Does this sound familiar: you have your email marketing software, your website presence, your social media accounts, your seo efforts and possible ppc efforts with different people handling them all and nothing really working as good as it should.
You have a field of expertise and you have big ambitions for your business with goals to succeed and thrive. But now you realize you have one too many hats to wear as the marketer, accountant, planner, and product designer of your company. You only have 24 hours in a day and the high demands from each role can be overbearing and time consuming! Why not relieve the stress of successfully marketing your product to a professional so you can focus on your craft? Enter the Virtual CMO.
As a small business owner without senior level marketing to drive your business’ growth, you have a few options. You can:
- Do the work yourself
- Hire a marketing assistant
- Leave the marketing duties alone and rely on word-of-mouth
- Outsource
Doing it yourself as you may have already learned, prevents you from focusing more time on your service or product. The lack of necessary marketing skills and expertise on your part will inhibit efficient and smarter marketing. Smarter marketing will match your ambition and fuel your business to grow.
In comparison, if you hire a marketing assistant at $40k per year*, you’ll have a full time person to focus on your marketing tactics; however, relying on this assistant who lacks real-world experience and knowledge will be detrimental towards your marketing efforts. Alternatively, leaving the marketing duties alone will leave your company stagnant. Relying solely on word-of-mouth will prevent your business to grow to its fullest potential. Why not rely on a marketing professional to take the reigns for pushing your business and brand awareness forward?
The Traditional In House Chief Marketing Officer
A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a Marketing Director that will take the lead on strategizing how to grow your business. Averaging at $100-350k per year**, a CMO is in charge of assessing your current position, evaluating your proposition and devising and managing a process to deliver marketing-led business growth. A CMO knows how to best reach and convert your target market towards your brand.
The New Trend For Businesses: Virtual CMO
For new or small businesses looking for Chief Marketing Officer-like guidance but not being able to afford to pay a person of that caliber the salary they require, there are Virtual CMO services available. Essentially a Virtual CMO (vCMO) is like having a real CMO work for you but for 30-80% of the traditional in-house CMO cost. These vCMO services that are available online are geared towards helping the small businesses take off and come up with effective strategies to help their businesses grow through a variety of different tactics. This person will fulfill the duties of developing a marketing plan for your business so that you can spend more time to amplify your expertise. A vCMO will merge with your team yet remain unbiased and focused on marketing no matter what else is happening inside the workplace. They will have access to a broader network of resources to execute various components of your overall marketing strategy.
To sum it up, investing in a virtual CMO will help you by reducing customer acquisition cost, save you time, resources, headaches and money, and allow your business to thrive. Having a virtual Virtual CMO that can be consistent no matter what’s happening at the office and allow your team to focus on their individual positions will translate into a better product, and ultimately increase your profits!
If you’re interested in knowing more about our Virtual CMO services feel free to give us a call to see if you might be a good fit.
* according to Houston Chronicle: work.chron.com/typical-pay-marketing-assistant-5426.html
**according to Forbes forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2014/07/24/inaugural-chief-marketing-officer-compensation-report-salaries-incentives-and-perceptions/#5b7fe86a4e3b