.

Sign #6: You Lack Marketing Muscle

One of the easiest signs your organization is in need of some outside help – is your organization lacks internal marketing muscle. And we’re not talking assigning marketing as a fractional role to someone who is kind of good at social media in your organization. We mean someone who gets to know your buyers and their research patterns, your competitors and can identify opportunities. Someone who can consistently execute marketing, reviewing performance over time and adjusting as you go. One of the biggest pitfalls organizations make is holding out for a marketing unicorn – those rare marketing generalists who can do a little bit of it all.

Sign #7: You’re Not Sure of the Right Tools and Technology for Sales & Marketing

In 2011 there were around 150 pieces of marketing and sales technology – martech. In 2018 that number ballooned to around 7,000. There’s a tool for everything and for every business. It can be really overwhelming to wade through that and not end up with random acts of technology getting thrown at marketing and sales problems with the belief that the technology will solve your issues. Outlining a sales and marketing stack starts with identifying your sales and marketing process and identifying the tools and technology that are right-sized for your needs and your organization. If you’re not sure about where this process starts – an outsider can help you document a marketing plan to attract and convert potential new customers and architect a sales process to nurture them through the buyer’s journey. Then and only then should you select and implement the technology to drive efficiency in the sales and marketing process.

What You Really Get From an Outside Perspective

There are all sorts lists like this on the internet, the reality is you probably know if you need an extra set of hands with or without this list. Ultimately it comes down to resources – human and financial. An outside perspective can help you align your goals, execute consistently and get scale without the investment in building an entire marketing team as you’re just starting to get the marketing momentum going. Over time as the program is successful  – you’ll naturally bring pieces of the program back in-house to build the muscle internally.

No matter where you are in your growth journey, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today!