Marketing in the mid-market has become so much more than hiring a “marketing person”. Ten years ago you may have been able to get away with a single person to run all of your company’s marketing, but not today. Marketing has become a broad functional area, requiring expertise in multiple areas.
Specialized agencies, while good at what they do, also don’t fill all the needs of most mid-market companies. They fall short and simply don’t execute a comprehensive plan that maximizes your return on marketing dollars.
Stand-alone fractional CMOs can bring experience in a specific area, but they too are limited by their own abilities. This approach still requires additional experts who can put “hands-on-buttons” and execute a vision or a plan. Thus, you have to cobble together a team to get the work done and bring this team up to speed with your business direction.
A NEW APPROACH
Let’s look at marketing from a different light. The Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) approach pulls together all of the aspects you need in your business:
- The experts you need to accomplish your marketing and business goals
- A cost-effective way to conduct marketing – pay for the hours you need, when you need them
- Strategy and execution that all follow the same process
- The leadership you need to get the results you expect
- The flexibility of extra brainpower to work with your existing marketing lead – or, if needed, a new marketing leader brought into the mix
What you will find is MaaS provides you with the complete marketing ecosystem you need to grow your business – at an investment level that works within your budget.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE MaaS MODEL
Before you leap into the Maas model, make sure you are partnering with the right professional.
A true MaaS partner should be able to provide the following attributes:
- Proven history of successfully driving awareness, leads, and ultimately business
- A team that is current and relevant in current strategies and tactics
- A comprehensive set of marketing solutions
- The ability to customize and build a plan based on current best practices
- Flexibility to deliver the service you need, when you need it
- A marketing professional who works closely with and supports the sales team
Areas that a MaaS partner can support should include:
- Brand development
- Strategy building
- Customer Journey
- Messaging Creation
- Website Development
- Inbound/Outbound Email
- SEO/PPC
- Social Media
- Database/Email Marketing
- Marketing Platform Knowledge
- PR
- Analytics and KPIs
Hiring a MaaS professional enables companies to focus on their core businesses while leaving marketing to the experts. If you hire the right MaaS professional, that individual can take the lead on marketing strategy and execution, which frees up internal resources to concentrate on driving innovation, improving customer satisfaction, and growing/scaling the business.
OTHER BENEFITS OF THE MaaS MODEL
Cost Efficiency
Outsourcing marketing can be more cost-effective than building an in-house team. It eliminates recruitment and training costs and provides access to a team of experts when and where you need them.
Scalability
As a business grows and as the marketplace changes, marketing needs evolve. The MaaS model can easily scale its efforts to match a company’s growth and needs, and ensure the overall marketing strategy remains effective.
Access to Advanced Tools
A MaaS expert will have access to the most powerful and current analytics and research tools to help a company optimize marketing campaigns and drive results.
Fresh Perspectives
Maas professionals will bring new ideas and creative strategies that might not emerge from an internal team, which then help a company differentiate its brand, value, and offerings in the marketplace.
A Motivated Team
MaaS professionals are results-oriented, and are trained, seasoned experts who are highly motivated to deliver measurable results. Mid-market companies benefit from this accountability, and also know that their marketing investment is managed by professionals with a proven track record of success. This approach works to ensure that every marketing dollar contributes to the company’s bottom line, and works to drive sales growth and increase the marketing ROI.
What you will see is Marketing-as-a-Service is revolutionizing how mid-marketing companies that are looking to grow approach their marketing efforts. By offering flexibility, expertise, and cost-effectiveness, MaaS empowers companies to achieve their marketing goals efficiently and stay ahead in today’s competitive market.
Would you like to learn more about how Empirical can support your business with their MaaS team? Reach out to me and let’s talk about your goals and objectives. Contact Bill Morrow at bmorrow@thinkempirical.com.
