Should you hire a marketing agency or keep everything in-house? This can be a crucial decision to make when it comes to your online marketing. The following is a breakdown of the key differences between hiring an agency and hiring in-house.

Diversification of Skills

Generally speaking, online marketers have a tendency to have specific sets of skills. There are conversion rate specialists, content marketing experts, social media masters, paid search specialists, and so forth.

However, online marketing is much complex for just one individual to have expertise in every aspect.

So when you hire an in-house paid search specialist, you expect that they will do a great job with paid search. However, what if your paid search campaigns are not working out? Then what do you do?

Diversify Your Marketing Efforts

Companies that hire in-house frequently struggle with diversifying their online marketing efforts. Investing in new marketing channels, after all, can be a big risk. So when you hire somebody and things don’t work out then you have created a situation for yourself that is very difficult.

This results in companies frequently end up stuck with just using one marketing channel. Often, the channel isn’t even working very well.

For instance, if you have a really good landing page designer, but you have horrible ads driving the wrong type of traffic to your website, then you might have a hard time achieving good results from your marketing campaigns.

Is This the Fault of your Designer?

No, of course not! However, if your marketing skills are siloed like this, then you probably will not end up achieving the results from your online marketing efforts that you would like to.

On the other hand, if you hire a good brand agency, like Muze Creative then you will have access to a broad range of skills at hand.

For instance, accounting managers are part of marketing teams which include experts that have a broad range of various online marketing specialties: site testing, design, Facebook, AdWords, etc.

Each team member individually is great at the work they do, however, collectively they offer a lot more value compared to what just one person can.

An added bonus is that since every member of the team is working on several different accounts, they have the breadth and depth of experience that provides them with insights that can be applied to new situations and campaigns.

Pay for a Diverse Set of Skills

When looking at this at first glance, it may appear to be more expensive to do things that way. After all, if you cannot afford to hire another individual for diversifying your marketing efforts, then how will you be able to afford to pay a marketing agency to do this for you?

Generally speaking, a majority of companies do not need to have dedicated services of a full-time Facebook account manager, full-time designer, and a full-time AdWords expert. However, they will benefit from each person’s services.

Unfortunately, if you are going to hire in-house, it may be difficult to find a web designer or AdWords expert who would be willing to just work for a couple of hours per week. However, in an agency, one AdWords expert can manage multiple accounts. This will keep her or him busy enough in order for the agency to justify full-time employment, even though one account may not require the person’s full-time talents and work.

As a result, whenever you are working with a marketing agency, you have access to the skills and talents of high-level experts from various specialties without needing to hire them as full-time employees – which for your business is great news.

In-House vs Agency

So in terms of skill diversification, should you hire in-house or go with a marketing agency?

When getting down to it, it comes down to resources. For a bigger company, it might be worth investing in hiring someone in-house in order to further diversify its marketing efforts.

So if you have significant marketing needs that justify a dedicated expert being hired, then you will achieve the best results from someone being hired in order to work full-time in that channel.

For most businesses, however, agencies are an excellent diversification option.

Most companies either can’t afford or need to hire an entire team of dedicated marketers, then working with a marketing agency can be a really good way of broadening your marketing without having to increase your overhead significantly.

Learning is a never-ending process, and this holds true when it comes to leadership and management skills. You do not have to be born a leader to become one. In fact, no great leader was born with leadership skills. With the right training and understanding, anyone can become a great leader. In this brief post, we are going to take a look at several reasons why you will eventually benefit from leadership training.

It Helps Your Clarify Your Vision

Every successful leader out there has a sound and clear vision of where they want to go and what they want to achieve. Leadership training presents an opportunity for you to step back from your day to day activities, assess your organisation and get to think what the future holds. With training, you’ll be able to tell your vision in a manner that motivates your team.

Guarantees That You Utilise an Effective Style of Leadership

Leadership and management training will help you in implementing the most appropriate form of leadership for your organisation. There are various forms of leadership, each with its pros and cons. Training can help you identify a leadership style that means that you’ll have a positive influence on those in your team.

It Empowers You to Succeed

Great leaders are made and not born. Leadership and management training utilises different techniques and examples to show that by working a little harder, we can all become great leaders.

Most entrepreneurs out there have never undergone training that shows them how to properly run a company. Because of this, most do not have clarity of where they are headed and end up getting stuck or give up on the business. Perhaps there are relationships you have not fostered or opportunities that you have not considered. Leadership training sets you on the path to success.

Help You Improve Your Career Prospects

Getting your dream career usually involves marketing yourself to the employers. Companies look for individuals that are highly qualified and with accomplishments that surpass every other applicant. Leadership skills is always an added bonus when it comes to applying for any position, especially if you can back it up with a certificate such as a CMI level 5.

It Will Teach You New and Valuable Skills

This kind of training can teach you the skills required to lead properly, including those needed to influence and persuade people, even those who you have little direct authority. The training helps you widen your thinking ability and become innovative and creative. Assessing a problem from every angle possible and coming up with ways to solve it helps add value to your company.

It Will Boost Your Confidence

Confidence is one of the most important skills both in social and work life. Through training, group activities, public speaking and similar activities will force you to be confident in yourself and your actions, even when you are faced with opposition.

This form of training teaches you the essential techniques and skills needed to assess a challenge from a different angle. Doing so tends to add clarity to a situation and ideally facilitates self-confidence and wisdom.

Teaches You How to Influence Others

An essential element of leadership and management training is teaching you the power to influence others. You’ll learn how to motivate your team and how to recognise strong and weak techniques of influence as well as good and bad sources of power.

You will also gain insight on how to pick an ideal team, how to build one that is capable of meeting your goals and even how to give them orders without coming off as too overbearing or too weak.

It Helps You Communicate Better

Leadership and management training teaches you how to communicate better with your employees or team. Untrained leaders often think that their team members have the ability to think and act just like them, but this is not usually the case.

When you learn that people hear, respond and act differently, you will become more skilled in the way that you communicate with your team or employees.

The ability to prevent data breaches has become highly significant since the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR came into effect. While you should have already been concerned about your consumers’ privacy and freedom, the company’s susceptibility to regulatory action and protection of their reputation in any serious incidents are now taking on a greater level of importance.

Based on the significance of GDPR, customers are more aware of their rights as pertaining to their personal data. This means that organisations are receiving warnings regarding any threats of data breaches with regulators increasing the maximum penalties for failure to meet any legal requirements.

Regardless of whether you trust your current tools or continue to work toward GDPR compliance, you must always be aware of methods to streamline compliance procedures. This will assist you in managing problems more efficiently, as well as maintaining the rapidly changing threat landscape. Below are six top resources that can be used to manage information security procedures effectively, as well as assisting in achieving GDPR compliance.

1. Data Breach Support

Reporting any breach in data within the specified GDPR 72-hour notification deadline can be challenging for organisations, and with the growing threat of breaches this is something that one will probably need to deal with in the near future. Fortunately, there are GDPR Breach Support Services that can make the job slightly simpler. This support service involves a management team of lawyers, information and cyber security professionals, barristers, and data protection officers (DPOs) that will assist you in responding to any security threats quickly and according to GDPR requirements.

2. The Data Flow Mapping Tool

The data flow mapping tool is a cloud-based device enabling you to obtain full visibility over the flow of personal data throughout the company; thereby, helping you streamline all procedures and mitigate the risk of data being exposed in unsecure areas. Using this tool, it is possible to create a persistent visual representation of data flow throughout the business process without needing to resort to time-consuming techniques, such as vector graphics or pen and paper.

3. Information Security And Cyber Security Staff Awareness E-Learning Course

The interactive online learning courses are available at a cost-effective and time-effective manner for educating staff on core organisational issues. The courses are presented in structured designs where staff are taught the basics of information security and cyber security risks, data security, as well as how to deal with any data threats. Course content is not technical; therefore, it can be processed by any staff members and not contained for security professionals exclusively.

4. Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is, at its simplest form, a controlled hacking method whereby the professional searches for vulnerabilities on the site on behalf of the company. The professional “hacks” the site in the same way a criminal would, which is crucial to discover problems before any application or network is used by the public. Any problems are then fixed and changes are made where necessary.

5. DPO Services For GDPR

Regardless of whether the GDPR requires the company to appoint a data protection officer (DPO) or not, having a professional available to help with data protection can reduce situations that influence regulatory compliance. Data protection officers can help with a plethora of tasks, including the following:

• Acting as a point of contact for data protection authorities
• Overseeing the creation and maintenance of personal data processing registers
• Assisting with data breach management, monitoring and reporting
• Revising and reviewing all documentation and policies
• Assisting with data protection impact assessments or DPIAs

The only challenge regarding DPOs is finding a suitably qualified professional who provides data protection officer services in the UK which is why it is recommended you outsource the role as part of a GDPR service. The data protection expert will perform tasks as a remote DPO completing any tasks when required.

Should I hire a marketing firm or keep things in-house? This is one of the most vital questions when it comes to online marketing. In this read, we are going to give you a breakdown of the differences between the two and help you decide which one is right for you.

Skill Diversification

Generally, online marketers have specific skill sets. You will come across content marketing gurus, paid search specialists, conversion rate mavens, social media masters, etc. However, online marketing nowadays is too big and sophisticated for an individual to be excellent in all aspects.

So, if you get an in-house specialist for paid search marketing, and you do not get the expected results, what do you do?

Diversifying Your Marketing

Organisations that hire an in-house marketer usually find it hard to diversify their efforts. Investing in a new marketing channel is always a risk and if you hire a marketer and things don’t go as expected, you’ll have created a tough situation for your company.

As a result, these usually end up stick with a single marketing channel and in most cases, that channel doesn’t show satisfactory results. For example, if you have an excellent landing page designer, but awful ads, which are bringing irrelevant traffic, you’re going to have a hard time getting great results. This, of course, is not the fault of the designer, but if you invest in marketing skills in such a manner, you’re only going to end up with sub-par results.

On the contrary, with a reputable and experienced marketing agency like Leapfrog Internet Marketing, you will have access to a wide array of skills. For instance, account managers belong to marketing teams that have experts with a huge array of online marketing specialists in various areas such as Adwords, Facebook, Design, etc.

Each team member is good at what they specialise in, but as a team, they provide more value compared to working with a single person. Also, since each person is actively working on several accounts, they have broad experience that provides them with insights that they can apply to your campaign.

Investing in Diverse Skills Sets

At first, this seems like a costly way to go about things. After all, if you cannot afford to have another person to diversify your company’s marketing efforts, can you be able to hire an agency?

Generally, most organisations do not require the dedicated services of a full-time Facebook account manager, designer and AdWords specialist. However, they can benefit from the services of each specialist. The disappointing part is that is difficult to find a web designer or AdWords expert who’s willing to only work for a few hours per week.

However, in an online marketing agency, the same expert could manage several accounts, and this keeps them busy enough to justify full-time employment with the marketing company, even if a certain account does not require their full-time or talents.

That being said, when you hire a marketing company, you benefit from the skills of true experts in an array of marketing aspects without having to hire them full-time. This is obviously great for your business as you get to save on costs while receiving top of the line services.

Marketing Agency or In-house?

So, in regards to skill diversification, should you stick an agency or hire in-house?

Well, ultimately, the answer to this question depends on resources. For bigger firms, it might be worth hiring a person to diversify their efforts in online marketing. After all your needs are big enough that they call for a dedicated expert. In such a case, you may get the best results by hiring an expert to work on a marketing aspect full-time.

However, for most business, especially the small to medium, agencies present the best solution for diversification. Most firms do not need, or cannot afford to hire an entire team of dedicated online marketers and so, working with an agency is a great way to widen their market without spending a fortune.

Did you get a call from a marketing specialist or creative video agency and they started firing off a series of acronyms you never heard of? You probably thought, ‘Can’t he talk in plain English?’

It is time to clear up the confusion. The simple Digital Marketing Glossary will help you understand their jargon, so you can make clear decisions.

CTA – Call To Action

In your advertising or any content, you want the person to do something specific. It could be calling your business, buying a product, or just entering their email address in a form. The Call To Action (CTA) tells them exactly what you want them to do. (Examples: Enter Your Email Address, Buy Now, Click Here, etc.)

CTR – Click Through Rate

Have you ever wondered how many people see your ads or read your content, and then take the action you wanted? The Click Through Rate measures how many people viewed your ad or content compared to how many of them clicked the link. It is useful in testing the effectiveness of online advertising, email campaigns, and landing pages.

GA – Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful information gathering tool from Google. It allows you to measure your return on investment (ROI) on your advertising, videos, social networking, and applications. It provides you with information on how many people visit your site from searches and takes the actions you want, too.

UX – User Experience

How effective is your site? UX takes a close look at how people react to your site and advertising. It refers to the emotions and attitudes surrounding your products and website. It allows you to analyse how people interact with your website, giving you clues on how you can improve their experience and increase your sales. It is the interaction between humans and computers.

CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation

Conversion rate optimisation is systematically working to increase the percentage of website visitor into buying customers. It requires intensively analysing CTR, CTA, GA reports, and making changes to improve your results.

BR – Bounce Rate

This represents the number of people who visit your website, view a single page, and then leave your site. It helps you analyse the effectiveness of your website.

SMM – Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is any marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube. It covers both free and paid marketing.

ROI – Return On Investment

Return on Investment is the ratio of your net profit compared to the cost of investment to make that profit. The costs include cash expenses, labour, and product cost. Higher ROI’s indicate the investment was more profitable compared to costs.

NPS – Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score helps you understand your customer’s loyalty to your company. It is one method of determining customer satisfaction and has the advantage over traditional methods of normally being correlated with revenue growth.

YOY – Year-On-Year

You use YOY information to compare current results to results from the same period last year. It helps you track results and growth. You can track prices, costs, labour, profits, and many other factors.

SQL – Sales Qualified Lead

A sales qualified lead is a potential customer that both the marketing and sales departments have determined is ready to move to the next step in the sales process. It is a good indicator they are almost ready to buy.

MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead

A marketing qualified lead has expressed interest in your company, services, and products. They are more likely to become a buying customer than unqualified leads.

PPC – Pay-Per-Click

Pay-Per-Click is a form of advertising used to drive traffic to your website. You pay the publisher whenever one of your ads is clicked, instead of paying for the ad to be displayed. PPC is sometimes referred to as Cost Per Click (CPC). Pay-per-click is found most frequently on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

CPL – Cost Per Lead

Cost Per Lead is an advertising model where you only pay when a consumer shows an interest in your offer by signing up to receive more information. It is sometimes referred to as Online Lead Generation.

SERP – Search Engine Results Page

Search Engine Results Pages are the results you see whenever you do a search on a search engine. It represents the listing of results from the keywords the searcher typed into the search engine. The listing frequently shows additional results from advertising.

KPI – Key Performance Indicator

A key performance indicator is any quantifiable measurement you use to determine the success of your company, an employee, or business function to determine if you are meeting your performance goals.

New data has shown that the property markets is a lot cooler than it should be for this period, as the spring period which is usually traditionally busier has been affected by a political climate that is uncertain. While you wait for the right time to move, it might be wise instead to spruce up your current home with bespoke furniture.

Our team of data scientists discovered that average prices for the properties that are going to go on sale soon have only risen by 0.4% this month. This is the lowest of the monthly average rises for this time in the year since 2011.

Temperatures Tepid in the Housing Market

Miles Shipside, a property expert from Rightmove, has stated that while March is the mark for the beginning of spring, temperatures have not yet risen within the housing markets. The buying activity is much cooler than it should be, while certain buyers are hesitant while they wait for a political climate that is more settled.

There is a greater resilience as we move further away from London markets, with a sound-bedrock for the demands for the correct properties at the correct prices, which is reinforced by the ongoing needs for housing combined with cheaper mortgage borrowing.

Political Uncertainty

Despite political uncertainty, the search activities on different property websites have remained steady.

This is an indication that home movers are still keeping a watch over the markets, which may result in that bounce into the near future, as soon as Parliament has found a breakthrough when it comes to Brexit.

London remains the primary drag, yet 9 out of 11 regions are still seeing the new-to-the-market sellers that have priced higher when compared to the previous month.

The capital prices are now down by 1.1% from the last month, while the North East is one of the other regions that recorded a fall this month, down by 1.3%. Yet their pricing histories respectively have been completely different.

The prices in London are still 68% higher than they were 10 years ago, with the buyers in search of prices that will settle at levels of a fairer value. Yet the North East has seen the new seller asking for prices that were up by only 8% in that time.

Shipside added that people and the markets do not enjoy uncertainty, and even though the agreed numbers for sales are down by 7%, this actually means they have still managed to run at 93% of the levels from last year. Many of the potential buyers are either carrying on with life or regarding this lull in price as the opportunity to either enter the housing ladders or to even move up a rung, with the asking price national average being 0.8% cheaper when compared to one year ago.

Agents are also agreeing that the markets should benefit from the resolution to Brexit sooner instead of later.

Slow Turning Wheels

Tom De Ville, the Director at Fine and Country Nottinghamshire, states that the wheels continue to turn when it comes to the housing markets, yet they are turning a lot slower when compared to the previous years due to the hesitation from sellers and buyers. A political outcome that is more certain will assist in reassuring those that are currently hesitant, which would get these wheels turning faster once again, along with helping to boost the much-needed supply. Homes which have been sensibly priced are still in the process of selling, yet there are a few sellers who have not yet realised that there has been a power shift from a “sellers’ market” to a “buyers’ market”.

The Managing Director, Guy Grittins, from Chestertons, has stated that it was just about inevitable that uncertainty caused from Brexit would start dragging prices of properties down over the short term, particularly since this date is getting closer and lots of buyers have taken the “wait and see” approach.

However, they still experienced a start that was extremely busy to this year, with a marked increase in the buyer viewings, registrations, and offers which was consistent throughout January and February, which is a reflection of pent-up demands and is suggestive that the prices have reached a level whereby the buyers are more comfortable with buying. Guy goes onto say that he sees the drop this month as a blip that is temporary and expects that these processes will recover as soon as clarity has been reached over Brexit.

London on Top

Over the medium and the long-term, London properties have still managed to outperform many of the other types of asset classes and he believes it will still continue to be a very solid investment, regardless of what happens with Brexit.