Page 132 - Duct Tape Marketing

116 Part II: Sharpening Your Marketing Focus

Where to Turn for Help

As your business grows, your marketing needs may exceed the time or the
talent that you have to devote to producing your marketing materials. As you
lift the weight off your own shoulders, here are some ways to get help:

ߜ You can tap in-house, staff talent.
ߜ You can turn to print shops or media ad departments for free or almost-

free production services.
ߜ You can hire freelancers, who are independent contractors available by

the hour for short-term projects.
ߜ You can hire an advertising or public relations agency to handle your

work as a project or as part of an ongoing assignment.

Tapping in-house talent

Many entrepreneurs take the first step away from doing it all themselves by
assigning the coordination of marketing functions to an employee or associate.

When assigning the task to those already on or added to your payroll, weigh
the following considerations.

Assigning the marketing task to a staff member

As you add the role of marketing management to the responsibilities of an
existing staff member or associate, here’s what you need to do:

ߜ Write a job description and list qualifications for the ideal person to
handle your marketing. Before assigning the task to a staff member, be
sure that person meets the criteria.

ߜ If the staff member doesn’t possess the expertise to perform the assign-
ment well, consider what kind of training (and training costs) will be
necessary.

ߜ The staff person who will take on the marketing duties probably doesn’t
have idle time in which to perform the new marketing assignment.
Consider which current responsibilities you will shift, and to whom.

ߜ Define what resources this person will require in order to do the job. You
may need to invest in design or production-tracking software, subscrip-
tions to professional publications, professional education, and support
staff.