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Chloë Thomas is the Author of Amazon Bestseller “eCommerce Marketing”, and host of the award- winning eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast.
ast time my column was answering the question ‘What should you keep
in house? And what should be outsourced?’ This time we’re sticking with the marketing manpower subject, but getting into HOW to find the right outsourced people to help you.
What are the Outsourcing Options There are 3 main types of outsourced resource you can hire:
The solo freelancer Someone who basically works alone and is a specialist in their area of expertise. They might call themselves a consultant, coach or something else – but the key thing here is that you hire them, and they do the work.
The agency A group of people who work together and are specialists in their area(s) of expertise. Agencies come in all shapes and sizes from the pure specialist in one area, to those that can cover everything for you.
The virtual assistant platform A website that gives you access to a huge community of freelancers (and agencies)
from all over the world who you can pick from. My favourites are
Upwork.com and
Freeup.net. I also love 99designs for graphic design work.
Such platforms take the work out of finding freelancers, hiring them, and managing payments. They also offer access to experts with much lower hourly rates because they live in countries with a much lower costs of living than the UK. A great place to find the experts you need for just an hour or two at a time.
Which is the right Outsourcing Option for you? It’s not uncommon for one business to use all three types of outsourced marketing resource – it really depends on what it is you want to outsource, your budget, and how you like to work.
If you want to meet face to face a few times a year then hiring via a virtual assistant platform isn’t going to be for you. But if you like the idea of someone getting a load of work done for you whilst you’re asleep – and thus speeding up how fast the business evolves – then you’re going to love it.
homeofdirectcommerce.com | Direct Commerce
Some more general rules of thumb:
• Freelancers are usually lower cost than agencies.
• Agencies are lower risk than freelancers because there are multiple people working on your activity, and they’re usually getting wider experience and deeper training.
• Virtual assistant platforms are particularly great for repetitive and black and white tasks (where there’s a right answer or a wrong answer!) rather than brand and copy tasks.
How do you hire the right agency or freelancer? It all starts with a clear understanding of what you want. That you turn into a clear job brief.
This should be at least as clear as a job description for an in house role, and focused on the key area you want them to work on. So a brief that’s just about Facebook Ads, not about Google and Bing ads too.
One of the great benefits of outsourcing is that you don’t have to compromise on the skills of the person you’re hiring – find
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